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66 babies in a year left to die after NHS abortions that go wrong
Last updated at 01:22am on 05.02.08Botched abortions mean that scores of babies are being born alive and left to die, an official report has revealed.
A total of 66 infants survived NHS termination attempts in one year alone, it emerged.
Rather than dying at birth as was intended, they were able to breathe unaided. About half were alive for an hour, while one survived ten hours.
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A 3D scan of a foetus taken at 23 weeks by obstetrician Prof Stuart Campbell - terminations are legal until 24 weeks but some babies have continued breathing after being aborted
The figures are the first to give a national picture of the number of babies who survive abortion but are left to die.
Experts previously believed the phenomenon was limited to a handful of cases a year.
The babies were aborted using a drug to soften the cervix and induce labour. Once born no medical help is offered.
The statistics are contained in the small print of an official report by the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health, commissioned by the Government.
No data exists on aborted babies who survive into childhood and beyond but in rare cases this is known to have happened.
Experts last night revealed that the sheer number of abortion survivors means new guidance for doctors will be drawn up, telling them how to cope.
The findings also renewed calls for a lowering of the 24-week limit for "social" abortions, which end healthy pregnancies.
The report said the terminations were "predominantly on account of congenital anomalies", which may be life-threatening but which can also include problems such as cleft palate and club feet.
Obstetricians say this raises the possibility that at least some cases were social terminations, legal under the Abortion Act up to 24 weeks.
Doctors can also legally terminate a pregnancy up to birth if the baby is suffering serious deformities or the mother's life is at risk.
Guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends babies over 22 weeks which survive abortion should have their hearts stopped by lethal injection but this can be a difficult procedure for doctors.
Professor Stuart Campbell, an eminent obstetrician whose 3D scan images of babies "walking in the womb" have fuelled the debate over late abortions, said: "It is a distressing situation when these babies are being born alive.
"Medical advances make it increasingly possible for even those born after just 22 weeks in the womb to survive.
"There is also concern that babies with problems such as cleft palate or club feet are being terminated because they are not "perfect".
"These deformities may be corrected during childhood."
The findings follow evidence to MPs this week that foetuses feel pain before 24 weeks.
The figures for the CEMACH 2007 Perinatal Mortality report, gathered from hospitals in England and Wales during 2005, reveal 16 babies who survived abortion were born after 22 weeks in the womb or later in the pregnancy.
The remaining 50 were under 22 weeks' gestation.
CEMACH chief executive Richard Congdon said lethal injection had not been given in the 16 abortions over 22 weeks' gestation because death was "inevitable".
The 16 survived between one minute and four-and-a-half hours - half lived for just over an hour.
The remaining 50 were under 22 weeks' gestation and half survived for longer than 55 minutes, with one breathing unaided for ten hours.
Latest Department of Health figures show that abortion is rising, with 193,700 terminations in 2006, and 2,948 carried out over 20 weeks.
The majority of these - 2,036 - were for major abnormalities.
The British Association of Perinatal Medicine said new guidelines were being drawn up to cover babies born alive after abortion.
Neonatologist Professor Neil Marlow, president of the association, said: "Parents may be told that the baby will not be viable but may still want to hold it until it dies, and this is probably what we are seeing in these statistics."
Julia Millington, of the Pro-Life Alliance, said: "The fact that babies are being aborted so late in pregnancy that they are capable of survival will make many support the notion that the upper time limit should be reduced."
Couple's despair after daughter survives abortion at five months
A baby born alive after a botched abortion at 21 weeks is among the worst cases reported in the UK.
The little girl, who had Down's Syndrome, lived for three hours after being delivered.
Her parents claim they were "coerced" into a termination by staff at Macclesfield District General Hospital.
They were later told that their baby had not "really" been alive, even though she was clearly breathing.
The couple, who do not wish to be named, already had a toddler, a teenager and a 12-year-old with learning difficulties and felt unable to cope with another special needs child.
The 44-year-old mother said: "If I had been given any idea that the baby would be born alive after an abortion I would never have gone through with it. They coerced me.
"I have seen how society treats children with disabilities and it frightened me to bring another special needs child into the world, but somehow we would have coped with it."
Two days before the abortion in March 2004, the woman was given tablets which she was told would kill the baby in the womb.
But to their distress the baby was still clearly moving.
They went back to hospital and were assured that the baby would die during labour.
Soon after birth, however, both parents saw it gasping for air.
Reader views (24)
i had my son at 23 wks and hes alive today. the aboration should be lowered and if a baby is breathin wen it comes out they should help it. this story sickened me.
- Elaine, hampshire, england
I am 22 weeks pregnant with my first child. I am very excited to give birth to a baby girl. As I was reading this article I felt sick at first and them broke down in tears. I can't believe that anyone would want to murder an innocent child. I pray to God that this stops
- Danielle, Chambersburg, PA
It absolutely sickens me that any person that can call them selves a doctor could leave a baby who breathes to die, born at any term. I am 22 weeks pregnant and my baby is fully formed and has a name, the thought of him being born now and being left to die scares the hell out of me, i didnt know this practice went on!
