Hundreds of babies are documented to have survived abortions… and they’re vastly underreported

Instances of babies who survived failed abortion attempts are likely occurring more often than what has been recently reported, as there are no federal abortion reporting requirements.

Only a handful of states require cases of abortion survivors to be documented, and Live Action News found 220 cases of abortion survivors reported from 1999-2023 in just eight states. Because of a lack of consistent reporting, that number is almost certainly substantially higher.

“Only eight states have publicly reported or responded to requests for statistics on children marked for abortion who were born alive during abortion procedures (Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Texas),” the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) reported.

In these states alone, Live Action News has documented that between 2020 and 2023 (reported thus far), nearly 70 incidents of babies born alive after an abortion were reported in just four states (Arizona, Florida, Minnesota and Texas), while over 90 incidents were reported between 2015 and 2019 in five states (Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, and Texas). The remaining 60 cases (between 1999 and 2014), all came from the State of Michigan, which has published records available going back several years.

Arizona 

In 2017, according to a Department of Health Services (ADHS), Arizona began “requiring any physician performing an abortion and any additional physician in attendance to ensure that all available means and medical skills are used to promote, preserve, and maintain the life of a fetus or embryo delivered alive.” Additionally, the physician committing the abortion was “required to document and report… the measures performed to maintain the life of such fetus or embryo.”

Since that time, 55 abortion reports involving “fetus or embryo delivered alive” were submitted to ADHS “along with the physician’s statement documenting the measures taken to preserve the life of the fetus or embryo” between 2017 and 2021 (the latest published report as of today). The data showed that 10 infants were reported as born alive during abortions in 2017, 12 in 2018, 15 in 2019, and 9 in both 2020 and 2021.

The video below from a Center for Medical Progress (CMP) investigation, captures abortionist DeShawn Taylor, who commits abortions at Planned Parenthood in Arizona, complaining about a law requiring any fetus with signs of life after an abortion to be “transported.”

She then suggests that if/when this occurs, “you need to pay attention to who’s in the room, right? Because the thing is, the law states you’re not supposed to do any maneuvers after the fact to try to cause [fetal] demise. So it’s really tricky… It’s a mess.”

Planned Parenthood Abortionist: "Pay Attention to Who's In the Room" to Deal With Infants Born Alive

Florida

Online reports (“ITOP Report of Infants Born Alive”) are published by Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) from data provided to the state by abortion providers. According to a spokesperson from the AHCA, ITOP stands for “Induced Termination of Pregnancy.”

Since 2013, there have been at least 60 reported incidents of born alive infants following an attempted abortion in Florida, with infant born-alive cases in Florida doubling in recent years.

The data revealed that in 2022, there were a shocking 16 cases of infants born alive after an abortion, with 10 cases recorded so far in 2023. That number is likely to increase, as data can take months to compile. Previous years included four born alive reports in 2021, seven in 2020, two in 2019, one in 2018, and 11 in 2017. As Live Action News previously documented, there were no recorded born-alive incidents reported in 2016 or 2013, but there were four abortion survivors recorded in 2015.

Additional documented incidents date further back.

In 2006, the A Gyn Diagnostic Center in Hialeah, owned by Belkis Gonzalez, came under investigation after an anonymous caller told police that staffers threw a baby on the roof of the building after the child was born alive in the facility’s waiting room. The baby’s 18-year-old mother went to the facility believing she was 23 weeks pregnant, and while waiting for abortionist Pierre Jean-Jacques Renelique to arrive, the woman delivered her baby girl, who eventually died an excruciating death.

In an arrest affidavit, owner Gonzalez testified that she “observed the infant moving and making noises for approximately five minutes.”

Hialeah abortion survivor murderer arrested

Years ago, Baby Rowan was allegedly born-alive after a late-term abortion at the EPOC facility. A copy of the 911 call placed at the time can be heard below here. The caller, a friend of the woman, can be heard telling operators, “They want the baby to die…. They were wanting her to leave it in the toilet and just let it die.”

Michigan

There have been 61 reported incidents of “Induced Abortions by Evidence of Life” published by the State of Michigan in past years, dating as far back as 1999:

• 1999 – 7

• 2000 – 18

• 2001 – 4

• 2002 – 3

• 2003 – 3

• 2004 – 4

• 2005 – 5

• 2006 – 2

• 2007 – 3

• 2008 – 1

• 2009 – 1

• 2010 – 1

The reports do not indicate why so many abortion survivors were reported in 1999 (7) and 2000 (18), compared to the following years but the data does reveal that between 2000 and 2015, cases of born-alive infants decreased over 94% with none being reported in recent years.

Minnesota

The 2015 Minnesota Legislature enacted the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act” which (among other protections) amended abortion reporting to require that abortion providers “add whether an abortion results in a born alive infant” to reports they submit to the Minnesota Department of Health.

In recent years, five born-alive infants were reported in 2015, five in 2016, three in 2017, three in 2018, three in 2019, and five in 2021, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

But, going forward, this information will no longer be available due to a new law which went into effect in 2023, changing the requirement to essentially hide from the public the fate of infants who survive abortion.

Texas

Texas has reported information on babies who survive abortions with the rest of its complication data since 2013, reported CLI. A total of 20 born-alive incidents have been reported between 2013 and 2023 (so far).

According to CLI, “In 2018, five babies were reported to have been born alive during abortions, with four of them reported after the improvements to Texas’ complication reporting went into effect. In 2019, Texas enacted a new law to strengthen protections for babies who survive abortions, and six born-alive babies were reported. The Texas Attorney General’s Office announced that it is investigating these abortion survivors.”

