Nov. 7th, 1979.

NEWS RELEASE

"We are shocked and dismayed by the evidence that experimentation is being carried out on babies being delivered by hysterotomy, a method of abortion, here in Winnipeg," stated League for Life president Anna Desilets. According to articles obtained from the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 1973, 1974, 1975, experiments were carried out on babies ranging in age from 10 to 25 weeks from the time of conception. The babies were taken "without delay" and subjected to heart puncture to obtain blood samples and then dissected to remove various glands, including the adrenals, ovaries, testes and pituitary.

"It is a fact," said Mrs. Desilets, "that babies aborted by hysterotomy are born alive and live for varying lengths of time depending on their age and development". This experimentation has been carried out despite tire fact that medicine has the ability to save many babies born prematurely, as early as twenty weeks after conception.

In each of the experimental studies(1) it is reported that tissue was obtained from "specimens" (babies),"immediately after hysterotomy (performed because of gynesocial indications on otherwise healthy pregnant women)" Because such experimentation raises very serious questions, the League for Life will seek immediate reaction from the Attorney General of Manitoba, from the Minister of Health, the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the administrators of the Health Sciences Centre.

The following are some of the questions raised by the evidence supplied by these studies:

(1) Studies on Human Sexual Development Clinical Journal of Endocrinology & Metabolism.

1. As these experiments were done "without delay" following delivery by hysterotomy, it is cleat these babies were &live. What ethical and medical obligations do doctors and nurses have when an abortion procedure delivers a living child? Was it the experimental procedure which caused the death of many of these babies?

2. The Vital Statistics Act requires in the case of babies born after 20 weeks gestation, that a birth certificate/certificate of stillbirth, or a death certificate be issued after delivery. Were such certificates issued for those babies' aborted alive after 20 weeks?

3. The Criminal Code of Canada permits abortion only when a pregnancy "would or would be likely to endanger ... the life or health" of the mother. Yet these studies clearly indicate the women who were aborted were "healthy pregnant women". Have the doctors who perform these abortions broken the law? How is the newest medical euphemism "gynesocial indications" defined?

4. Was informed consent obtained from the women undergoing these abortions? Were they told their aborted babies were going to be used for experimental purposes?

A stark exists today within society and therefore within the practice of medicine. On the one hand we have a growing number of intensive care nurseries in hospitals across this country in which vast amounts of money, technology and medical expertise are mobilized every day in efforts to save babies born prematurely at 20, 22 and 24 weeks. At the same time, often within the same hospital, babies of the same age are being aborted and subject to the abhorrent experiments outlined in these papers.