Hundreds of babies are surviving abortions and being left to die in Canada, but no one seems to care

In Canada, not a single federal leader will discuss abortion – except to affirm their support for feticide in all its forms. Thus, there has been no response to a gut-wrenching new study by medical statisticians at the University of Montreal that found that one in four babies aborted at 23 weeks gestation in Quebec are born alive. One of the “complications” of later-term abortions is known as “live birth,” and “live birth rates” after abortion have increased in Quebec, most noticeably in abortions between 20 and 24 weeks. 

The study out of Quebec found that over 11% of babies aborted in the second trimester between 1989 and 2020 were born alive after the abortion attempt, based on a study of 13,777 abortions between 15 and 29 weeks.  The study found that 90% of these babies died within three hours, and LSN reported on August 6 that “only 24.5 percent of the babies born alive were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) while only 5.5% received palliative care.” Notably, the rate of babies born alive after abortions rose to over 20% between 2011 and 2021. 

According to the study authors: “In Quebec, live birth is defined as the presence of any sign of life, including breathing, heartbeat, umbilical cord pulsation, or muscle movement, in a fetus that is removed from a mother, whether or not the cord is cut or placenta attached.” They concluded that rates of live birth after abortion attempts “were highest at 23 weeks of gestation (27.0 per 100 abortions), followed by 22 weeks (26.7 per 100 abortions) and 21 weeks (22.9 per 100 abortions).” The authors noted a strange trend, reporting that the likelihood of a baby surviving an abortion actually increased between 1989-2000, when it was 4.1%, and 2011-2021, when it was 20.8%. 

I am genuinely shocked that this study was even conducted, much less published. It is one of Canada’s bloody little secrets that babies are frequently born alive and left to die after abortions. Pat Maloney, a pro-life blogger, first uncovered this brutal reality through Freedom of Access to Information Requests, revealing that 491 babies had survived abortions and were subsequently left to die between 2000 and 2009; initially, that revelation triggered a National Post investigation and a call by Members of Parliament for RCMP involvement. Then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded to this call by blithely stating that abortion was legal and refusing to address it further. 

Each Canadian baby born alive and left to die is issued both a birth and a death certificate. I am not aware of what is recorded as “cause of death.” 

There has been plenty of lying from Canada’s abortion activists and progressive politicians on this issue – so don’t take it from me. Here is the United Kingdom’s leading abortionist, Ann Furedi of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), admitting – with plenty of prevarication – that this does happen: 

Furedi is being marginally more honest here than Joyce Arthur of the so-called Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, who has never heard of an abortion she doesn’t approve of. Earlier this month, CTV reported on an allegedly “misleading” handout from ProLife Alberta that stated “late-term abortions are happening in Alberta, often resulting in fully born babies being left to die.” When asked, provincial government spokespersons declined to respond, but Arthur called it “inflammatory propaganda that has no basis in fact.” 

“It’s really concerning that the anti-choice movement would exploit these cases for their own political agenda,” she told CTV. “It’s a political shock tactic.”  

I would submit that if it is shocking that babies are being born alive and left to die – a fact that we have confirmation on from government data over decades, as well as a new study out of Quebec – that perhaps it is the whiff of infanticide that people find shocking, rather than the politics of it. For the moment, there are no politics surrounding the victims of Canada’s abortion regime. Babies are killed in the womb throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Some of them survive briefly outside the womb and die soon after. Once in awhile, such as in the case of Ximena Renaerts, they live long enough to have a life.  

These children have no political voice at all, and that is Canada’s greatest shame.