Babies born alive during abortions
Federal law has said since 2002 that a baby who is born alive at any stage of development, including after an attempted abortion, is a 'person', 'human being', 'child' and 'individual' in every Act of Congress. Killing a born baby is homicide in every state, and in 2013 Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for killing babies born alive in his clinic. Live births after abortion are uncommon but documented: CDC death-certificate data identified 143 infant deaths from 2003 to 2014 that definitely involved an induced termination, and said this may be an undercount. Few states require these cases to be reported, so no one has a complete national count.
Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002statute
(a) In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the words “person”, “human being”, “child”, and “individual”, shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. (b) As used in this section, the term “born alive”, with respect to a member of the species homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from his or her mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after such expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion. (c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being “born alive” as defined in this section.
The Act is a definitions law: it makes clear that a baby who survives an abortion is a person for every federal statute and regulation, at any gestational age. Subsection (c) is important for honesty: it says nothing about the legal status of the unborn before birth, and the Act itself carries no criminal penalty or required standard of care.
Mortality Records with Mention of International Classification of Diseases-10 code P96.4 (Termination of Pregnancy): United States, 2003-2014statement
Analysis of the text as reported by the cause-of-death certifier show that of 588 deaths with mention of P96.4, 143 (24.3%) could definitively be classified as involving an induced termination. … However, it is possible that this number (143) underestimates the total number of deaths involving induced termination. … In addition, of the 143 deaths involving induced terminations, 97 involved a maternal complication or, one or more congenital anomalies.
These are infant deaths, so every one of the 143 babies was born alive (NCHS notes the mortality data 'only include deaths occurring to those infants born alive'). The age-at-death table on p. C-2: under 10 minutes 25 (17.5%), 10-59 minutes 35 (24.5%), 1-4 hours 68 (47.6%), 5-23 hours 9 (6.3%), 1 day or more 6 (4.2%). So about 42% died within the first hour. The data do not give gestational age, and 97 of 143 involved an anomaly or maternal complication, so many of these babies may not have been able to survive with any care.
Kermit Gosnell: Grand Jury Report (2011) and murder convictions (2013)event
Gosnell had a simple solution for the unwanted babies he delivered: he killed them. He didn’t call it that. He called it “ensuring fetal demise.” The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking scissors into the back of the baby’s neck and cutting the spinal cord. He called that “snipping.”
Quote: Grand Jury Report, p. 4. The report (p. 1) opens: 'This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women.' It says (p. 5) 'there were hundreds of “snippings”', most of which could not be prosecuted because Gosnell destroyed the files. Outcome: on May 13, 2013 a Philadelphia jury convicted Gosnell of three counts of first-degree murder of babies born alive (Babies A, C and D), acquitted him on a fourth first-degree murder count (Baby E), and convicted him of involuntary manslaughter (not the third-degree murder prosecutors sought) in the 2009 death of patient Karnamaya Mongar. The jury also convicted him on 21 of 24 counts of performing abortions past Pennsylvania's 24-week limit and on about 210 counts of violating the 24-hour informed-consent law (CBS: 210 of 226; Inquirer: acquitted on 17 of 227). In exchange for prosecutors not seeking death, he waived his appeals and received three consecutive life sentences without parole (two on May 14, one on May 15, 2013), plus 2½ to 5 years for the Mongar manslaughter. He later pleaded guilty to federal drug charges. CBS Philadelphia reported that he died in custody on March 1, 2026, aged 85. The grand jury also found (p. 13) that no one acted 'because the women in question were poor and of color, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion', and (p. 9) that Pennsylvania stopped inspecting abortion clinics after 1993 for political reasons that were 'not anti-abortion, but pro'.
Second-trimester abortion and risk of live birthpaper
Among 13,777 abortions between 15 and 29 weeks of gestation, 1541 (11.2%) led to live birth. Fetal anomaly was a common indication for termination (48.1%), and most abortions were by labor induction (72.2%). … Feticidal injection reduced the risk of live birth by 57% compared with no injection (risk ratio, 0.43; 95% confidence interval, 0.36-0.51).
A retrospective cohort of hospital second-trimester abortions in Quebec, April 1, 1989 to March 31, 2021. It shows live birth after abortion is not a myth, and is most likely at 20-24 weeks (4.80 times the risk at 15-19 weeks). Limits: Canadian hospital data, mostly labor-induction abortions and nearly half for fetal anomaly, so the 11% rate cannot be applied to US abortions, most of which are first-trimester or by D&E. Lead author: Nathalie Auger (University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre).
Which states require reporting of babies born alive after abortion (2019)statement
Six states require some reporting on abortions that result in a baby born alive: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas.
FactCheck.org (2019) also summarised state data: Minnesota 3 born alive of 10,177 abortions in 2017; Arizona 10 reports from August to December 2017; Florida 6 of 70,083 in 2018; Oklahoma and Texas reported none in the years available. The Minnesota primary report confirms: 'For the calendar year of January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017, three (3) abortion procedures resulting in a born-alive infant were reported.' In one case no measures were taken (APGAR 1/1), in one comfort care was given as planned, and in one no steps to preserve life were reported; none survived. More states may have added reporting laws since 2019 (not verified here).