In June 2015, The European Center for Law and Justice released a document entitled “Late Term Abortion & Neonatal Infanticide in Europe: Petition for the Rights of Newborns Surviving Their Abortion,” which can be found in its entirety here.
The document featured the testimonies of midwives, medical students, and doctors who witnessed babies born alive after abortions gone wrong. These babies were either neglected and allowed to die without medical treatment or killed by the direct actions of medical staff.
Midwife Mrs. Siv Bertilsson relates what she witnessed:
I have worked 36 years as a midwife in maternity and obstetric care. Now there is a reorganization at the women’s clinic, which means that the late-term abortions after week 12 will be performed at the maternity ward. I have during my professional career worked with both gynecology and maternity care. Therefore, I have horrible memories from my time at the gynecology ward where I participated in late-term abortions, most around week 16 where the fetus struggled and tried to breathe for 5-15 minutes. Because there are no rules or regulations on what one should do with a fetus that is struggling for life, you leave the fetus to die by itself in a round bowl or a basin. Horribly inhumane, I think. And this is not an unusual event.
She says that the number of babies born alive after abortions at the hospital was shockingly high – one fourth of all children aborted at 16 – 17 weeks. Horrified by the practice she was forced to witness, Bertilsson struggles with leaving her chosen field:
Approximately 25% in week 16-17 live for a certain time. … I had decided to never ever concern myself with this chore. I am now forced to stop working as a midwife? How should I act? And if I’m forced to continue to bring myself to do this again, what do I do with the fetus when it is alive? I read in the Animal Welfare Act how to kill kittens, puppies or other small animals, and there are clear rules for how the killing should be done in a way that does not cause anxiety or pain to the animal.
There are indeed laws about killing animals humanely. The report “Late Term Abortion & Neonatal Infanticide in Europe” states:
Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union 106 established the protection of animals used for experimental or scientific purposes due to the recognition by scientific research that animals can feel and experience pain and suffering. Therefore, because animals are considered to have “intrinsic value which must be respected,” the European Union agreed that animals must be treated in a beneficial manner. Further, the directive also considered animals to be “sentient” creatures, including the fetus.
Instructions for dealing with lab animals are laid out in the Council Common Position (EC) 2010/63 of 22 Sept. 2010, Art. 4, 6, 2010 O.J. (L 276) 33-79 which you can read here states:
This Directive [for the protection of animals] should also cover foetal forms of mammals, as there is scientific evidence showing that such forms in the last third of the period of their development are at an increased risk of experiencing pain, suffering and distress, which may also affect negatively their subsequent development. Scientific evidence also shows that procedures carried out on embryonic and foetal forms at an earlier stage of development could result in pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm, should the developmental forms be allowed to live beyond the first two thirds of their development.
So we see that in Europe, fetal animals are protected from cruelty but fetal humans are not. This is deeply ironic, but with the culture of abortion on demand, it is not surprising. Even in America, methods of aborting babies such as D & E (dismemberment) would be considered barbaric if used on animals. Cats and dogs in shelters must be killed humanely under the law, but preborn babies, even in the later stages of pregnancy, can be killed by dismemberment and mutilation.
Babies are not just born alive in Europe. It also happens in the United States. In the following video, a Planned Parenthood representative refuses to condemn withholding treatment from these babies:
As Live Action previously reported, Students for Life secretly recorded a Planned Parenthood clinic nurse saying that babies born alive at her clinic are allowed to die:
It does happen, where it’s still alive… but it wouldn’t be able to survive on its own, so eventually the baby does die.
Live Action’s own undercover investigations have recorded abortionists and clinic staff admitting that babies born alive at their clinics are not resuscitated. One clinic worker even said that babies born alive at her clinic were drowned in a solution. Whether in Europe or the United States, babies born alive after abortion are seldom allowed to survive.
