Australian conservatives claim babies are sometimes ‘born alive’ after an abortion. What’s the truth?
Some religious groups and conservative politicians in Australia have claimed babies are being “born alive” after abortions and left to die alone.
But experts warn “born alive” campaigns are riddled with misinformation, use misleading statistics and could threaten women’s access to abortions.
So what’s really going on?
A proposed federal bill to supposedly protect those born alive went to a parliamentary inquiry, which found there was no basis for it. A motion in the federal Senate last week to note that babies were born alive after abortions was defeated.
Meanwhile, a Queensland inquiry into proposed legislation is ongoing. Last week a recent emotional address from the Australian Christian Lobby’s Louise Adsett on “unwanted babies” being left in “witches’ hats” received broad media coverage.
The Queensland health minister, Shannon Fentiman, says misinformation in the debate can be inflammatory and cause hurt to bereaved parents.
Here’s what you need to know.
Are babies sometimes born alive after an abortion?
Dozens of health experts and major organisations have told inquiries that, on rare occasions, an unviable baby is born alive.
The Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (Ranzcog) told a Queensland inquiry it’s an “uncommon” scenario.
Ranzcog says only 1% of abortions are performed after 20 weeks’ gestation. Usually an injection would be used to ensure the foetus is dead.
“In rare cases, parents may choose not to have foeticide because they want to hold their (non-viable) baby while it dies,” Ranzcog says.
The baby, which has no chance of survival, is kept comfortable during the process.
The “born alive” campaign has used various statistics to claim this happens hundreds of times a year. However, there aren’t even robust national statistics on the number of abortions each year (one estimate is about 88,000). The ACL claims such babies are fully developed with beating hearts but “set aside and left to die”, a claim repeatedly debunked by health professionals.
The Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union says abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation occur where “the foetus has late-diagnosed lethal or significant abnormalities, genetic conditions, severe growth restriction, or maternal health risks, where continuing the pregnancy and/or birth poses a significant threat to the mother and the foetus has zero chance of survival”.
The bill “projects an unnecessary narrative on to a rare scenario and places undue pressure and emotional manipulation on women, pregnant people, and their families,” the union says.
What’s the legislation all about?
Proponents of born alive legislation want it made explicit that any child born after abortion should receive the same duty of care as any other child, raising the spectre of health providers feeling pressured to try to resuscitate a baby that was never going to live.
In the US, there have been a range of “born alive” state-based laws, and a federal attempt to impose fines and prison terms on anyone who does not try to save a baby, even if not viable.
The former federal MP George Christensen first proposed a born alive bill in 2021 to require medical practitioners to provide “medical care, treatment and statistics on children born alive as a result of terminations”. That lapsed, but was reintroduced in 2022 by Liberal senator Alex Antic and National party senator Matt Canavan, and sent to an inquiry.
The inquiry found there was no legal, ethical or medical basis to support the bill, and it made no recommendations for the government to respond to.
A Queensland bill to “remove any doubt that babies born in these circumstances are entitled to the same degree of medical care and attention as a baby born in any other way” is before an inquiry and is due to table a report to government in September.
Before the recent Northern Territory election, the new Country Liberal party leader, Lia Finocchiaro, said the party would consider supporting a similar bill. ACL and Pro-Life Victoria distributed flyers during the campaign saying the CLP supported born alive legislation.
The Sphere Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Coalition says the proposed legislation compromises the right to access pregnancy termination services and “demonstrates a poor and inaccurate understanding of second trimester abortion care and the complexities of foetal viability”.
The bill “may dissuade providers from performing late-term abortions due to fear of prosecution in the extremely rare event a baby is born alive”, it says in its submission.
In its submission, the Royal Women’s Hospital says the anti-abortionists’ strategy was to “erode rights by multiple minor legislations”.
“These are aimed at limiting the provision of, and access to, services. We believe this bill can be understood as such a strategy,” it says.
The Western Australia health minister, Amber-Jade Sanderson, told parliament that invasive medical care, such as attempts to resuscitate a neonate who is not going to survive, “would rob” parents of that time with their baby.
Do doctors have a duty of care after a termination?
“All practitioners are bound by a duty of care which informs when and how they may perform their duties in such a scenario,” Sphere says.
Ranzcog says any additional legislation is “entirely unnecessary”. It argues duty of care includes babies born alive “whether this happens following an abortion or otherwise”.
“Further legal regulation will be confusing and unhelpful,” it says, and would create a law that treats abortion differently to other medical procedures.
The born alive lobby claim more medical intervention could save those aborted babies. The explanatory notes for the Queensland bill claim a 2023 study of 29 babies born at 22 weeks had a survival rate of 82.8%.
The QNMU says the study “excludes neonates with major congenital anomalies”. The study found all neonates born at 22 weeks received intensive, invasive medical intervention, a third of which died before the age of 18 months, and of those that did survive, 38.9% showed moderate or severe neurodevelopmental impairment, the union says.
Are babies left alone for hours?
A few anecdotes are doing the heavy lifting on the claim that babies are being born alive and left for hours. The 1998 case of “Jessica Jane” is often used.
According to the coroner’s report, in a small Darwin hospital, a foetus was unexpectedly born alive after a termination. There was confusion over the gestation age. The nurse present didn’t know what to do, and the treating doctor did not help her. The nurse wrapped the baby in a “warm rug” and constantly checked on it. But the coroner heard it would only have had an “extremely small” chance of survival no matter what. It died 80 minutes later.
The coroner recommended protocols be put in place to prevent the rare event happening again.
Another case often mentioned is “Xanthe”. A Queensland couple decided to have a termination after they found out their daughter had Down’s syndrome. Xanthe was born alive. The father said they were not told and would have wanted to be with her when she died. The case was reportedly being investigated by the ombudsman, who declined to provide an update.
Then there’s Adsett, a midwife who appeared for the ACL at the Queensland inquiry. Adsett says she is a “conscientious objector when it comes to providing care for women aborting their babies” but says she makes herself available to hold babies afterwards. She says parents do not want to see or hold them and they are “sometimes born into witches’ hats or kidney dishes”. She says she was either on shift or her colleagues told her about such occasions.
Fentiman, Queensland’s health minister, says “all babies born with signs of life are treated with the same dignity, respect and access to healthcare as any other person in Queensland”.
Some remarks in the debate have been inflammatory, Fentiman says, and have the potential to cause hurt to parents already grieving the loss of a child.
“I ask those responsible to stop and think about the hurt you are causing.”
