1,270 Babies Born Alive After Failed Abortions in the U.S.

4/5/13

A shocking figure from a hearing on a bill in Florida should capture the attention of people across the country: hundreds of babies are born alive following botched abortions every year.

Most of the attention that has been focused on a controversial statement by a Planned Parenthood lobbyist has centered on the abortion business’ opposition to a bill to require appropriate medical care for any baby who survive an abortion. But the state representative who sponsored the bill told members of the Florida committee that held a hearing on it a shocking number.

Florida Rep. Cary Pigman, an emergency medicine physician and the sponsor of the Florida “born-alive” bill, says national data reveal that hundreds of babies die after failed abortions. His response to a question (beginning at about 2:30 in the below video) provides additional information on the situation.

“We do have some sense in that with perinatal infant mortality data it is recorded,” Rep. Pigman told legislators on the panel. “In 2010, there were 24,586 perinatal deaths in the United States. Perinatal defines as being from the 22nd week of gestation to seven days post delivery.”

“Those are all coded by international classification,” he noted. Regarding babies who die after a botched abortion: “As of 2010, 1,270 infants were reported in that category — and I emphasize reported,” Pigman explained.

In other words, more than 1,200 babies died following a failed abortion and their whose deaths were reported as “mortality subsequent to an abortion.” As the representative emphasized, those are only the number of reported deaths following botched abortions, and the actual figures could be higher.

Those numbers follow an outcry in Canada where, last year, figures from Statistics Canada, a federal government agency, show 491 babies were born alive following botched abortions during the period from 2000-2009 and left to die afterwards. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/11/23/canada-491-babies-born-alive-after-failed-abortions-left-to-die/

According to the numbers, “there were 491 abortions, of 20 weeks gestation and greater, that resulted in live births. This means that the aborted child died after it was born. These abortions are coded as P96.4 or ‘Termination of pregnancy, affecting fetus and newborn’.”

P 96.4 is the same classification Rep. Pigman referred to in is testimony.

The Born Alive Infants Protection Act in the United States, signed into law by pro-life President George W. Bush, protects such babies in the U.S. and it came into existence after pro-life nurse Jill Stanek noticed babies born alive and left to die at his Chicago-area hospital.

This issue is still controversial given that pro-abortion President Barack Obama repeatedly failed to support the bill approved in the Illinois legislature to provide appropriate medical care and protection for such babies.

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Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., director of the National Right to Life Office of State Legislation, says the issue is still a concern both in the U.S. and worldwide.

Balch said a Feb. 23, 2012, article entitled “After Birth Abortion: Why Should the Baby Live?” promoting after-birth abortions and published in the international Journal of Medical Ethics shows where medical ethic is headed.

“The fact that they put an article in this kind of a journal means the issue is on the rise,” Balch said. “It used to be whispered. Now it’s out there in black in white.”

In the Journal article, the authors argue that “killing a newborn should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is [permissible], including cases where the newborn is not disabled.”

States like Florida are looking at passing their own versions of the federal law to provide for better enforcement and oversight — also, babies have been left to die before at abortion clinics — such as this one in Florida.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/05/1270-babies-born-alive-after-failed-abortions-in-the-united-states/