One in four babies aborted at 23 weeks gestation in the Canadian province of Quebec are born alive, a new study has shown.
Research led by medical statisticians at the University of Montreal found that live birth rates increased most noticeably between 20 and 24 weeks for second-trimester abortions.
Earlier this year, more than 700 medics called on MPs to reduce Britain’s abortion limit from 24 weeks to 22 weeks to better reflect the increasing number of surviving premature babies.
The Canadian study analysed data from 13,777 abortions carried out between 15 and 29 weeks gestation in Quebec hospitals from 1 April 1989 to 31 March 2021.
It reported that live birth rates “were highest at 23 weeks of gestation (27.0 per 100 abortions), followed by 22 weeks (26.7 per 100 abortions) and 21 weeks (22.9 per 100 abortions)”.
“In Quebec, live birth is defined as the presence of any sign of life, including breathing, heartbeat, umbilical cord pulsation, or muscle movement, in a fetus that is removed from a mother, whether or not the cord is cut or placenta attached.”
Study authors: Nathalie Auger, MD, MSc, FRCPC; Émilie Brousseau, MSc; Aimina Ayoub, MSc; William D. Fraser, MD, MSc, FRCSC
Researchers identified a clear trend of increasing live birth rates over the years. Unborn babies had a 4.1 per cent chance of surviving an abortion between 1989 and 2000, which increased to 20.8 per cent between 2011 and 2021.
A quarter of babies born alive following a botched abortion were admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, while 5.5 per cent received palliative care. Ten per cent of abortion survivors lived for at least three hours.