Aborted babies in B.C. dying in mothers' arms

Explodes `blob of tissue' myth, says Respect Life office

By MARNIE KO
FOR THE B.C. CATHOLIC
April 19, 1999

Since 1995, at least 16 British Columbia babies have been born alive during mid- to late-term abortions.

B.C.'s coroners service says several babies lived more than an hour after birth, but none beyond six hours, "and in many instances the infant died in his or her mother's arms." All the infants were issued death certificates.

The largest baby, according to B.C.'s vital statistics department, weighed 4.9 pounds and was born in 1997 to a North Vancouver woman more than seven months pregnant.

Most of the live-birth abortions occurred at B.C. Women's Hospital in Vancouver. Ministry of Health spokeswoman Michelle Stewart said induced, late-term abortions are done for genetic reasons. Genetic terminations occur when the pregnancy is planned but the fetus is perceived as having undesirable characteristics, defects, or abnormalities that will result in the infant's death at some time in the future.

Stewart admits women having a late-term abortion should be prepared to deal with a live baby. "In cases where the pregnancy is induced, indeed there is a chance that the baby will breathe when it is born, and the women are aware of that before; they are advised by the hospital that that is a possibility."

Stewart says a baby that exhibits any sign of life, including heart beat or muscle movement, is registered as a live birth.

According to B.C.'s chief coroner Larry Campbell, who concluded an investigation into the live births last month, 11 out of the 16 live aborted babies were born to women 23 weeks pregnant or less, and the infants' expected survival rate would have been "30 per cent or less even if there had been no congenital abnormality."

Campbell has no intention of stepping into the volatile abortion fray. In a March 15 letter to pro-lifer Ted Gerk, who first requested the investigation in February, Campbell said the death of a viable infant born after a mid- or late-second-trimester abortion would not be under the mandate of the coroner's office, regardless of when it occurred or how long the infant survived after the abortion. The coroner said his mandate is only to "investigate death if unexpected."
Peter Ryan, director of the Respect Life office of the Vancouver archdiocese, says the reports "explode the myth that abortion only destroys a blob of tissue."

With 100,000 abortions every year in Canada, there are reports that babies up to 35 weeks gestation (three to five weeks away from due date) have been born alive after abortion.

Methods of abortion vary and include fetal dismemberment, suctioning of the uterus and developing baby inside, poisoning the uterine environment, or induced labour contractions, which deliver a premature baby unable to survive outside the uterine support system.

Stewart says that a late-term abortion in B.C. is often performed by inducing labour before the baby can survive outside the womb without medical help. She also says there have not been many such cases of infants surviving for extended periods. "I believe there has been one such case, not many, and again, the family was aware of that possibility, and faced a very obviously, very tragic situation and a very terrible decision."

She said she's "taken aback by allegations" that anyone had expressed concern over late-term abortions and practices and said it hadn't come to the attention of the ministry.

"First and foremost, abortion is a legal medical service in this country, and that's No. 1," she said, stressing that the ministry supports women's reproductive choices.

Since 1992, which recorded only one incident of an abortion live birth, there has been an increase in live aborted babies, reports the B.C. vital statistics agency. Years 1996 and 1997 each saw six reported cases of babies born alive during abortions. Statistics indicate these abortions occurred between 19 weeks gestation (just under 5 months pregnant) and 29 weeks gestation (over 7 months pregnant).

Campbell said that 11 of the infants were 23 weeks gestation or less and all cases involved "significant congenital anomalies." Of these it is unknown how many were lethal anomalies that would result in the infant's death sometime after birth, and how many were disabilities such as Down's syndrome.

The coroner said that the method of abortion in these cases was "medical induction of labour" through "oral misoprostol with local prostaglandin" inserts into the woman's vagina.

He assured Gerk that "All infants died within six hours of birth, with the majority (56 per cent) succumbing within one hour or less, and with well over half of those cases surviving less than 15 minutes."

According to the coroner, those with longer survival times "usually" were "cared for with compassion and dignity in a pattern akin to the palliative care model and in many instances the infant died in his or her mother's arms." There were nine boys and seven girls.

Penny Ballen, vice-president of women's and family health programs at B.C. Women's Hospital, refused comment on the matter, saying only that giving details of what went on during an abortion or "discussing this terribly sensitive information" would "create danger for women and their providers. They'd be at serious risk." Ballen says the public should be aware that abortion "is a difficult and extraordinarily painful area." Ballen refused to say whether abortions were producing live babies and said she had no further comments because "the media is not the place to discuss this issue. It would create serious risk and I'm not prepared to do that."

