The issue of live births after abortion procedures is being used to mislead the debate around legal reform in Queensland, a former public hospital obstetrician says.
Carol Portmann, a maternal foetal medicine specialist who formerly worked in Queensland’s largest hospital, said an “inflammatory” public discussion around late-term abortions had created the false impression that babies were being denied “life-saving treatment”.
An anti-abortion group has called for an inquiry into the “abortion industry” after the release of figures showing there were 27 live births after late-term abortion procedures in the state last year, up from eight cases in 2005.
The Queensland health minister, Cameron Dick, responding to a question from Liberal National party MP and doctor Mark Robinson, revealed the figures last week, just as a parliamentary committee began an inquiry into a proposal to decriminalise abortion.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was asked what he would do about the issue by a medical student on ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night. Turnbull said they were “shocking cases” but a matter for the state government.
Teresa Martin, of Cherish Life, said the “abortion industry” was “a money-making industry” and the phenomena of live births turned “abortion to infanticide”.
“There’s no doubt some of these babies would not have been able to survive outside of the womb no matter what,” she said.
“[But] they have saved babies as early as 21 weeks [and] the thing is those babies are now born alive, therefore by them not being cared for, it’s actually changed from being abortion to infanticide.”
Portmann said hospitals were neither withholding life-saving interventions from these unexpected live deliveries, nor performing late-term abortions for any reason other than “significant abnormalities” in a baby or medical risks to a mother, she said.
Most if not all live births following abortion procedures would be babies between 20 weeks and 22 weeks gestation, who stood “zero” chance of survival out of the womb, she said.
Portmann, who was involved in abortion procedures at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital, said there was no “abortion industry” around late-term abortions as they could only be performed in hospitals, not clinics.
She said 27 live births last year seemed “unusually high, given the number of terminations of pregnancy in the hospital setting would not have increased significantly in the past few years”.
They could be a result of more hospitals using Mifepristone, which could lead to shorter labour times and more of these babies born with heartbeats, she said.
“It doesn’t change what would’ve been the outcome for those babies,” Portmann said. “Babies less than 22 weeks have a heartbeat but that is all – in the majority of situations, they do not breath, cry or show distress.
“To try to do anything to prolong their lives would be far more inhumane than to allow them to pass away peacefully and respectfully.”
In all known circumstances, these abortions were carried out as a result of “significant physical or genetic fetal abnormalities or significant medical problems that constitute reasonable risk to the mother’s medical or psychological wellbeing”, she said.
The only reason for a medical abortion involving induced labour from 23 weeks onwards would be when there are “really severe medical conditions” or where a baby has “severe and significant abnormalities” that would lead doctors to predict they had no chance of survival.
At 23 weeks, there was “maybe a 10% likelihood” [of survival] with aggressive, active treatment in a baby that was thriving at birth, kicking around crying, good heartbeat and no problems”, Portmann said. “[But] we’re talking about babies that have a pre-existing problem, that’s why they’re not going to survive.”
In those cases, a mother was invariably offered that medication be given to end the baby’s life before delivery. “In situations where this is not done, and the baby is born alive, the baby is provided with whatever is needed to allow them to pass away without distress or pain,” she said.
“This is usually in circumstances where the baby has severe physical problems that cannot be treated. These situations are unusual, uncommon and subject to significant medical and hospital oversight.”
Martin said more should be done to offer support for mothers of babies diagnosed with “treatable or manageable conditions” or disabilities such as Down’s syndrome or dwarfism, who were now offered the option of abortion.
Martin also took issue with the early termination of babies who would not survive.
“To me, the bigger question is if the baby is already going to die, how does killing that baby in his or her mother’s womb change the outcome? All it does is make it a shorter gestation period and the child dies on the say so of the parent as opposed to through nature.
“How they think that will in any shape or form mitigate the grief on the part of the mother is beyond me.”
A Cairns GP and abortion law reform advocate, Heather McNamee, said most women opted for early termination of babies with fatal conditions rather than carry them to term. “They might have people pointing at their pregnant bellies and congratulating them on babies they know are not going to survive – it can be torture,” she said.
Guardian Australia has sought detail from Dick’s office on the gestation periods involved in the live birth cases.
A parliamentary committee is examining a bill to strike abortion from the criminal code, introduced by independent MP Rob Pyne after a 12-year-old girl was forced to seek supreme court approval to end an unwanted pregnancy.
Abortion is illegal in Queensland except where a doctor deems there is a significant danger to a woman’s mental or physical health.
About 99% of abortions in the state involve surgery performed in 10 private clinics on women who are up to 19 weeks pregnant.
