She weighed just 359 grams (about 12.5 ounces) when she was born but tiny as she was she inspired research valuable to pro-life. She was born in 1994 in the hospital of the University of Iowa, prompting Dr. Edward Bell and fellow researcher, Diane Zumbach, to develop a “Tiniest Babies Registry” of low-birth-weight premature babies.

She is one of 110 babies in the registry born since 1936,  Dr. Bell told Reuters Health, as reported by Lifesitenews.com.

Late-term abortions: Henry Morgentaler’s ethical problem

The registry shows that the number of low-weight babies who are born prematurely and survive is increasing. It is a stark contrast with the reality that babies are being aborted at gestational ages beyond those when others are being born and nursed to health.

The lack of a law protecting babies in the womb even to the ninth month was dismissed as irrelevant by a recent edition of the CBC Radio program, The Current. Yet even Henry Morgentaler has said he has “ethical problems” with late abortions.

Low-weight babies

The smallest baby in the registry weighed only 260 grams (a little over 9 ounces) when born at 25 weeks gestation. This little girl had lung disease and an eye disease common to premature babies, but at three years old was reported to be in good health and her eye problem had been treated with laser surgery.

The earliest in gestational age was another little girl, born at 21 weeks weighing 284 grams (about 10 ounces). When tested at four months old, she had chronic lung disease, some anemia, the same common eye disease and mild condition of low bone density.

The girl who inspired Dr. Bell is now 16. She has impaired vision and some physical limitations but they haven’t stopped her from achieving honour-roll status a school.

(Click here to see the full table.)

Late-term abortions in Canada

In the CBC Radio program, host Anna Maria Tremonti pitted Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge, chair of the multi-party pro-life caucus in Parliament, against Dawn Fowler, Canadian Director of the National Abortion Federation, to discuss the “Roxanne’s Law” bill to criminalize coercion to abort (see Coerced Abortions: Facts and Fallacies). Mr Bruinooge mentioned access to abortion being available through all nine months, at which the host asked how many abortions are done in the ninth month. Ms Fowler stated none, claiming that the point is irrelevant. Mr Bruinooge was unable to give a figure.

He was unable to because Statistics Canada now suppresses information on abortions at gestational age (see How many abortions in Canada? The facts are withheld). What we do know is that some abortions are being done from 21 weeks on.

The website AbortionInCanada.ca is able to quote some 2004 figures from Statistics Canada and the Therapeutic Abortion Survey, Canadian Institute for Health Information. These figures are not complete because Statscan had already begun to suppress some data.

• AbortionInCanada.ca shows that abortions at 13 and 24 weeks gestation for the reported year were 1,929 in Ontario and 4,944 in Canada. There is no way of knowing how many of these were at 21 weeks or more.
• For 25 to 33 weeks and beyond, the website quotes 16 for Ontario (with a note that this is not a complete figure) and an estimated 39 for all of Canada.

CTV broadcast a Canadian Press report that, in 2003, “30 women travelled to the United States for abortions after they were 22 weeks pregnant.”

Henry Morgentaler: ‘We don’t abort babies’

CTV was reporting that in 2004, the Quebec government was hoping a doctor trained to perform late-term abortions would set up in that province “offering a service that even staunch pro-choice Canadian doctors like Henry Morgentaler refuse to provide for ethical reasons.”

Henry Morgentaler told CP, “We don’t abort babies, we want to abort fetuses before they become babies. . . Around 24 weeks I have ethical problems doing that.”

A question for the National Abortion Federation

The question of how many babies are aborted in the ninth month is a red herring. The real point about the lack of legal protection for all nine months is that babies are being aborted at gestational ages at which other babies are being delivered and nurtured to as good a state of health as possible.

This is not to say that babies prior to 21 weeks should not be legally protected, nor that the law should make a distinction on gestational age. But when even the most prominent abortionist in Canada sees an ethical problem with late-term abortions, Canadians and our lawmakers should examine the justice of the lack of a law, and should stand up for the rights of babies in the womb as they do for prematurely-delivered babies.

If the little girl delivered at 21-weeks had the right to life and deserved all the medical attention she received, why not those aborted at 21 weeks? It’s a question Dawn Fowler and the National Abortion Federation might like to answer.