- Lauren Tyler, Brighton UK
people who say that it should be outlawed completely are not looking at all sides of the situation in an open minded manner. women get raped and get pregnant. to me that's a good enough reason to end a pregnancy. we also don't want to go back to days of backstreet abortion, where many women were seriously injured or even died as a result, and sometimes the procedure would fail and would result in a very deformed child.
i think that it's necessary that social abortions are legal up until 12 weeks for these reasons, but after that it just becomes too unethical. many states in the US handle those laws just fine, so why can't the UK?
the fact that babies have been born alive speaks for itself. partial birth abortions are murder.
it also disturbs me how babies with downs syndrome can be aborted later on then able bodied babies, and even babies with club feet or a cleft palate. i am skeptical as to whether or not parents who choose this option are truly capable of loving a child.
it surprises me that in this day and age, an age that is meant to be about human rights and polital correctness, that some of things that happen legally in this society are so barbaric.
- Sarah, stroud, UK
When abortion was first allowed by law, it was provision for the rare cases of women whose health would be put at risk by allowing the baby to go to term. Two doctors were to agree that this was the case - presumably as a safeguard! Never in our wildest dreams did we think, just a few years further on, that the law would allow for a holocaust of dead babies - on grounds of inconvenience! This should ring alarm bells when government talks of legalising euthenasia - it will be the thin end of the wedge...just like it turned out to be when abortion was legalised.
Abortion has turned into human sacrifice on the altar of lust.
- Judy Povey, Whitchurch, shropshire
Absolutely sick.
Abortion should be illegal. It's murder, no other words to describe it.
People need to stop trying to play God.
If you have sex, then you are most likely gonna get pregnant, then you need to deal with the concequences. Sex = baby, no sex = no baby. And If you really can't handle the fact of a baby then give them away for adoption for someone who desperately want's a child.
Sick.
- Lucy, Bristol, UK
This is outrageous. A person is a person no matter how small. I can't believe we have such a cold hearted government that allow this to happen. We live in such a terrible society where we are so selfish that we won't even make a few sacrifices in our lives to save a life. We need to WAKE UP! Life begins at conception.
- Jamie, Norwich, UK
If men got pregnant ... abortion would be available in convenience stores and drive-through windows.
- Sam, Brighton UK
This is severe consequences to people wanting freedom of sexuality more than they value human life.
What will it take for people to be awakened from this desensatisation of our culture.
Why have we cheapened human life!! Brought it down to nothing!
When has it ever been ok to kill a child?
Because the law says its ok to kill your developing child, does that make it easier for you, murder is still murder!
It's not about opinion, the evidence supports that throughout ALL 9 months of pregnancy that very tiny 'thing' a woman is pregnant with is a CHILD.No less, don't let any one steal from you your child for the sake of conveniance. Dont let any one pressure you into murdering your child for the sake of time, conveniance, inconveniance.
How have you let your womb{once a place of safety and comfort} become the very holocaust of our nation?!
The womb becomes a graveyard! We carry these little children inside of us and then we discard them as if their life because of our circumstance is of no value.
How can you neglect your child.
Have you seen what a 14,15,16,22 week old feutus looks like,don't tell me that what you're looking at is not a child!
It's a monstrous lie, a hideous crime to MURDER{and you can choose any word to hide behind this reality} your baby!
PLEASE do not be mislead, do not be decieved by those who care less about human life, do your reseach, human life BEGIN AT CONCEPTION.
anything to stop the pregnancy is ending human life!
- L, Manchester, UK
The saddest thing in this story is that the doctors and parents mentioned seem more concerned with having to face the living, breathing human being that they just tried to kill rather than the much more horrific fact that they attempted to kill the child in the first place.
"It is a distressing situation when these babies are being born alive."
No, it's not distressing. Babies are designed to be born alive. It is sick and demented actions that are leading to the situation where they are born, by choice, prematurely, are alive, but being given no help to live. We wouldn't treat an animal like this!!
"Parents may be told that the baby will not be viable but may still want to hold it until it dies, and this is probably what we are seeing in these statistics."
Somehow I don't think dying in the arms of your killers is all that much of a consolation prize.
I believe in choice too - if you are not willing to live with the consequences of sex, don't have it. THAT's where the choice is made. Abortion should be illegal from conception.
- Christina, Anglesey, Wales
How is this legal? If these parents committed those acts at home, they would be penalized. Why is it ok because it occurs at a hospital? The institutions supporting these disgusting practises should be sued for neglect and denying the necessities of life, because that is exactly what they are doing. Terminating a pregnancy because of a club foot or a facial deformation (cleft palate) is not acceptable. I cannot believe anyonein the medical profession would condone such a trivial 'excuse'. Who are these shallow people show would opt to do such a thing? Such people do not deserve to have children as they clearly don't value life the way a parent should.
