Student describes seeing baby “struggle against death” after being born alive during abortion

Testimony of a student in midwife school (22 years old, North of France):

“I am a midwife student in my last year, and saw, during an internship in a maternity department of the North of France, a child born alive from an abortion on medical grounds. He was 24 weeks of gestation and the midwife left the child struggling to breathe, by leaving the baby alone on the resuscitation table. He died within 10 minutes, greatly weakened by labor contractions (triggered). We did not check the heart sounds during labor, to “spare” the mother. The midwife told me that in these cases, “it is born dead if he is lucky, otherwise … well … we have no choice … for the parents…” I saw a baby struggle against death, in total indifference to his suffering … A chilling inhumanity … This leads to situations of horror … I saw this at 19, I’m 22, I’ll never forget … I have the desire to become a doctor in order to treat those who no longer have “the right” to be cared for…” I assisted from a distance, because midwives prefer to take care of only the patients in this case, in several abortions on medical grounds between 18 and 24 weeks of gestation, but most children would die as a result of contractions. Here, the term being 23 weeks + 5 days gestation, there was no feticide in accordance with the Protocol: the active gesture of fetal euthanasia, or stopping life with prenatal analgesia. So, I think that the patient had been informed of the likelihood that the child is born alive during the consultation before the abortion; but we have not shown the child to her, occupying her until the time the child dies (“a matter of minutes”). We showed her the baby once it had died. The midwife did not give me figures, but in her speech, it seemed to be recurring for those delicate terms between 18 and 24 weeks of gestation… Not having finished my studies, I still prefer to remain anonymous for a while…”

Grégor Puppinck PhD (Dir.), Claire de La Hougue PhD, Andreea Popescu, Christophe Foltzenlogel  “Late Term Abortion & Neonatal Infanticide in Europe” Petition for the Rights of Newborns Surviving Their Abortion ECLJ (European Centre for Law and Justice) June 2015

Although this happened in France, statistics show that 362 children were born alive during abortions between 2001 and 2010 in the US.

(same source)