Premature babies all across the world are being born after just 23 weeks in the womb and surviving. Yet, many abortion facilities in America still will abort healthy unborn babies at this stage and even later — for a price.
Women’s Health Services, an abortion facility in Brookline, Massachusetts, is one of them.
An undercover investigator with Priests for Life and Abortion Free New Mexico recently called the facility posing as a woman who is 22 weeks pregnant. Listen to the call here.
Investigator: “Yeah, do you guys do abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy?”
Receptionist: “We go up to 23 weeks and six days.”
Investigator: “Ok, now is that for any reason? …”
Receptionist: “Yeah, that’s the law. It cuts it off in Massachusetts at 23 weeks and 6 days.”
Investigator: “Ok, I was just wondering if I’m healthy and the baby’s healthy, can I still do it? Is it still, like, an elective procedure?”
Receptionist: “Um, it’s still elective, but again we can’t do it after 23 weeks and 6 days. But if you’re 22, then, yes, it’s elective.”
The abortion facility receptionist told the woman that they charge $3,300 out of pocket for an abortion at that stage.
The call is the 25th in a series of new undercover investigations of the abortion industry. The investigators found numerous abortion facilities across the country that were willing to abort healthy, late-term unborn babies as late as 32 weeks of pregnancy, including facilities in New Jersey, New York, Washington, D.C., New Mexico, Washington state and Florida. Some offered women appointments as early as the next day.
“Late-term abortions are occurring in our country more frequently than most Americans are led to believe,” said Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, and Bud and Tara Shaver of Abortion Free New Mexico in a statement. “This investigation has revealed that late-term abortions are an elective procedure, women do not have to be experiencing health issues and there doesn’t need to be anything abnormal about the baby they are carrying to legally obtain one.”
By 23 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy, unborn babies are viable outside the womb. Some states prohibit abortions starting at 24 weeks because it once was considered the point of viability. However, recent studies indicate premature babies are surviving as early as 22 weeks.
A 2017 Duke University study found that babies born at 23 weeks of pregnancy are surviving outside the womb at a greater rate than ever before. Researchers examined 4,500 babies between 2000 and 2011 and found a “small but significant drop in fatalities for babies born between 23 and 37 weeks gestation,” as well as a decrease in premature babies manifesting neurophysiological problems, the Daily Mail reported.
Then, in the fall, the journal Pediatrics highlighted a baby girl in the United States who survived after being born 21 weeks and 4 days after conception. The girl, who now is 3, is believed to be the youngest premature baby to survive.
Pavone and the Shavers said lawmakers must take action to protect unborn babies based on this new evidence.
“Please contact your U.S. Senator and urge them to vote for the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act so that these babies can be protected from inhumane late term abortions,” they said.
The bill would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks when strong scientific evidence indicates unborn babies can feel pain. As modern technology advances, viability soon could be approaching 20 weeks as well.
LifeNews Note: 23-week-old premature baby shown below.
