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BRITISH COLUMBIA, April 10, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While some were incredulous last December when Statistics Canada confirmed that 491 babies were left to die after being born alive during failed abortions, new research is showing that late-term abortions resulting in both stillbirths and live births are steadily on the rise.

Peer reviewed research published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that the “overall rate of pregnancy terminations, whether resulting in a stillbirth or a live birth” increased in B.C. by 133 percent in less than a decade. 

The report, titled Determinants of increases in stillbirth rates from 2000 to 2010, did not mention if any of the aborted babies born alive survived, or if they were left to die. 

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Researchers decided to undertake the study after noticing that after decades of decline, stillbirth rates suddenly began to skyrocket across the country. They examined data from B.C. in an attempt to explain what they called an “unexpected phenomenon” for modern obstetrics, which has as one of its chief goals the prevention of stillbirth through early intervention.

Researchers called the 31 percent increase in B.C.’s stillbirth rates in the last decade “disquieting” given “developments in fetal surveillance techniques, increased monitoring of high-risk pregnancies and simultaneous increases in obstetric intervention.”

What researchers discovered was that late-term abortions performed past 20 weeks gestation were responsible for the increase in the stillbirth rate.

In Canada, “stillbirth” is defined to include all babies who have died with a birth weight of at least 500 grams (1.1 pound) or with a gestational age at delivery of at least 20 weeks, “irrespective of the timing of the baby’s death or whether the death followed an abortion,” the report states. 

According to the research, a total of 461,083 live births and 3,991 stillbirths were registered in B.C. between 2000 and 2010. While the rate of stillbirths due to natural causes was found to decrease non-significantly during this period, the rate of stillbirths due to abortion was found to increase significantly. 

Researchers concluded that a rise in late-term abortions of babies 20 weeks and older weighing 500 grams (1.1 pound) or more was responsible for the “increases observed in stillbirth rates”. 

Jonathon Van Maren, communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR), told LifeSiteNews.com that if people are unaware that late-term abortions are happening in Canada, then they are “intentionally unaware.” 

“The information is readily available to anyone who spends more than 15 minutes googling it.” 

Van Maren said that while it is true that most Canadian doctors will not perform late-term abortions, there are nonetheless a significant number who will. He said that for such doctors, the Canadian Medical Association guidelines on abortion are “just guidelines” and that there is “nothing stopping any doctor from aborting a baby at late stages.” 

Dr. Fraser Fellows, a London-area late-term abortionist, has admitted to performing abortions up to 23 weeks and six days. During a 2011 debate with CCBR’s Stephanie Gray, Fellows admitted that graphic video footage of a real abortion that showed a baby about to exit the birth canal, but who was dangling limply with blood pulsing from his neck, was an accurate reflection of what he did during a late-term abortion. 

“Once you devalue human life, and say that it’s not worth anything at some arbitrary point, it’s eventually not going to be worth anything at all, ever,” said Van Maren. 

In the report, researchers also found that the increased rate of late-term abortions went hand-in-hand with a decrease in “congenital anomalies among live-born infants”. 

“Infant deaths and late fetal deaths due to serious congenital anomalies are increasingly being replaced by pregnancy terminations before 24 weeks’ gestation following prenatal diagnosis,” the report states. 

Suzanne Fortin, a pro-life activist and blogger at Big Blue Wave, pointed out the irony in the study that an increase in abortion was found to have reduced the number of babies born with severe congenital anomalies. 

The rates of babies born with severe problems went down, she pointed out, “because those children were killed.” 

Van Maren called it “absolutely disgusting” that Canadian parents are willing to have their pre-born children killed on the advice of doctors who have discriminated against them for being “not quite good enough”. 

“Eugenics is very very widespread, but we just call it something different,” he said. 

At the end of the report, the researchers suggest that soaring stillbirth rates can be reigned in if Canadian requirements for reporting baby deaths allows for a distinction to be made between “stillbirths that occur spontaneously and those that follow pregnancy termination for serious congenital anomalies or other reasons.”