Babies Left to Die after Botched Abortions

In most cases, these incidents never come to light as they are not accurately reported. Comments leaked from nurses at the Calgary Foothills Hospital said that since August, at least two babies were born alive following abortions. They were not fed, but were left to die. Reacting to these comments, Alberta pro-life president Joanne Hatton said "One of these abortions was performed at 35 weeks gestation. That poor little baby lived for 12 hours without being fed. Police prosecute mothers who do that to their babies if it's outside of the hospital."

Hatton says that if honest statistics could be obtained, they would most certainly show there are many more babies being left to die. Alberta Health and hospital authorities deny there are abortions performed after 24 weeks. However, the nurses at the Foothills Hospital say they are, but they are called "inductions" instead of abortions and the babies are classified as "stillborn" - even though they are alive. So they don't show up in the abortion statistics.

In BC, at least eighteen similar cases have been reported since 1992. One that drew media attention involved Ximena Renaerts. In December, 1985, three days after her 22 year old mother had an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bellingham, Washington, the mother was admitted to the Vancouver General Hospital's emergency department and diagnosed as having had an "incomplete abortion". The next morning, she delivered a live 27 to 30 week old baby into a plastic pan. Witnesses testified that the baby was "moving, gasping and crying weakly." However, the attending nurse put Ximena, still in the pan, into a closet normally reserved for dead fetuses and left her there.¹

Nearly half an hour later another nurse called an infant resuscitation team, although Ximena was left for nearly 40 minutes more before she received proper care. At 13, she is now a quadriplegic with the mental abilities of a three year old. Last summer her adoptive parents received a multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement of a claim against the Vancouver General Hospital, nine doctors and nurses and Ximena's birth parents.

Pro-life groups believe the statistics on infant deaths as a result of babies untreated after being born alive after abortion are only a fraction of what is really taking place in Canada. Alberta has already shown these statistics may be disguised by using other terminology. John Hof of the BC Campaign Life Coalition asks: "how many babies like Ximena are born alive after abortions and simply left to die? How many never get reported?"

⁽¹) Alberta Report, Feb. 15, 1999