A Republican-backed bill to protect “abortion survivors” just failed. It still matters.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act may be part of a larger strategy for 2020.

The Senate on Monday voted against a bill that would have put in place requirements for the care of infants born after failed abortions — and could have sent doctors to prison if they failed to comply.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), fell short of the 60 votes it needed to move forward, with 53 senators voting in support of the measure and 44 voting against. But it’s part of a bigger debate about abortions very late in pregnancy that could intensify in the runup to the 2020 election.

But reproductive rights and physicians’ groups said the bill could criminalize doctors and was unnecessary since laws already exist to protect an infant in the extremely unlikely scenario of a birth after an abortion attempt. “The bill maligns and vilifies providers and patients to push a false narrative about abortion later in pregnancy,” Dr. Kristyn Brandi, a board member of Physicians for Reproductive Health, told Vox in an email.

By putting up the bill despite its poor chances of passing, Sasse and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were focusing attention on an aspect of the abortion debate they may see as a wedge issue for some voters: abortions very late in pregnancy.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would have required doctors to provide the same care for a baby born alive after a failed attempt at abortion as they would for any child of the same gestational age. After providing appropriate care, they would be required to ensure that the baby “is immediately transported and admitted to a hospital.”

Doctors who failed to comply with the requirements would face a fine and up to five years in prison.

On Monday, all Republicans present voted in favor of a procedural motion on the bill, according to the Washington Post. They were joined by three Democrats — Bob Casey (PA), Joe Manchin (WV), and Doug Jones (AL). All other Democrats present voted against the motion, enough to block consideration of the bill.

“The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act prohibits exactly the kind of infanticide that Gov. Northam was endorsing,” he added. “That’s what the legislation is about.”

Senate Democrats, reproductive rights groups, and groups representing doctors disagreed, calling the legislation unnecessary and potentially damaging. “This legislation is based on lies and a misinformation campaign, aimed at shaming women and criminalizing doctors for a practice that doesn’t exist in medicine or reality,” said Dr. Leana Wen, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement to Vox.

Brandi, of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said she had never heard of a case of a child born after a failed abortion attempt. “This is a part of the false narrative around this bill and abortion later in pregnancy,” she said.

Even if a child were to be born after an abortion attempt, she said, laws already exist to protect the baby. In 2002, Congress passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which guaranteed to infants born at any stage of development full legal rights. That bill, which passed with bipartisan support, did not include criminal penalties for doctors and did not impose specific requirements on medical care.

Sasse’s bill, Brandi said, “is a stark departure from the 2002 law as it singles out abortion and applies strict new requirements on abortion providers only, with the intent to malign and threaten abortion providers.”

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