{"id":54888,"date":"2014-10-21T08:07:30","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T12:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=54888"},"modified":"2014-10-21T18:54:16","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T22:54:16","slug":"small-targets-how-abortion-survivors-are-being-put-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/small-targets-how-abortion-survivors-are-being-put-to-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Targets: How abortion survivors are being put to death"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Council of Europe<\/a> is an international human rights body comprised of 47 nations. In order to join, a country must sign a treaty known as the European Convention On Human Rights<\/a>. Protocol 6 of that treaty prohibits signatories from using the death penalty… on criminals. Letting a newborn die is apparently fine.<\/p>\n

On January 31, Angel Pintado<\/a>, a Spanish member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,\u00a0 submitted a question<\/a> to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Mr. Pintado was curious as to “what specific steps will the Committee of Ministers take in order to guarantee that fetuses who survive abortions are not deprived of the medical treatment that they are entitled to \u2013 as human persons born alive \u2013 according to the European Convention on Human Rights?” The answer<\/a> was less than inspiring.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Deputies instructed the Chair to inform the President of the Parliamentary Assembly that, \u2018owing to a lack of consensus, it has not been possible to adopt a reply to Written Question No. 655 by Mr. Pintado.\u2019\u201d So, although there is a consensus in Europe that the lives of convicted murders should be spared, babies who survive botched abortions aren’t seen as quite so deserving.<\/p>\n

That’s also true in Canada: between 2000 and 2009, 491 newborns were left to die<\/a>. In Britain, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has advocated that lethal injection<\/a> should be used to prevent aborted babies from surviving. Whereas UK-based anti-death penalty groups have decried<\/a> the use of lethal injection on American convicts, its use on British children doesn’t seem to generate as much concern.<\/p>\n

This problem exists in the US as well. Although Gianna Jessen<\/a> and Melissa Ohden <\/a>both survived late-term abortions, others haven’t been so fortunate.\u00a0 Dr. Kermit Gosnell was convicted last year of murdering newborns<\/a> in his Philadelphia clinic.<\/p>\n

Live Action News contributor\u00a0Sarah Terzo<\/a> has written about the case of Dr. James Baxter Waddill<\/a>, who was tried for strangling a baby that he had unsuccessfully aborted. Nurse Pat Olivera testified<\/a> that the child was indeed born alive, while pediatrician Ronald J. Cornelson claimed<\/a> to have watched Waddill choke her to death. Charges were ultimately dismissed after two hung juries, but Waddill did choose to settle in a civil suit launched by the child’s mother.<\/p>\n

Sadly, undercover footage shot by Live Action volunteers suggests that this sort of behavior isn’t unusual.<\/p>\n