Abortionist Defends Killing Babies in Abortions Up to Birth: It’s “Safe, Necessary Health Care”

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Apr 25, 2019   |   3:00PM   |   Washington, DC

A New York abortionist defended aborting unborn babies up to birth in an attack on President Donald Trump and his pro-life policies this week.

Writing for Newsweek, abortionist Meera Shah accused Trump of spreading “lies and stigma” about abortion, and called the killing of unborn babies “safe, necessary health care.”

“I know the importance of providing my patients with the scientific facts they need to make health care decisions,” Shah wrote. “It would be ethically irresponsible to provide misinformation to patients, and politicians should be held to the same standard.”

But her op-ed misleads on a number of points.

First, she argued that New York’s new late-term abortion law is important for women who have health problems late in their pregnancy and for unborn babies diagnosed with a disability deemed to be incompatible with life.

However, her description does not include the full extent of the law. The “health” exception allows abortions on viable, healthy unborn babies for a broad range of reasons, including the mother’s financial and mental health. It also discriminates against unborn babies with disabilities by allowing them to be aborted for conditions that, with treatment, could allow them to live a long, happy life.

Next, Shah attacked the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Though she did not mention the legislation by name, she argued, “Abortion later in pregnancy is not infanticide, and there is no such thing as so-called post-birth abortion.”

This also obfuscates the issue through empty rhetoric. Babies do survive abortions, and there is a wealth of evidence to support this fact, including personal testimonies from medical workers and abortion survivors themselves, as well as government statistics.

Data from the CDC indicates at least 143 babies were born alive after botched abortions between 2003 and 2014, though there may be more. In 2018, the Canadian Institute of Health Information reported 766 late-term, live-birth abortions over a five-year period. In Western Australia, at least 27 babies survived abortions between 1999 and 2016, according to the state’s health minister.

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Ignoring the evidence, Shah claimed that patients and abortionists alone should be allowed to decide if a viable unborn baby should be aborted or receive medical care if they survive.

“Abortion is safe, necessary health care,” she argued. “We must trust our patients and recognize that their intersectional life experiences bring them to the decision to have an abortion.”

Many doctors disagree. An abortion is never safe, because its very purpose is to intentionally kill an unborn baby. Scientific research proves that life begins at conception, and even some abortionists admit that an abortion kills a human being.

Abortions are not safe for mothers, either, especially late in the pregnancy. Earlier this year, medical leaders representing more than 30,000 doctors said intentionally killing a viable unborn baby in an abortion is never necessary to save a mother’s life.

Shah is right that her patients deserve to know the facts, unclouded by ideology. But her pro-abortion beliefs hide the truth from her patients and thousands of others who read her op-ed.