The dreaded complication
BC Report February 22, 1999
An increasing number of B.C. babies are born alive after being aborted
- by Celeste McGovern
A four-pound, 14-ounce baby was born alive in 1997 after its North Vancouver mother underwent an abortion at British Columbia's Women's Hospital and Health Centre Society. According to B.C. Vital Statistics Agency, the baby, at 29 weeks gestation, lived only briefly, but long enough to require a birth and death registration in 1997. The death was one of six "infant deaths due to abortion" recorded in B.C. that year-an increase from just one in 1993.
Live births-the "dreaded complication" of the abortion industry-are on the rise in B.C. along with the number of abortions of fetuses well beyond the second trimester and the age of viability.
In both 1993 and 1994 in B.C. one baby born alive after an abortion was recorded officially; in 1995, two; 1996, six; 1997, six, and 1998 (for which statistics are not final), two, according to B.C. Stats. "Live births" are defined as "the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, of a product of conception in which, after the expulsion or extraction there is a) breathing; b) beating of the heart; c) pulsation of the umbilical cord; or d) unmistakable movement of voluntary muscle."
All but one of B.C.'s recorded infant deaths from induced abortions between 1995 and 1998 took place at B.C. Women's Hospital; the exception was at Victoria General Hospital in 1997. Most of the babies, according to B.C. Stats' researcher Julie Macdonald, had congenital anomalies. They ranged in gestational age from 19 to 30 weeks (13 of 16 were beyond 20 weeks gestation).
Ms. Macdonald speculates that the increase in live births after abortion is due indirectly to the increase in the average age of mothers. Women over 35 now comprise 18% of all pregnant women in B.C. The risk of genetic anomalies, such as Down's syndrome, increases dramatically with maternal age; and such babies are at high risk for abortion.
A pamphlet produced by B.C. Women's Hospital entitled "Information for Families about Termination of an Abnormal Pregnancy" outlines late-term abortion procedures women will undergo including labour induction surgical dilation and evacuation (D&E). It offers to try to accommodate women's wishes to see their baby-although not after D&E, which dismembers the child-and to provide such "mementos" as baby bracelets and ultrasound pictures.
Dr. Will Johnston, professor of family medicine at the University of B.C. medical school, says that without intervention post-abortion babies are likely to "die within minutes of delivery. The question is whether the staff resuscitate babies who show signs of life, which is required by five-century- old law."
Live aborted babies are known in the business as "the dreaded complication," says Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics Inc., which documented practices in U.S. abortion clinics using undercover workers. "It happens all the time," he says. "And if it's happening here, you can bet it's happening in Canada."
B.C. Women's Hospital failed last week to answer a request for protocol in the case of live births after abortions or to provide their own statistics on the number of late abortions occurring at the hospital. The Ministry of Health would not provide data on the gestational age of the 16,522 babies aborted in B.C. in 1997-1998. Statistics Canada analyst Surinder Wadhera complains, "The province of British Columbia has simply stopped providing abortion data. What can we say?"
This stonewalling comes as no surprise to Kelowna pro-life activist Ted Gerk, who came across the infant death statistics while researching the death of women undergoing abortion (see story, page 56). He claims recorded statistics do not reflect the true incidence of live births following abortion.
"This is the abortion industry's dirty little secret," says Mr. Gerk. He points to the case of Ximena Renaerts, born at Vancouver Hospital in December 1985, three days after her mother had an unsuccessful abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bellingham, Washington.
Gasping, moving and crying, Ximena, approximately 27-weeks gestation, was dumped in a "hat pan" in a closet for dead fetuses and left for almost 30 minutes before a nurse finally summoned a resuscitation team. She is now 13 years old, quadriplegic and mentally handicapped; her case never would have been revealed had her adoptive family not filed a $10-million claim (settled out of court) against the hospital and nine doctors and nurses.
David Senn and his wife Margaret Brown are one couple who are glad they did not abort their abnormal pregnancy. A routine ultrasound four years ago at B.C. Children and Women's Hospital when Ms. Brown was 18-weeks pregnant revealed a serious heart defect in her baby. A doctor counseled the couple of three options: hope for the best, experimental surgery or "termination." "We were not pressured to abort, but we were definitely left with the impression that if our doctor was in our position he would choose abortion," says Mr. Senn.
Further genetic testing revealed their baby had Trisomy 13 (a profound chromosomal disorder) and would probably die shortly after birth if not before.
The condition also ruled out surgical intervention. "I was very angry. I did not want this baby," says Mr. Senn. "Why do what seems a complicated, messy, costly thing?" He and his wife had "rationalized the decision to abort" the baby, but decided eventually that "this was my son and I was going to love him and accept him however he was." David Peter was born four weeks early, blue and apparently dead but when handed to his parents the four-pound 11-ounce infant started breathing and turned pink. "We had him about six hours and then he died," says his father. "The privilege of having him and being able to hold him far outweighed anything else."
