You don’t have to be pro-life to oppose infanticide. You just have to be a decent human being. But in Washington state, decency is apparently too much to ask from Democratic lawmakers who just passed a bill that effectively decriminalizes the concealment of a baby’s death — even if that baby took a breath, suffered, and died because no one bothered to help.
Substitute Senate Bill 5093 (SSB 5093) repeals the crime of concealing a birth and guts the authority of coroners to investigate suspicious infant deaths unless there’s an obvious, provable crime attached. Democrats are disguising it as a measure about “dignity in pregnancy loss.” It’s not. It amounts to a state-sanctioned shield for traffickers, abusers, and anyone else looking to cover up a dead infant.
Unless a baby is clearly murdered with intent and there’s a smoking gun, no one’s allowed to ask questions. That’s not compassion. That’s enabling murder.
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Washington Democrats are helping conceal murder, neglect of children
Representative Brian Burnett—a former sheriff and someone who’s seen the dark reality of human trafficking up close—tried to sound the alarm.
Burnett shared the harrowing testimony of his adopted daughter, a survivor of sex trafficking who was impregnated multiple times as a minor by her abusers. She miscarried, was forced to abort, and even gave birth without knowing what happened to her own babies.
That’s the world this bill just helped protect. Because under SSB 5093, those same traffickers now have legal cover to dump a baby’s body and walk away clean — as long as there’s no immediate evidence of a crime. Good luck building a case without the ability to investigate.
“Sometimes a baby is born and neglected and dies; I mean it’s horrible stuff,” State Rep. Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen) explained to The Center Square. “The reason the law should stay on the books is it gives prosecutors and cops a tool for investigating these situations where a baby is born and dies and make sure there is no criminality involved.”
This is how you decriminalize third trimester and post-birth abortion
Democrats claim this is about protecting women from being prosecuted for miscarriages. That’s a lie. No one in Washington state is being thrown in jail for having a miscarriage. Good luck finding one case.
This was never about moms — it’s about making sure the people responsible for dead babies aren’t investigated, including when those babies are the product of trafficking, abuse, or botched abortions. But from a party that defends third trimester abortions, this is hardly surprising. But it is disgusting.
Indeed, this effectively legalizes late term abortion because the bill strikes a coroner’s jurisdiction when “death results from a known or suspected abortion… or where death is due to premature birth or still birth.”
This bill effectively legalizes third trimester abortion
If a baby dies from a premature birth, abortion, or stillbirth, coroners are no longer automatically empowered to investigate. Unless law enforcement already suspects “violence” or “unnatural” circumstances, there is no mechanism to even look into what happened.
Let’s say a woman undergoes a third-trimester abortion at 34 weeks, the baby is born alive, gasping for air, and no care is rendered — the baby dies. Under SSB 5093, the coroner is not allowed to step in. There’s no autopsy. No criminal probe. No accountability. It’s a dead infant and a closed case.
There is also no clause in this bill—not one line— requiring a doctor or anyone to render aid to a baby born alive during an abortion or premature labor. There is no viability threshold. No gestational limit. No requirement for care.
That means a fully formed, viable infant — 30, 35, even 39 weeks — can be born during a failed abortion or preterm delivery, and under this bill, that infant can be left to die without a single government official being allowed to ask what happened. This is ghoulish.
Vulnerable victims are a casualty of Washington Democrats
Republicans tried to fix the bill. They introduced amendments that would have at least preserved the ability for coroners to investigate if there’s reason to believe the baby was born alive and then neglected. Democrats said no. They voted against allowing investigations into whether a live infant died due to neglect. Why? Because that might interfere with the unrestricted, unaccountable right to end a pregnancy at any stage—even after the baby is born.
This isn’t just anti-life. It’s anti-justice.
SSB 5093 strips law enforcement and prosecutors of an important tool to protect the most vulnerable victims in our society — babies and trafficked women. And it sends a clear message to pimps and abusers: do what you want, the state of Washington won’t ask questions.
Supporters insist this is about removing “outdated” laws. Funny how the law protecting newborns suddenly became “outdated” right when abortion extremists needed cover for a post-Roe panic.
Will Governor Bob Ferguson have the guts to do what’s right?
You can be pro-choice and still have a soul. You can believe in access to abortion and still think that when a baby is born and dies under suspicious circumstances, someone should at least ask what happened.
But the pro-abortion extremists running Washington state don’t see it that way. For them, this is a win. A dead baby isn’t a tragedy—it’s an inconvenience. And now the bill heads to Governor Bob Ferguson’s desk. Will he have the spine to veto it?
SSB 5093 doesn’t bring dignity to pregnancy loss. It brings darkness, secrecy, and the disturbing reality that in Washington state, babies can be born, die, and be swept under the rug without anyone daring to ask why. But they call this progress.
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