Friday, June 23, 2006

On the number of late-term abortions in Canada and their significance



EDITED JULY 10th: I see that some people are using Google to research the number of late-term abortions in Canada. I would also ask that you come to this post, which has more accurate and more up-to-date information.




Getting information on abortion in Canada can be difficult. Basic things like the number of abortions in Canada per year—around the 100 000 mark or so—are easy to find. But once you need to know more detailed information—like for instance, the gestational age of the fetus being aborted, this becomes problematic. For one thing--not all provinces require that it be noted. And even if this information is gathered, it has to be complied. StatsCan and CIHI—the Canadian Institution for Health Information—provide reports on these topics, but neither of them has recently compiled the data they do have on gestational age during abortion. (At least not to my knowledge) Bureaucrats and public officials fear distributing the numbers for fear of stirring the “abortion issue”. So what we end up with is an incomplete picture of the data.

Some bloggers have attempted to extrapolate the number of late-term abortions performed in Canada. Robert McClelland of MyBlahg, alleges that only about 7-10 late-term abortions are performed in Canada. However, he is basing this guess on an American figure from Fox News, which cites Planned Parenthood in return. The number "100" was for abortions later than 24 weeks, not 20 weeks. The Centre for Disease Control reports that in 2000, 1.4% of all abortions were on fetuses older than 20 weeks. Now if you use that same proportion to calculate the number of abortions past 20 weeks in Canada , you get a figure of 1470 late-term fetuses killed. Pretty scary stuff.

Another poster on a feminist forum, Bread and Roses, who was commenting on my blog, was insistent that only .4 % of all abortions were late-term. She wrote: Suzanne is using the same 'old' argument about partial births as if SHE CAN'T READ the stats that say only 0.4% of abortions occur after 20 weeks.

I don’t know where those stats are from. But assuming they are correct, basing oneself on the widely accepted figure of 105 000 abortions per year in Canada, .4% would amount to 420 abortions a year.

Margaret Somerville, writing in the Globe and Mail in February 2004, cited Statscan in saying that in 2001, 246 abortions were known to be later than 20 weeks.

Another helpful indicator, but by no means definitive, is a 1998 editorial in Canadian Medical Association Journal which cites that in 1995, .4% of all abortions were late-term (between 20 and 23 weeks) . The author, Dr. Flegel, said there was no information regarding abortions beyond 24 weeks. He extrapolates that 40 abortions were very late term (beyond 24 weeks) out of 70 549 that same year. If we assume that the rate has not declined in 11 years—a very hesitant, but the best I can do right now, that would mean approximately 480 late-term abortions are performed in Canada. It’s somewhat speculative, but we do know that it’s on the order of hundreds, certainly not dozens.

When poor-choicers look at the situation of late-term abortions in Canada, they figure: why bother dredging this up, it only represents a small percentage of abortions, and with the maternal health exception, the numbers that would actually be affected is so small.

I think this is a near-sighted approach. The point is to protect the fetus. At 20 weeks, we are certainly talking about an individual capable of feeling pain and suffering. Here’s an example of an ultrasound of a fetus crying. If a fetus can cry over a loud sound, you can just imagine what he must feel as an abortionist injects saline solution or jabs his skull. (For more information on late-term abortion methods, check out this blog post).

And this occurs hundreds of times in Canada. Most people in Canada don’t oppose abortion in the first trimester, because they conclude a first-trimester baby doesn’t suffer. But thanks to progresses in ultrasound and perinatal science, they know that third trimester fetuses are sentient and can react to external stimuli, just like any baby. Many Canadians can see the contradiction between the fact that medical staff in one section of the hospital will be working hard to save a preemie, but in another section, they will be terminating a fetus for the crime of being diagnosed with an inconvenient disease.

The pain and suffering inflicted on the fetus because of late-term abortions is not something we can glibly ignore. Fetuses are considered members of our own species, members of our families, yet when it suits people’s desires, their human value is repudiated. Even domestic animals get more consideration, and those who must be put down are given sedatives. How is it that those who are considered family members at 13 weeks are so readily given up at 20 or 21 weeks because they have a genetic anomaly?

As you can see, you do not have to be a religious person to raise these issues. The morality of causing suffering to humans and animals is something that people of all religions and none inquire about.

This is not a matter of a small pin prick or a minor bruise. Having one's brains sucked out, poisoning and suffocation are horrible ways to die. How do we reconcile our own humanity—that is our humaneness—with allowing these awful things happened to defenseless creatures? Screaming “my body, my choice!” does not settle the issue. It just obscures it in order not to be able to deal with it.