The State also documented one born-alive case in 2021 with two babies born alive recorded in 2022. So far for 2023, the state of Texas has documented that out of the 34 abortions recorded so far on state residents, six babies were born alive — nearly 18%.

The report does not give any indication why there are born-alive cases in a state where abortion is essentially banned. The state report also does not indicate whether any of these cases involved women who traveled outside Texas to obtain the abortion and then delivered the baby inside the state. It also does not indicate whether the woman obtain abortion pills from bad actors who sold them later than the approved Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limit of 10 weeks, when the chance of a failed abortion increases substantially.

In the video below, allegations are made by former staffers at a Houston abortion facility, graphically detailing how babies who survived abortions were allegedly killed.

That facility was operated by abortionist Douglas Karpen, (appropriately dubbed the “Texas Gosnell”). Deborah Edge, who once worked for Karpen, recently wrote, “I was the doctor’s right hand person in the operating room and just like those employees of Dr. Gosnell, I saw the abortionist puncture the soft spot in the baby’s head or snip its neck if it was delivered alive.”

Abortion Clinic Employees -- "Babies born alive daily."

Other States

While Indiana’s abortion reporting claims it could contain data on a “fetus delivered alive,” it notes that this information is “not required to answer,” and is likely the reason why Live Action News was unable to document any reported cases. Likewise, Arkansas showed no reports of babies born alive after abortion between 2019 and 2022.

In 2000, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) began its surveillance activities of Oklahoma’s legally induced terminations of pregnancy (ITOP), also known as legally induced abortions, to include the number of abortions resulting in an infant born alive, but thus far none have been recorded.

Shockingly high survival rates

Past reports published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated “that between 2003 and 2014, at least 143 babies died after being born alive during abortions, and the CDC acknowledges it is very possible that this undercounts the actual number,” CLI reported.

Just 28 of those born-alive cases were recorded in state documents reviewed by Live Action News. This indicates that the hundreds of cases of babies born alive in a handful of states is a very small percentage of what is potentially taking place nationwide.

One study, which examined 15 to 29 week abortions committed between 1989 and 2021 in Quebec, Canada, found that 11.2% (1,541) of abortions led to live births. The study also found that abortions committed between 20 and 24 weeks were “associated with 4.8 times the risk of live birth” compared to those committed between 15 and 19 weeks.

Another study, which examined fetal survival after abortion, concluded that “without feticide between 20 0/7 and 24 0/7 weeks of gestation, the live birth rate was 50.6% (95% CI 44.4-56.8).”

Dreaded Complication

Live Action News has documented multiple examples of babies born alive, once dubbed “the dreaded complication.” These incidents are likely not reflected in the 220 cases previously documented.

As Live Action’s Inhuman investigation showed, abortionists have openly admitted they are willing to let abortion survivors die:

What is Human?

In the early 1970’s, abortionist Kenneth Edelin was found guilty of manslaughter after a baby he aborted via hysterotomy allegedly survived. The verdict was later overturned. Around the same time, Gianna Jessen and Melissa Ohden both survived the abortions meant to kill them. Additional survivors of abortion have been documented at the Abortion Survivors Network (ASN) website.

A three-part series, previously published at Live Action News, detailed experiments conducted on living abortion survivors and found that abortion survivors were kept alive almost a day for experimentation.

In 1989, Pennsylvania abortionist Joseph Melnick was convicted of infanticide after it was proven that he killed a baby who survived an abortion he committed. Hospital staff members where the abortion was committed said that they had detected a heartbeat and saw the baby move and gasp.

In 1993, Ana Rosa Rodriquez was born alive at 32 weeks after an abortionist ripped off one of her arms in a failed abortion in the early 1990s. The abortionist, Abu Hayat was sentenced to prison but was released on parole in 2006.

Former nurse Jill Stanek exposed that babies born alive during abortions in an Illinois hospital were left to die in a soiled utility closet (and later a “comfort room”) where she worked. Emergency physician Dr. Ron Bryce previously described his encounter with a baby born alive after a failed abortion attempt in Texas. Sadly, that infant did not survive.

More recently, Live Action News published a letter from an ER doctor who allegedly witnessed hospital staff leave a baby girl who survived an abortion to die, after the baby “began to cry.”

In 2013, abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted of murder in the deaths of three babies who had survived abortions only to be killed by him following their births — and he was far from alone. Even late-term abortionist Warren Hern has admitted that he had several babies survive abortion attempts. In addition, abortionist LeRoy Carhart once admitted under oath that first trimester babies might be aborted alive and intact.

More shockingly, a Live Action investigation showed abortionist Cesare Santangelo in D.C. admitting that children accidentally born alive during abortions would not receive any medical assistance to survive.

Inhuman: Undercover in America's Late-Term Abortion Industry - Washington, D.C.

A Google review published by an alleged abortion client claims the same facility sent a Hispanic staffer to her hotel, which was “right next door,” after she began to bleed on day one of the three-day procedure. She later delivered the baby, according to the review, but questioned whether the baby boy “was born alive at 27 weeks.” She also wrote, “When I asked questions no one told me anything other than ‘that wasn’t suppose[d] to happen.’”

In 2022, Live Action released undercover investigative footage which showed a separate Washington Surgi-Clinic staff member warning a pregnant woman that her baby could be born alive during her abortion. “You may go into premature labor and deliver the fetus in your hotel,” she explained. “We could just tell you what to do with the remains.”

Editor’s Note, 12/13/23: This post has been updated to add another abortion survivor in Texas.