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June 10, 1999
National Right to Life News
'Late-Term Babies Born Alive after Abortions Are Left to Die in Canadian
Hospitals'

by Liz Townsend

Several Canadian hospitals routinely abort late-term unborn babies or leave them to die if they are born alive during the procedure, according to press reports. The discovery of this practice has led to a firestorm of controversy across the country.

Officials at one of the hospitals insisted on describing the incidents as "genetic terminations" or "inductions" rather than abortions, since they claimed the babies were diagnosed with conditions that would have caused their deaths within a short time, according to Alberta Report magazine. However, there was at lease one case that involved a baby with Down syndrome.

"The charade that these were all babies with 'non-viable lethal anomalies' is finally beginning to unravel," Dr. Will Johnston of Canadian Physicians for Life told NRL News, "Surely everyone can recognize the atrocity of killing babies with Down syndrome in that way."

Articles about the babies' deaths in one Alberta hospital has led to reports of similar late-term abortions and subsequent live births in another Alberta hospital and in British Columbia. There are no national laws in Canada protecting unborn babies from abortion at any stage, but it is illegal to cause a baby's death during labor or after birth, according to Alberta Report. Police in Calgary, Alberta, have launched an investigation to determine if laws were broken there, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported.

These late-term abortions are usually performed by artificially inducing labor with drugs, which cause the baby to be expelled whole from the uterus. Most of the time, the babies die before being delivered, but not always.

In British Columbia, at least 16 babies have survived late-term abortions since 1995, all dying within six hours after birth, according to figures released by the province's chief coroner. Most of these occurred at B.C. Women's hospital in Vancouver, the B.C. Catholic reported.

Again, officials claimed the abortions were all done for "genetic reasons," according to the Catholic. Chief Coroner Larry Campbell said his office would not conduct investigations into the deaths, insisting he could only "investigate death if unexpected," the Catholic reported.

Edmonton, Alberta's Royal Alexandra Hospital performs such late-term abortions. According to the Edmonton Journal, hospital communications manager Donna Angus "did not know how many late-stage abortions are done but she did confirm some aborted fetuses lice for short periods after birth is induced."

The most detailed information about these late-term abortions came from nurses in Calgary's Alberta Foothills Hospital, who were forced to assist in the abortions and to stand idly by while the newborn babies slowly perished without medical treatment. The nurses told their story to journalist Marnie Ko of Alberta Report, "Nurses were only allowed to comfort the suffering infant, but this did not even include feedings."

Nurse "Sanders" told of an 18-week-old unborn baby diagnosed, with "a chromosomal problem" who was born alive after an abortion earlier this year. "While the mother cried, the baby was trying to breathe, slowly taking in air, struggling for each breath," she told Alberta Report. "She suffered for 30 minutes."

The nurses said that in March the hospital placed women receiving late-term abortions in the same ward as new mothers, ordering the nurses who previously cared for mothers and newborn babies to also assist in abortions, according to Alberta Report, Although Norma Kirkham, senior operating officer of Alberta Foothills Hospital, told Ko that "every effort is made to allow nurses to get out of [abortions]," the nurses disagreed.

"There are 125 staff on this unit, and no matter what the hospital says about making efforts to accommodate nurses who don't want to do [abortions], the head nurse and the charge nurse have told us that we all have to take our turn," nurse "Catherine" told Alberta Report. "I have to shut off a part of me to do this job now. It's bad."

Another anonymous nurse, "Sally," sent a letter to the magazine describing the situation at the hospital, "The present mood is. . . chaotic, helpless, frustrated, and highly emotional," she wrote. "In the past weeks, I have witnessed tears, breakdowns, illnesses, and stress such as never before... Sick calls have been high and experienced staff nearly impossible to recruit."

The hospital performed about 40 "genetic abortions" in 1998, Shirley Popdiuk, public affairs manager for acute care, told Alberta Report. The nurses told Ko that they have seen the frequency of these abortions increase this year. "In the last couple of months we've seen one or two a week," said nurse "Catherine."

There are no health worker conscience clauses in Canada. Johnston said that the only protection pro-life health workers have is a "piecemeal approach" consisting of appeals to labor tribunals in some parts of the country. Maurice Vellacott, a member of the Canadian Parliament, has offered a bill that would "protect the jobs of health care providers who religious and moral convictions prevent their participation in abortion or euthanasia," according to Alberta Report. However, since Vellacott is a member of the opposition party and the majority party tightly controls the legislative process in Canada, the bill faces an uphill battle.

The Canadian Regional Health Authority (CHRA), which oversees Atlanta Foothills Hospital, is trying to force Ko and the magazine to reveal the nurses; names and to return all hospital documents used in the articles. The CHRA obtained a temporary injunction April 30 against Ko and Alberta Report, banning them from using the information they received from the nurses in any further articles. The CHRA claimed that since some of the information included names of doctors involved in the abortions, if the names were published the doctors could be threatened, according to the Edmonton Sun.

Ko told NRL News the injunction is not needed to protect doctors. "There is no threat to the safety of physicians, " she said. "We will not release any names. We just have an interest in making the facts known."

The CHRA will try to make the injunction permanent at a hearing June 29. It will also ask the court to force Ko and the magazine to identify their sources.

Ko said that there is no evidence that late-term abortions and live births are occurring outside Alberta and British Columbia with such frequency. But as a result of the court case and the threat to confidential sources, newspapers across Canada have reported on the story. "The news coverage has been enormous," said Ko. "There have been rallies, protests - - the story is far from over."

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