Paul Tuns:

Campaign Life Coalition has written a letter to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duheme asking the police to investigate more than 1500 deaths of babies born alive following a botched abortion, who were then left to die.

CLC says that data obtained from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information show that at least 1500 preborn babies survived attempted abortions. Patricia Maloney, in her Run with Life blog, says that there were 149 “tragic live-born deaths from abortion” in 2021-2022 alone.

Jeff Gunnarson, national president of CLC, wrote Duheme urging the RCMP to “investigate the deaths of over 1500 babies in Canada who have allegedly been born alive after a failed abortion, and then been left to die after being denied their legal right to life-saving medical care.”

Gunnarson said “the exact details of what happened to these babies after they were born following a failed abortion and how they died remain unknown,” which is why the RCMP must investigate. The “only evidence of their short existence in this world is known through health system codes such as ‘P96.4’ and the words “Termination of pregnancy, affecting fetus and newborns.”

Section 223(1) of the Criminal Code states a “child becomes a human being … when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother.” CLC said “babies born after a failed abortion are ‘human beings’,” according to Canadian law and are “therefore owed certain legal rights, including the ‘right to life, liberty, and security of the person,” guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Gunnarson said the Criminal Code states a “person commits homicide when he causes injury to a child before or during its birth as a result of which the child dies after becoming a human being.” Gunnarson said if the babies who survived failed abortions “are in any way hastened to their deaths by the attending abortionist, it could be a clear case of first-degree murder.”

Gunnarson said “Canadians deserve answers regarding what is happening to these babies.”

CLC told the RCMP “you have the authority to initiate a criminal investigation into the deaths of these babies born alive after abortions” and “that it is essential for a functioning society that law enforcement agencies uphold the principles of justice for all” and “that if crimes have been committed, the criminals are held accountable for their actions.” Gunnarson argued that failure to pursue the issue “undermines public trust in the justice system” and “erodes the very foundation of a fair and equitable society.”

Accompanying the letter was a petition signed by 4700 Canadians requesting the RCMP investigate the deaths of babies who survived failed abortions. The petition states, “We urge the RCMP to investigate these suspicious deaths and uncover the truth. The authority to conduct this investigation lies with the RCMP, and it is crucial that this matter be addressed promptly. Canadians deserve answers regarding what is happening to these vulnerable lives, and justice demands that those responsible of any crimes be held accountable for their actions.”

CLC has made similar requests in the past, including last June. In 2011, three Conservative MPs – Leon Benoit, Wladyslaw Lizon, and Maurice Vellacott – asked then RCMP commissioner Rob Paulson to investigate 690 cases of infants born-alive following a failed abortion being left to die. Paulson said there was a lack of “relevant information or substantive facts about a specific crime” to warrant an investigation.

Maloney wrote in her blog, “Hopefully Commissioner Mike Duheme will do the right thing and finally investigate these horrific deaths.”