New Data Reveals: Late-Term Abortions Worse than Pharaoh’s Baby Killing Decree

August 21, 2019

5 min read

New data has emerged revealing that the horrifying reality of infanticide after unsuccessful attempts at abortion are far more common than previously claimed. Hopefully, this data will be a factor in the current battle to create legislation that will prevent this “recreation of Pharoah’s decree” from continuing.

Born-Alive laws are quickly becoming a strong agenda for the Republican Party. 

The law is problematic for pro-abortion activists as many states consider late-term abortions, from the beginning of the third trimester of pregnancy or 28 weeks from conception until birth, an option that was not even considered by pro-abortion advocates just a few years ago. Late-term abortions were explicitly prohibited in the controversial 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that opened the door for legalizing abortions. 

The decision established fetus viability as the point at which the State had a compelling interest in protecting prenatal life, and could legally prohibit all abortions except where necessary to protect the mother’s life or health. At the time, medical realities established the legal definition of this point. 

Medical advances have now led most physicians to establish viability at 24 weeks.

In 2002, the U.S. Government enacted the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act which extends legal protection to an infant born alive after a failed attempt at induced abortion. The issue became the focus of national attention last February when New York passed a law allowing abortions later than 24 weeks at the physician’s discretion. 

Rhode Island and Virginia legislature were considering similar legislation. 

Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a former pediatric neurologist, was interviewed about the deliberations.  The governor, a sponsor of that bill, was asked at a hearing if a woman about to give birth and dilating could still request an abortion.

“So in this particular example if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered,” Gov. Northam said. “The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

Northam’s comments were understood as advocating for infanticide, allowing the newborn infant to languish without care until it died. 

Though late-term advocates claimed these comments were taken out of context, recent studies revealed that is precisely what is happening in many cases.

It should be noted that in February,  all of the prominent Democratic presidential hopefuls voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a Republican bill that, had it been passed, would have required doctors to provide medical care for infants born alive during failed abortions. The bill threatened prison time for doctors who don’t provide such care.  The bill exempted the mother from prosecution. House Republicans have attempted to bring this legislation to a vote 80 separate times but House democrats have successfully blocked the vote from taking place. 

One of the reasons cited by the opponents was the supposed rarity of such cases, a claim that is now known to be inaccurate.

The data on babies surviving abortions is compiled on a mandatory basis by only a few states so the statistics are incomplete. But data collected from three states show that at least 40 babies were born alive after botched abortions since 2016. Fox News reported that Minnesota recorded three infants that were born alive in 2018 after induced termination of a pregnancy for a statewide total of 11 since 2016. According to Fox News, Arizona reported 10 in 2017 and Florida had 19 such instances since 2017. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 143 cases between 2003 and 2014 of infants born after attempted abortions, though those figures may be incomplete. 

Of those cases reported, six babies survived longer than 24 hours. 

Arizona requires a physician to report cases of fetuses born alive after an unsuccessful abortion and to describe the efforts taken to sustain the life of the baby. From August 2017 to December 2017, 10 abortion reports involving fetus or embryo delivered alive were submitted, an average of two per month from the one state. 

The Susan B. Anthony List, a non-profit organization the seeks to end abortion in the U.S., has over 270 documented cases of babies born alive after abortions. 

Their data show that in one hospital in Illinois, 26 babies were born alive during abortions per year. 

Dr. Eli Schussheim, a highly regarded Israeli surgeon who is the director of EFRAT-C.R.I.B, was horrified but not entirely surprised at the efforts to legislate in favor of late-term or post-birth abortions.

“This is not new,” the doctor said. “It is what Pharoah did in Egypt but it is far worse than Pharoah.”

Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Exodus 1:22

 “Pharoah only ordered it against the male children and only against the Jews in Egypt,” Dr. Schussheim said. “This is potentially against all babies.”

Dr. Schussheim noted that pro-abortion activists will frequently claim that abortions, even late-term abortions, are a women’s health issue.

“Late-term abortions are much more dangerous,” Dr. Schussheim told Breaking Israel News.  “From a strictly medical standpoint, it is preferable that she not terminate the pregnancy. In my four decades of experience as a physician, I have never encountered a woman who regretted having a baby. In contrast to this, almost every woman who has had an abortion deeply regrets her decision.”

“Surgery leaves a scar on the outside but leaves the woman spiritually whole,” Dr. Schussheim said. 

“Abortion does not leave a physical scar but it does leave an emotional scar. Abortion is a medical decision and for the sake of the woman, it should not be turned into a political issue: not for and not against.”

Dr. Schussheim noted that the main reason for performing late-term abortions was potential or verified birth defects in the infant while in the womb. But the doctor did not feel the abortions were justified in such cases.

“Medicine today has advanced to the point where many of these infants which were considered not viable are in fact viable,” the doctor stated. 

“I know of many such cases in which the children grew up living normal lives. And even when they have disabilities, the options for how they can live their lives are far greater than used to be the case. I do not know of any of these children who grew up regretting that they were born.”

Despite its Biblical roots, Dr. Schussheim saw this imperative to abort babies as a modern social disorder.

“The culture is a bit perverted,” he said. “There are so many organizations that protest when this is done to puppies or kittens. But when this is done to people, human children, it suddenly becomes a twisted moral imperative to demand that the children be killed.”

Dr. Schussheim noted that this is an issue that unites Israelis and Americans. 

A highly regarded Israeli surgeon, he established EFRAT-C.R.I.B in 1977 when abortion became legal in Israel. 

“Abortion is legal in Israel but the law does not give parameters,” the doctor said. 

“In theory, an abortion can take place up until birth. But every abortion must be approved by a board of physicians so that is not what happens in practice.”

It was reported in 2011 that approximately 40,000 abortions were performed annually in Israel. Since its inception, Dr. Schussheim’s organization has assisted over 70,000 women in choosing birth over abortion.

The issue of abortion is quickly becoming a global problem. In November, the United Nations Human Rights Council declared that abortions are a universal human right. In response to this initiative as well as a similar declaration calling for universal access to assisted suicide (euthanasia), the Sanhedrin began to work towards establishing an alternative to the United Nations.

“Abortions and assisted suicides are both explicitly against the Noahide Law which prohibits the spilling of blood,” Rabbi Weiss told Breaking Israel News at the time. “These values they call human rights have only one possible outcome: the destruction of humanity.”

The new organization, titled the Organizations of the 70 Nations, will be based in Jerusalem. The first official recognition of the organization came last year at the World Creation Concert when three countries signed an agreement to take part in the initiative. 

A conference will be held on September 26 in Jerusalem at which several more nations are expected to attend and sign on as participants in the organization.

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