OLYMPIA, Washington (LifeSiteNews) — Washington state Democratic legislators have sent to Governor Bob Ferguson a bill that, if enacted, will make it more difficult for law enforcement to investigate infanticide and sex trafficking. 

Deceptively titled “an act relating to dignity in pregnancy loss,” 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,” according to conservative talk show host Jason Rantz.  

“Democrats are disguising it as a measure about ‘dignity in pregnancy loss,’” noted Rantz. “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,” said Rantz.

Republican State Representative Brian Burnett, a former sheriff, had urged his colleagues during a floor discussion to amend the bill to hold traffickers accountable, according to a report by The Center Square.  

Burnett shared the harrowing story of his own adopted daughter’s experience with human trafficking.  

“She was impregnated many times at a very young age,” recounted Burnett, “from miscarriage to forced abortion to delivering some of those premature babies not knowing what happened to them and even later bringing back a different baby and telling her, ‘You will care for it now until we say different.’”

Unmoved, speaker pro tempore, Rep. Chris Stearns, a Democrat, shut Burnett down, accusing him of impugning the arguments of others. 

“These are often very young girls who end up pregnant because they are being used as sex objects and the pimps and traffickers abuse them and often beat them up because they got pregnant and cause a miscarriage,” Rep. Jim Walsh, a Republican, told The Center Square. 

“Sometimes a baby is born and neglected and dies; I mean it’s horrible stuff,” said Walsh. “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.”

“By decriminalizing the concealment of the remains of a child who was born alive and then died, it legalizes infanticide,” declared the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) in a letter to the governor imploring him not to sign the legislation into law.  

“This bill removes a major pillar in the protection of pre-born and infant life by repealing Wash. Rev. Code § 9.02.050 (‘Concealing Birth’). That statute makes it a misdemeanor for anyone to conceal the birth of a child by ‘any disposition of its dead body, whether the child died before or after its birth.’ This law accords with other laws that require the proper disposition of a human body after death,” the letter states. 

The ACLJ further explained: 

At the heart of our concern is the bill’s repeal of Washington statute § 9.02.050, which criminalizes the concealment of a child’s birth. This law plays a vital role in protecting both mothers and infants from abuse, violence, and exploitation. Its removal opens the door for infanticide to be carried out without fear of legal consequence, very relevant in cases involving trafficking, coercion, or domestic abuse.

Further, instead of bolstering investigations into suspicious infant deaths, SB5093 removes the coroner’s jurisdiction to investigate the death of an infant after a botched abortion. Specifically, the bill strikes a key phrase from current law, removing the ability of the coroner to investigate “where death results from a known or suspected abortion.” This dangerous bill effectively legalizes infanticide.

“SB 5093 doesn’t bring dignity to pregnancy loss,” Jason Rantz said. “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.”