Yesterday, shocking images of five babies killed in late-term abortions were released that showed the brutal reality what happens to unborn children who are killed in legal late-term abortions in America.
The babies killed in the abortions were reportedly killed at the Washington Surgi-Center, which advertises late-term abortions at “27 plus weeks of pregnancy” – long past the point when unborn babies are viable outside the womb. The babies bodies were reportedly obtained from a pro-life advocate in Washington who was arrested this week for protesting inside the abortion center.
Lauren Handy, director of activism for the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), informed the Metropolitan Washington D.C. Police homicide unit that she had obtained the babies’ bodies who were killed in abortions or possible illegal partial-birth abortions or left to die in infanticides. Their late gestational ages as well as their apparent sustained injuries potentially show violations of the Partial Birth Abortion Act as well as the Born Alive Infants Protection Act which are federal crimes.
A whistleblower at the abortion center reportedly provided the bodies to Handy to expose what is happening there.
PAAU director Terrisa Bukovinac says the babies’ deaths should be investigated as violations of federal law.
“We are aware that the Metropolitan Police Department has stated they do not believe a crime has been committed against these babies under D.C. law. However, the laws in question are federal laws enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice,” she said.
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However, the District of Columbia is refusing to conduct autopsies or further investigate the circumstances of the death of the five children. As the Washington Post reports:
The city medical examiner does not plan at this time to perform autopsies on the five fetuses police removed from a Capitol Hill rowhouse earlier this week, according to two D.C. officials with knowledge of the case, even though the group involved in their discovery claims the fetuses were all late-term abortions performed illegally.
The clinic declined to comment, but its website says it performs abortions up to 27 weeks of pregnancy, which is at the very end of the second trimester.
Ashan Benedict, D.C. police’s executive assistant chief of police, told reporters Thursday that the fetuses appeared to have been aborted “in accordance with D.C. law [and] there doesn’t seem to be anything criminal in nature about that except for how they got into this house.”
On Friday, D.C. police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the matter “remains an ongoing investigation.” He said, “While there are still a number of questions, we can’t provide details at this point.” He said the origin of the fetuses also remains part of that inquiry. Sternbeck said D.C. police have not filed any charges or made any arrests in regards to the found fetuses.
According to the Post, D.C. officials could perform autopsies if they received additional information about the babies and the circumstances under which they were killed.
In comments to LifeNews, Lila Rose of LiveAction, which made the images of the aborted babies publicly available on Friday, said a full autopsy and investigation of each baby’s death is needed.
“The Washington DC police department and the District’s medical examiner must conduct a thorough forensic medical examination of five dead children discovered outside a DC abortion clinic, to determine their manner of death. Anything less is a dereliction of their duty. Conducting autopsies for these children is the absolute minimum required to ensure that federal and state laws were not violated in their deaths,” she said.
Rose indicated her group would pay for the autopsies if necessary or for an independent neonatal pathologist to do the job if the DC Chief Medical Examiner refuses to examine the bodies of these children.
“We will settle for nothing less than complete justice for the five,” she said.
Here’s more from LiveAction on these five babies.
Dr. Robin Pierucci, a neonatal specialist, told Live Action News: “I can say with confidence that these babies died at an age when they were viable, premature people.” In her Friday morning comments, she noted that she was going to work in a NICU where she would “care for little ones this size and age.”
During a Thursday press conference, D.C. police quickly dismissed the possibility that the babies experienced illegal abortions but declined to comment further when asked by Live Action News. Although D.C. doesn’t ban late-term abortions, medical professionals are still bound by federal laws which restrict the method of abortion and require life-saving care for infants born after botched procedures.
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Rose said in response, “The discovery of these bodies is horrific and disturbing evidence of the infanticide that may be occurring in this clinic within our nations’ capital, and indicative of the violence happening in abortion facilities nationwide.”
One of the babies, pictured below, has been named Baby Boy 1. LiveAction presents more info on the circumstances surrounding his death:
Perhaps the largest and most developed baby found was a boy, whose gestational age has been estimated to be around 28-32 weeks – well within the third trimester, past the point at which the majority of experts agree that preborn babies can feel pain, and beyond the point many states have restricted abortions for medical and ethical reasons. For example, the Mississippi law that recently came before the Supreme Court limits abortion to just 15 weeks based on concerns surrounding fetal development, pain, and other factors.
Photos and video of the first baby boy reveal that he remained largely intact, raising questions about how his life ended. He also has what appears to be a fully formed face, fingers, toes, and all the primary features normally visible in a newborn.
Dr. Kathi Aultman, a former abortionist who later became pro-life, told Live Action News that he “appears to be in the 3rd trimester near term and looks like he should have been in the nursery.” Dr. Patti Giebink similarly said via email that this baby boy “looks close to term gestation … [a]nd pretty much intact,” adding that she couldn’t “believe they would abort a nearly full term baby unless there was something terminally wrong with the baby, but it doesn’t appear so.”