Mr. Senn has no trouble speaking of his son now. "We have no baggage, no guilt and we really see it as the most positive experience," he says. "What looks like the simple, easy way out is not. And when we love, somehow it's all worth it." BCR
An increasing number of B.C. babies are born alive after being aborted
- by Celeste McGovern
A four-pound, 14-ounce baby was born alive in 1997 after its North Vancouver mother underwent an abortion at British Columbia's Women's Hospital and Health Centre Society. According to B.C. Vital Statistics Agency, the baby, at 29 weeks gestation, lived only briefly, but long enough to require a birth and death registration in 1997. The death was one of six "infant deaths due to abortion" recorded in B.C. that year-an increase from just one in 1993.
Live births-the "dreaded complication" of the abortion industry-are on the rise in B.C. along with the number of abortions of fetuses well beyond the second trimester and the age of viability.
In both 1993 and 1994 in B.C. one baby born alive after an abortion was recorded officially; in 1995, two; 1996, six; 1997, six, and 1998 (for which statistics are not final), two, according to B.C. Stats. "Live births" are defined as "the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, of a product of conception in which, after the expulsion or extraction there is a) breathing; b) beating of the heart; c) pulsation of the umbilical cord; or d) unmistakable movement of voluntary muscle."
All but one of B.C.'s recorded infant deaths from induced abortions between 1995 and 1998 took place at B.C. Women's Hospital; the exception was at Victoria General Hospital in 1997. Most of the babies, according to B.C. Stats' researcher Julie Macdonald, had congenital anomalies. They ranged in gestational age from 19 to 30 weeks (13 of 16 were beyond 20 weeks gestation).
Ms. Macdonald speculates that the increase in live births after abortion is due indirectly to the increase in the average age of mothers. Women over 35 now comprise 18% of all pregnant women in B.C. The risk of genetic anomalies, such as Down's syndrome, increases dramatically with maternal age; and such babies are at high risk for abortion.
A pamphlet produced by B.C. Women's Hospital entitled "Information for Families about Termination of an Abnormal Pregnancy" outlines late-term abortion procedures women will undergo including labour induction surgical dilation and evacuation (D&E). It offers to try to accommodate women's wishes to see their baby-although not after D&E, which dismembers the child-and to provide such "mementos" as baby bracelets and ultrasound pictures.
Dr. Will Johnston, professor of family medicine at the University of B.C. medical school, says that without intervention post-abortion babies are likely to "die within minutes of delivery. The question is whether the staff resuscitate babies who show signs of life, which is required by five-century- old law."
Live aborted babies are known in the business as "the dreaded complication," says Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics Inc., which documented practices in U.S. abortion clinics using undercover workers. "It happens all the time," he says. "And if it's happening here, you can bet it's happening in Canada."
B.C. Women's Hospital failed last week to answer a request for protocol in the case of live births after abortions or to provide their own statistics on the number of late abortions occurring at the hospital. The Ministry of Health would not provide data on the gestational age of the 16,522 babies aborted in B.C. in 1997-1998. Statistics Canada analyst Surinder Wadhera complains, "The province of British Columbia has simply stopped providing abortion data. What can we say?"
This stonewalling comes as no surprise to Kelowna pro-life activist Ted Gerk, who came across the infant death statistics while researching the death of women undergoing abortion (see story, page 56). He claims recorded statistics do not reflect the true incidence of live births following abortion.
"This is the abortion industry's dirty little secret," says Mr. Gerk. He points to the case of Ximena Renaerts, born at Vancouver Hospital in December 1985, three days after her mother had an unsuccessful abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bellingham, Washington.
Gasping, moving and crying, Ximena, approximately 27-weeks gestation, was dumped in a "hat pan" in a closet for dead fetuses and left for almost 30 minutes before a nurse finally summoned a resuscitation team. She is now 13 years old, quadriplegic and mentally handicapped; her case never would have been revealed had her adoptive family not filed a $10-million claim (settled out of court) against the hospital and nine doctors and nurses.
David Senn and his wife Margaret Brown are one couple who are glad they did not abort their abnormal pregnancy. A routine ultrasound four years ago at B.C. Children and Women's Hospital when Ms. Brown was 18-weeks pregnant revealed a serious heart defect in her baby. A doctor counseled the couple of three options: hope for the best, experimental surgery or "termination." "We were not pressured to abort, but we were definitely left with the impression that if our doctor was in our position he would choose abortion," says Mr. Senn.
Further genetic testing revealed their baby had Trisomy 13 (a profound chromosomal disorder) and would probably die shortly after birth if not before.
The condition also ruled out surgical intervention. "I was very angry. I did not want this baby," says Mr. Senn. "Why do what seems a complicated, messy, costly thing?" He and his wife had "rationalized the decision to abort" the baby, but decided eventually that "this was my son and I was going to love him and accept him however he was." David Peter was born four weeks early, blue and apparently dead but when handed to his parents the four-pound 11-ounce infant started breathing and turned pink. "We had him about six hours and then he died," says his father. "The privilege of having him and being able to hold him far outweighed anything else."
Mr. Senn has no trouble speaking of his son now. "We have no baggage, no guilt and we really see it as the most positive experience," he says. "What looks like the simple, easy way out is not. And when we love, somehow it's all worth it." BCR
posted by Ted Gerk @ 3:19 PM
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