- A Mother, Ontario, Canada
it makes me sick! i am 5 weeks pregnant with my second child and have been googling images of 5 week old feotus' to see what my baby will look like, I am instead faced with disgusting images of dead babies.
why do people do it? just don't get pregnant, if u have unprotected sex act the next day if need be! why leave it weeks to see if you get your period? - i have had the morning after pill, but i couldn't do anything beyond that - but 20,22,24 weeks its wrong. totally wrong, it makes me so sad to think of little babies in this safe place all happy and warm and then suddenly feeling such pain and being murdered, never knowing anything but them few weeks in the womb and maybe minutes as they flop on the hospital bed and wait to die - how can this be justified? why isd it going on? i don't understand
- Lisa, merseyside uk
It sickens me that people do this appalling murderous action to unborn children. I wish that one day people will realize what abortion does and come to their senses. This country will reap one day what we are sowing. I do believe this.
- ronnie ray, munford, usa
My cousin was pregnant with twins, she miscarried one of the twins early in the pregnancy and was told to go home and let nature take its course. To her surprise at the follow-up visit two weeks later they did an ultrasound to make sure everything was out and there was another baby in there! She was so happy and excited! Even though this was an unplanned pregnancy they were full of joy. She had some complications during the course of her pregnancy but was trying her best to keep the pregnancy going. Her baby girl was born December 7th 2007 in Georgia 1 day shy of 24 weeks. So the medical staff said they had their hands tied and couldn't help her baby. They had to sit there and hold her while nurses came in every 5-10 minutes to see 'if she passed'. She was born alive and very much wanted by her parents. But yet they couldn't help her b/c she wasn't viable enough?! A few months down the road they only received a death certificate, not a birth certificate to go along with the live birth. The morge found that the baby did have oxygen in her lungs and her blood was circulating normally. They are now sueing the hospital b/c if it was just 'tissue' then why did they receive a death certificate? If it wasn't a person then why did the nurses come in every 5-10 minutes to see if the baby was 'dead'? Doesn't make any sense to me, I really wish she could have been at the very least given a chance to live b/c she wanted to so bad......
- Krystal, Fairbanks, alaska
I found this article tonight and I am really saddened by it. Human life is precious and given by God.
I'd like to draw readers attention to the peaceful procession on 18th October at 13:00 leaving from Wesminster cathedral in London.
- Liz, Herts, UK
Godless people, no different than putting a bullet into the scull of a live human being. Jesus will bring these people to justice.
- Sad And Evil, Michigan
There is people that do this to babies on the NHS and then you have the other extreme of the NHS where, My friend went in to premature labour at 4.40am this morning her son is 4 days below 24 weeks. He weighed 400g and he is breathing unaided and the hospital are refusing to keep him alive at this moment in time 11.40am. She is sat in a room in the hospital waiting for him to pass away they are refusing to even try to save him. This is disgusting in this day and age!
- Ms Kelly, London
I always knew the British had little compassion, but I never knew they were this blatantly vicious and brutal - to their own children.
- Parkay, Overland Park, Kansas, USA
If the 'baby' was properly viable, then a normal pregnancy would last 22 weeks instead of 40, the extra 18 weeks are for a reason this is why it is possible to terminate a pregnancy for social reasons up to 24 weeks. Very premature babies who survive mostly do so with terrible conditions which are lifelong.
I agree that giving a leathal injection is an unplesant prospect, so is leaving the 'baby' to die when it appears to be breathing. However, it has to be remembered that breathing is a reflex, if the mechanism that rules this is not damaged, then it will happen. It doesn't mean that the 'baby' would ever develop beyond this. I feel sad for anybody who undergoes an abortion so far into their pregnancy because the woman will have to undergo labour with all of it's pain while knowing that the loss of the baby is inevitable. People on this board as very quick to judge and slow to understand what having this kind of a procedure means to all concerned. I feel this complex subject is being couched in the most simplistic terms and this really does no justice to either side of the argument.
- Nu, london
Death by lethal injection? I thought euthanasia was not legal in the UK?
- Marianne, SW France
Disgrace. If he or she (not it) can breathe then they are alive. If a "lethal" injection is used then is that not murder by definition?
- David, Burgess Hill
I'm pro choice, and I firmly believe individuals should be able to choose but this news is so tragic. People should be warned this is a real possibility so they are aware of ALL factors before making their decision.
- Bills, Herts, UK
People wake up and SCREAM. This is outrageous
Abortion kills babies kicking and screaming!
Plus the devastating wave of distruction of people it leaves in its path.
- Trace, USA
Disgusting.
How can any conscientious doctor or nurse leave such a baby to simply die? Borderline criminal I'd say.
- Stan(Expat), usa
