Why do 'pro-lifers' consider these babies to be deserving of death?
I suspect it's some kind of federal mandate linked to funding somehow.
There's a distinction to be made when a woman is dealing with a pregancy that resulted from a crime, and one that resulted from her own poor reproductive choices. If abortions were limited to only true cases of rape and incest (where a perpetrator was identified, and sentenced appropriately), and saving the life of the mother, 99% of abortions in this country would disappear. That wouldn't be perfect, but it would be a damn sight better than the wholesale slaughter going on today.
Its not that those children are "deserving of death" as you put it, but a lot of people (myself included, an infant adoptee) would find it impossible to compound a rape victim's trauma with the forced continuation of a pregnancy. Politically, it is absolutely impossible to get to that level of restriction.