| Topic: |
Science > Abortion |
| User: |
"wp123" |
| Date: |
16 Jan 2005 06:42:40 PM |
| Object: |
The abortion industry's dirty little secret |
BC Report February 22, 1999
The dreaded complication
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
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| User: "Ray Fischer" |
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| Title: Re: The pro-liar industry's dirty little secret |
18 Jan 2005 04:44:20 AM |
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wp123 <WILLIAM_Potter123@hotmail.com> wrote:
BC Report February 22, 1999
The dreaded complication
An increasing number of B.C. babies are born alive after
being aborted
That doesn't even make sense.
- by Celeste McGovern
Celeste has written several anti-abortion peices which are clearly
untrue propaganda.
A four-pound, 14-ounce baby was born alive in 1997 after its
North Vancouver mother underwent an abortion at British
What was the mother's name?
Columbia's Women's Hospital and Health Centre Society.
What hospital? When in 1997?
According to B.C. Vital Statistics Agency, the baby, at 29
What was the child's name?
--
Ray Fischer
rfischer@sonic.net
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