An employee of B.C. Women's Hospital involved in abortion services (who refused to give a name for fear of risking firing) says, "These terminated babies had problems, defects ... doctors said they were going to die anyway. Sure, I think it should have happened on its own, and maybe the Down's (syndrome) babies would have lived decent lives ... but some people don't want babies that aren't perfect and `normal.'"

Staff at Vancouver's Elizabeth Bagshaw Women's Clinic on Granville Street could not be reached for comment.

This isn't the first time that British Columbia officials have dealt with public outcry over late-term abortion and terminations for babies with "genetic defects." Ximena Renaerts, a 13-year-old quadriplegic who was born three days after her 22-year-old mother had an abortion at a U.S. Planned Parenthood clinic, reached an out-of-court settlement with Vancouver General Hospital and nine doctors and nurses last summer.

Renaerts, who will require care for the remainder of her life, was left to die in a hospital closet after the hospital diagnosed her as an "incomplete abortion."

Court documents alleged that Vancouver General Hospital nurses ignored the weak cries of the infant struggling for breath in the bedpan and put her in a room reserved for dead fetuses. Forty minutes later, a trauma team was called to suction the baby's airways and provide oxygen, but Renaerts suffered cerebral palsy, brain damage, and was left a quadriplegic from hypothermia and lack of immediate life-saving treatment.

In 1974, Dennis Cocke, then the British Columbia Health Minister, launched a personal investigation into reports that fetuses older than five months gestation were being aborted. In one such case, reported by the Vancouver Sun after it obtained records of an abortion at Vancouver General Hospital, a baby was born alive but died 24 hours after the abortion attempt.

British Columbia isn't the only province where reports of babies surviving abortion are surfacing. Alberta Report magazine last week outlined the grim experiences of nurses on the postpartum unit of the Calgary Foothills Hospital who were forced to administer medication that induces labour, against their religious and moral convictions.

One nurse told Alberta Report "abortions are done in hospital from 14 weeks gestation up to 23 or 24 weeks. After 23 weeks, it's pretty dicey because we're getting into viability ... babies can survive" the induction which is intended to terminate the pregnancy with a dead baby.

With the coroner's lack of jurisdiction in the matter of late-term abortions, Gerk is convinced that nothing short of a public outcry will change the situation. He admits he isn't ready to let the matter rest. "I want to see a Canada-wide investigation into late-term abortion ... staffed with doctors who are not associated with the provision of abortion services. The next step would be a ban on all abortions over 20 weeks, which is when these babies can survive abortions."

Ryan said the way the aborted babies are treated reminds him of "the ancient practice of abandoning newborn infants to die by exposure," and he wants to know whether society is prepared to intervene, "or will nurses, for example, be compelled to stand by and let babies who could survive die?"

The real answer, said Ryan, is legislation protecting infants from being aborted in the first place, "but I worry that as a society we have become so hardhearted on abortion that even now we will refuse to act."

SIDEBAR

Vancouver doctor Jonathan Cope, who presented a paper called "Late Abortion Techniques" at UBC's Medical Symposium on Abortion in 1997, lists a number of reasons women have late-term abortions: "women are awaiting results from genetic testing, women don't know they are pregnant, woman are abandoned by the father which is a common reason, particular areas (of British Columbia) give women difficulty getting referrals (for an abortion), (there is) fear of parental retribution, or that the husband (of the pregnant mother) wants a boy."

He explained that second-trimester abortions "in British Columbia tend to be concentrated in just a few hands because late-term abortions are physically unpleasant. They aren't popular among surgeons" because, as he described in his symposium presentation Secrets for a Successful Evacuation, infants are almost fully developed, clearly look like babies, and can survive outside the womb.

Cope wrote, "It is advisable to use the biggest forceps that you can get through the (woman's) cervix to morcellate (a medical term meaning to cut up) the fetus.... Visually check all the parts as they are retrieved.... This is part of the reason that second- trimester abortion is not popular among surgeons. All those here who do second-trimester abortions will agree that the most difficult ones are those between 14 and 17 weeks ... there is a tendency for the uterus to form an `hourglass' and the head (of the baby) or part of the trunk to be trapped in the upper part and difficult to retrieve. The passage of large, recognizable fetal parts by the woman some hours or days later is extremely distressing for the woman and her family."