766 babies were born alive after botched abortions in Canada and allegedly left to die
766 babies were born alive after late-term abortions in Canada between 2013 and 2018 and presumably left to die.
But data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) on what exactly happened to these infants, or why there are so many born-alive late-term abortions, is not available, pro-life blogger Patricia Maloney reported Friday on Run With Life.
“All information regarding the reasons they happen, and what happens to the child after they are born alive, is anecdotal,” Maloney said.
The numbers are likely higher than CIHI reported because the statistics exclude Quebec, Maloney wrote.
Maloney released the statistics as the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) prepares to meet in Halifax August 23 to 25 for its policy convention.
One of the CPC proposed resolutions is that the party “support legislation to ensure that any child born alive shall receive the full benefits of life-saving care, and neo-natal intensive care to give every opportunity possible for the child to sustain life.”
It’s not certain, however, if that proposal will reach the floor and be debated and voted on.
But such a policy would have the full support of Campaign Life Coalition, which praised Saskatoon MP Brad Trost for promising during his CPC leadership bid to introduce born-alive infant protection legislation as prime minister.
Campaign Life Coalition would “applaud legislation that would force abortionists and their staff to switch from trying to kill the baby, to having to provide care and medical treatment once that child exits the womb and secures the legal rights that are owed them,” CLC senior political strategist Jack Fonseca said at the time.
Indeed, under Canada’s Criminal Code, a child is considered a person with full protection of the law once he or she “has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother.”
Maloney links to statistics from the CIHI, which document the number of “live births resulting from termination of pregnancy in acute inpatient settings” by province and gestational age.
According to CIHI, between 2013 and 2018, eight babies of 29 weeks gestational age and over, 27 babies between 25 to 28 weeks gestation, 557 babies between 21 to 24 weeks, and 141 babies between 17 to 20 weeks survived an abortion and were allegedly left to die.
CIHI broke the numbers down by province: 11 babies in Newfoundland, 30 in Nova Scotia, 390 in Ontario, 67 in Manitoba, 41 in Saskatchewan, 189 in Alberta, and 38 in British Columbia were born alive following an abortion.
On a per capita basis, the number of babies born alive and allegedly left to die is twice as high in Alberta as in Ontario, Canada’s most populated province.
As for Quebec, Maloney cited a 2016 study in Quebec that documented 218 babies were “accidental live births” between 2000 and 2012.
That’s a 20-fold increase since 2000, which according to a National Post report, is “likely because increased pre-natal screening has led to more late-term abortions generally.”
The Post also reported that “Almost all the infants accidentally born alive die within a few hours — in circumstances that doctors describe as generally ‘devastating’ for the parents.”
In Canada, abortion is totally decriminalised. Full decriminalisation across the UK (including NI) has become the major focus and goal for abortion advocates and politicians. It seems as though every day the push to dismantle our protections for the unborn accelerate at a rapid pace - Northern Ireland's life-saving laws against abortion have never been under fiercer and more sustained attack.
Just last month, 170 British and Irish politicians signed a letter demanding that Westminster force abortion onto the babies and women of Northern Ireland, in total disregard for the principles of devolution. The letter argued that devolution was no longer acceptable, and instead the time had come to hoist total decriminalisation onto Northern Ireland, totally contrary to the will of the people, who voted overwhelmingly for pro-life candidates in the last election of 2016.
Decriminalisation is being sold to Parliamentarians as simply removing some criminal penalties for women who have abortions passed in the Victorian era, but this is not the full effect of such a change.
Regulation of abortion under the Abortion Act 1967 is predicated on abortion being illegal throughout pregnancy under both sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861, and also after 28 weeks under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929. The 1967 Act forms ‘exemptions from prosecution’ under the 1861 and 1929 provisions, for doctors who perform abortions under the grounds laid out in the 1967 Act itself. If then, Parliament were to remove the 1861 provisions, this would have the practical effect of voiding the Abortion Act regulations up to 28 weeks.
This would mean raising the upper limit by 4 weeks (from 24 as currently, to 28 weeks), as well as introducing abortion on demand, for any reason, up to that point in pregnancy. That would mean no ban on sex-selective abortion till 28 weeks. Doctors’ rights to conscientious objection would be removed till the third trimester.
Canada has shown us what decriminalisation really means in all it's chilling brutality - opening up a Pandora's box of the most heartbreaking and unspeakable human rights violations. When we fail to protect the weakest and most dependant among us - the defenceless unborn child in the womb, there are no limits to the cruelty we give license to and to which we turn a blind eye.
Whilst the cause for human equality, dignity, and rights has been dealt a serious blow in the wake of Ireland's abortion referendum, the underlying reality remains that most people in Great Britain do not want a system of permissive abortion. In fact, they want to see a more restrictive system of safeguard than currently exists. This is particularly true of women.
In May last year, ComRes released a Poll that showed that 60% of respondents (including 70% of women) wanted to see a reduction in the upper limit for abortions. Indeed, 59% of women overall wanted to see the upper limit as low as 16 weeks. By contrast, only 1% of both the general population and women alone wanted to see an increase, as would be affected by ‘decriminalisation’.
Other results from this polling were telling. 89% of people (including 91% of women) wanted an explicit ban on sex-selective abortion, with only 5% (4% of women) against. 65% of people (64% of women) wanted to see parental consent before a teenage girl undergoes an abortion – two thirds of the population – and 70% of parents with children who are 18 or under, with only less than a fifth of people (21%) opposing the idea.
What these figures illustrate is the myth of the ‘pro-choice majority’ asserted by abortion advocates. The truth is that the majority of people are neither consistently ‘pro-life’ or ‘pro-choice’, but instead are in a ‘muddled middle’. The leaning of public opinion, however, is clearly in the direction of greater, not lesser or fewer, protections for unborn children in law.