What is the goal of an abortion? Is it to end a pregnancy or kill a baby?

This is not a trick question. While a completed abortion always ends a pregnancy, in a surprising number of cases, it does not always kill a child. In spite of an abortionist’s deadliest efforts, sometimes a baby escapes and emerges from the womb still living. What happens next to that child – who is now breathing air and moving his or her arms and legs – most clearly exposes the inhumanity of the abortion industry in America today.

Across the nation, an untold number of children born after an abortion are left to die or are brutally murdered inside “medical” facilities. That’s because to some abortionists, death must be delivered no matter what. They remind us that there really is no distinction between abortion and infanticide.

A bill now pending in Congress, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 4712), aims to bring some measure of protection to the newborns who manage to live through abortions. It merely states that if a baby survives an abortion, he or she is entitled to the level of care received by any other baby of a similar age, no matter how delivered. Further, it establishes penalties if a health professional doesn’t provide such care.

“Pro-choice” advocates say such a bill is unnecessary. They dismiss the fact that babies who survive abortions are left, or made, to die. They call it a myth. Well, let’s examine the evidence.

In 2013, State Rep. Cary Pigman, R-Fla., sponsored legislation to provide a standard of care for abortion-surviving babies. He noted at a hearing on his bill that in 2010, 1,270 babies in the U.S. were reported to have lived after an abortion and subsequently died. Pigman emphasized that this was the number of such babies whose demise was reported. Further, we don’t know how many of them were denied life-saving care.

In 2015, 10 babies in three states where such statistics are kept (Florida, Minnesota, and Michigan) lived after having been aborted.

In Canada, official government records show that between the years 2000 and 2009, 491 babies were aborted alive and left to die.

Not all abortion survivors die by neglect, however.

The most notorious example of an abortionist killing abortion-surviving babies, of course, is Kermit Gosnell. Now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in a Pennsylvania state prison, Gosnell was convicted of murdering aborted-alive babies by personally or having an underling “snip” their spinal cords. Employees of the abortionist testified that there were hundreds of such cases. That Gosnell was convicted of only three babies’ deaths was due to the physical deterioration of the other children’s bodies, making it difficult for the medical examiner to prove that they were born alive.

That babies who survived Gosnell’s abortions were living, though, is undisputed according to eyewitness testimony. In one case, a clinic employee saw an aborted baby swimming in a toilet, “trying to get out.” Another worker took the child and severed its neck.

Appalling as the Gosnell case is, it’s apparently not isolated. In my own ministry to former abortion clinic workers, I've heard the same thing repeatedly. At a Houston abortionist’s office, some I have spoken to have reported – privately and publicly – that spines were severed Gosnell-style, “soft spots” in children’s skulls were stabbed, and heads were just twisted off.

Whether by acts of commission or omission, though, there are babies who fight to live and are not given any help. Their survival really depends on those who are present at the time of birth.

Take, for example, the statements of two Planned Parenthood officials.

In a videotaped exchange with undercover reporters, a Planned Parenthood abortionist notes that under Arizona law, if an aborted child shows signs of life, that baby is supposed to be transported to a hospital. When asked if there were a standard procedure she used for verifying signs of life, the abortionist replied, “Well, the thing is, I mean the key is, you need to pay attention to who’s in the room, right?”

A Florida Planned Parenthood lobbyist, testifying against Pigman’s bill to protect babies aborted alive, was asked by a legislator what would happen at a Planned Parenthood clinic if a baby were to survive an abortion. The lobbyist replied, “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, the family, and the physician.” In other words, even born babies can be killed. It just depends on “who’s in the room, right?”

Gianna Jessen and Melissa Ohden are grateful that when they survived abortions, there was someone in the room who took care of them. Both women were born following failed abortions. Both were adopted and, upon learning of the circumstances of their births, became pro-life advocates. Both have testified before Congress and spoken around the world on behalf of the unborn.

Jessen, Ohden, and all the members of the Abortion Survivors Network are living proof that sometimes abortion fails, and life wins. Now, let’s now see how many members of Congress understand that message.

Father Frank Pavone (@frfrankpavone) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is the national director of Priests for Life.

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