New numbers reveal at least 152 children were born alive after late-term abortions in Canada last year, five of them in B.C.
VANCOUVER—Recent statistics from the Canadian Institute for Health Information reveal at least 152 children were born alive after abortions performed in Canada last year.
According to CIHI, all were at least 20 weeks old and died after they were born alive.
“These numbers do not include late-term abortions from Quebec, so this number could be and probably is higher,” said pro-life blogger Patricia Maloney, who obtained the numbers through information requests.
The CIHI report reveals Ontario and Alberta had the highest numbers of children born alive after abortions: 75 and 41 respectively. In B.C., five were born alive.
While it’s unclear what happened next, CIHI told The B.C. Catholic the children did not live long.
“Our analysts confirmed there are intended terminations of pregnancy procedures for gestational age at or over 20 weeks that led to live births and subsequent deaths, e.g. mother was at risk, or there were significant defects in fetal development,” said communications specialist Julie Bortolotti. “These live births resulted in subsequent death in hospital.”
The only provinces that had zero late-term abortions resulting in live births were P.E.I., the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.
Maloney, an advocate for transparent abortion statistics in Canada, has been collecting data from CIHI about aborted children born alive for several years. In 2011, CIHI reported 158 children survived abortions, and in 2014, that number rose to 161.
Meanwhile, the number of children aborted at 20 weeks’ gestation or older is also seeing an increase. In 2011, statistics she obtained from CIHI showed there were 727 late-term abortions that resulted in stillbirth. That rose to 780 in 2014, and last year, it climbed over 900.
However, Maloney’s efforts to find out what happens when children are born alive after abortions have come up dry. The only thing now known from CIHI is that they don’t survive.
“This is a tragedy,” said Mike Schouten, head of pro-life activist group WeNeedALaw.
He said it’s unfortunate for the public that there’s simply not enough data or regulations surrounding abortion in Canada. “There is no clear answer as to what’s going on here,” he said.
“Canadians and advocacy groups have a right to know why people are requesting abortion” in a way that doesn’t violate privacy laws. As it stands now, “we don’t have proper data so theoretically Canadians can make up any story they want about how those babies’ lives transpire. No one can really dispute anything.”
B.C.’s Ministry of Health could not say what protocols are in place for when an aborted child is born alive or whether this is an ongoing issue, citing privacy concerns.
A spokesperson only said by email, “live births after second-trimester abortions are extremely rare in B.C.,” and “because of the rarity, each of these situations is assessed individually.”