The problem of how to deal with babies born alive after
abortion has
been highlighted by a question asked at the Council of Europe.
The Committee of Ministers has been asked to act ‘in order
to guarantee that foetuses who survive abortions are not deprived of the
medical treatment that they are entitled to - as human persons born alive - according
to the European Convention on Human Rights’.
The question is highly relevant in view of a story in the Daily
Mail which claimed that 66 babies survived NHS termination attempts in one
year alone.
The figure came from the CEMACH
2007 Perinatal Mortality report which covers the year 2005. It carries the
said figures on page 28. I quote:
‘Sixty-six of the
2,235 neonatal deaths notiļ¬ed in England and Wales followed legal termination
(predominantly on account of congenital anomalies) of the pregnancy ie. born
showing signs of life and dying during the neonatal period. Sixteen were born
at 22 weeks’ gestation or later and death occurred between 1 and 270 minutes
after birth (median: 66 minutes). The remaining 50 fetuses were born before 22
weeks’ gestation and death occurred between 0 and 615 minutes after birth
(median: 55 minutes).’
I have checked the CEMACH reports for 2009
and 2011
(covering 2007 and 2009 respectively) and found no similar reference, but in
the latter a diagram on page 51 (figure 6.2) does say that figures of early
neonatal deaths following termination of pregnancy have been (deliberately)
excluded. The strong implication is that
they are still happening, but just not being reported.
An article
in Prolife Ireland this week reports that the problem also exists in other
countries, including Sweden and Italy, where in 2010 a 22 week ‘foetus’ was
found alive 20 hours after being aborted. The baby was then placed in intensive
care, where he died the next day. It further reports:
‘Another child in
Florence survived three full days after having been aborted. Such events are
happening everywhere that late term abortions are allowed, but are rarely
reported and made public…. To prevent these situations, Norway decided at the
beginning of January to prohibit abortion completely after 22 weeks, the threshold
of viability outside the uterus as determined by the World Health
Organisation.’
The Committee of Ministers will provide a written response to this question in the coming weeks.
The Committee of Ministers will provide a written response to this question in the coming weeks.
But given that abortion is legal up until 24 weeks in
Britain, it seems inconceivable that babies are not still being born alive
after abortion here. But clearly whoever knows the facts is keeping quiet.
Perhaps someone should ask some questions in the Westminster
parliament too.
An excellent film on this is the recent "October Baby" about a girl who survived and abortion and her search to find her real mother.
ReplyDeleteThe woman who played the real mother had had an abortion many years ago but did not think it would affect her as she felt it was in the past and she could "handle" the scenes.
In the discussion with the actors she gives a fantastic testimony in that when they met her tears were real.
Really good. A must see. available on Amazon etc.
Ideal for Youth Groups