A report from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration has revealed that in 2022, eight babies were born alive in the state during abortions — double those reported to have been born alive in the state in 2021. In 2020, seven babies were reportedly born alive during abortions in the state.
The reports do not indicate if the babies received medical care or how long they lived.
The report is further proof that abortion proponents are misleading Americans when they deny that human beings survive abortions. In a recent op-ed for The Nation, abortionist Daniel Grossman claimed abortion survivors are “an imagined situation.” Abortion proponents Andrea Grimes and Sharona Coutts wrote an article called “Disproven: The Myth of Infants ‘Born Alive’ After Abortion.”
However, the available — though limited — data has long said otherwise. According to Centers for Disease Control data reviewed by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, “[N]ationwide, between 2003 and 2014 at least 143 babies died after being born alive during botched abortions, though the CDC also states this could be an underestimation.” In Canada, between 2013/2014 and 2017/2018, 766 babies survived abortions across all provinces excluding Quebec.
But babies have been surviving abortions since long before the 2000s.
Ana Rosa Rodriquez was born alive at 32 weeks after an abortionist ripped off one of her arms in a failed abortion in the early 1990s. In the 1970s, Gianna Jessen and Melissa Ohden both survived the abortions meant to kill them. Abortion survival happens often enough that abortionists have dubbed it the “dreaded complication” — and some have even been convicted of killing survivors.
In 1989, Pennsylvania abortionist Joseph Melnick was convicted of infanticide after it was proven that he killed a baby who survived an abortion he committed. Hospital staff members where the abortion was committed said that they had detected a heartbeat and saw the baby move and gasp.
In 2013, abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted of murder in the deaths of three babies who had survived abortions only to be killed by him following their births. And abortionist Kenneth Edelin was convicted of manslaughter following the death of a child he tried to asphyxiate during a C-section type procedure he carried out when the 1973 saline abortion he was committing failed. His conviction was overturned.
Just this year, in June, an undercover Live Action investigation showed a Washington Surgi-Clinic staff member warning a pregnant woman that her baby could be born alive during her abortion. “You may go into premature labor and deliver the fetus in your hotel,” she explained. “We could just tell you what to do with the remains.”
Washington Surgi-Clinic owner and abortionist Dr. Santangelo admitted in a previous Live Action undercover investigation that any baby who survived an abortion in his clinic would not receive any medical assistance — neglect that is federally illegal.
