Washington ( CNN ) -- When the topic turned to contraception and reproductive rights at CNN 's debate in Arizona on Wednesday , Newt Gingrich went on the attack , saying that in 2008 `` not once did anybody in the elite media ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide . '' It 's a striking claim , and he 's not the only Republican presidential candidate making it . Speaking at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Forum last March , Rick Santorum said , `` any child born prematurely , according to the president , in his own words , can be killed . '' Both Gingrich and Santorum are referring to `` born alive '' bills that were brought up in the Illinois Legislature in 2001 , 2002 , and 2003 when Obama was a state senator . The intent of the legislation was to protect any infant who survived a botched abortion by requiring the doctor to give life-saving care . In part , the bill said `` a live child born as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person and accorded immediate protection under the law . '' Then-state Sen. Obama opposed the legislation because he said it would undermine the legal protections given to abortions under Roe v. Wade . On the state Senate floor , Obama said he believed courts would eventually overturn the legislation since it would `` essentially bar abortions , because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child . '' He added that Illinois already had a 1975 state law that protected the life of an infant that survived a botched abortion , if doctors determined the infant could survive . When the legislation came up for a vote in 2001 and 2002 , Obama once voted `` present '' -- essentially a non-vote -- and once voted against it . In 2002 , Congress was also writing a `` Born Alive '' bill . Obama said several times he would support that version of the bill because it contained a clause that would protect the legal standing of Roe v. Wade . Opponents of abortion rights , such as the National Right to Life Committee , challenged his explanation , saying the 2003 version of the Illinois law contained language virtually identical to the federal law , so by his own logic he should have supported it . He did n't . The new legislation never made it out of the Health and Human Services Committee that he chaired . In 2008 , Christian Broadcast Network Correspondent and CNN contributor David Brody asked then-presidential candidate Obama about the allegations that he supported infanticide . Obama responded by saying , `` here 's a situation where folks are lying . I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in , fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported -- which was to say that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born -- even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion . That was not the bill that was presented at the state level . '' After researching and analyzing the issue , two independent fact-checking groups , Politifact and Factcheck.org . both determined it 's not true to claim Obama supported legislation that said `` any child born prematurely ... can be killed . '' In fact , the Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact rated the Santorum 's assertion `` Pants on fire '' -- its rating that a statement is `` not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim . '' Then there 's the part of Gingrich 's statement that the `` elite media '' ignored the story in 2008 . In fact , a search on Nexis shows at least eight times when it was mentioned or discussed in detail on CNN during the 2008 campaign . Here are two specific examples : . -- On June 30 , 2008 , Carol Costello examined the evidence for `` The Situation Room '' with this introduction : `` Some are calling Barack Obama a baby-killer because of a bill he voted down while he was in the Illinois state Senate . It was called the Born-alive Infant Protection Act and it 's come back to haunt him . But is it fair ? '' That piece was followed by political analysis on the same topic from Bill Bennett and James Carville . -- In his August 2008 interview , David Brody asked then-presidential candidate Obama : `` The born-alive infant protection act . I got to tell you , that 's the one thing I get a lot of e-mails about and it 's just not just from evangelicals -- it 's about Catholics , Protestants -- they 're trying to understand it because there was some literature put out by the National Right to Life Committee . And they 're basically saying they felt like you misrepresented your position on that bill . ''
Democratic presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said Obama paid for infanticide . Gingrich also said the media ' n't ask him about the issue . Rick Perry has made similar claims recently . CNN and other media shows both accusations are wrong .