‘Happy to comfort babies born alive after abortion’, midwife tells inquiry

A Queensland midwife has reflected on her experience of babies being left to die following an abortion, saying they should have the same right to care as any other human being.

Clinical midwife Louise Adsett.

An Australian midwife has spoken publicly for the first time about her experiences of babies being born alive following abortions and, in some cases, surviving for up to five hours before dying after gasping for air and fighting to stay alive.

Louise Adsett, a clinical midwife who has worked in maternity and birthing units for about 14 years, told a parliamentary hearing in Queensland that some babies born alive after an abortion were never held by their parents but instead placed in witches hats, taken out of the room and left to die.

Ms Adsett, who works at a public hospital south of Brisbane, was providing evidence to a Queensland parliamentary inquiry into the Termination of Pregnancy (Live Births) Amendment Bill 2024 introduced by Robbie Katter aimed at enshrining legislated protections for babies born as a result of a termination of pregnancy procedure.

In an emotional statement to the hearing, Ms Adsett said some midwives were distressed because they were “unable to provide any medical care for the baby” but were “limited to providing comfort care only, which is merely wrapping and holding the baby”.

“To give you a first example, a mother made a decision to abort a baby at 21-plus weeks’ gestation. The process began in the morning with misoprostol given throughout the day. The process took all day, and the baby was only delivered during the early hours of a night shift where skeleton staff was on duty,” Ms Adsett told the inquiry.

“This baby moved vigorously, gasped for breath and had a palpable heart rate to make it clear this baby was alive. It was over 400 grams, but the baby was a good weight.

“The parents of this baby did not desire to see or hold this baby. Midwives and doctors were left holding this little life while they continued to provide cares for other women who were birthing and welcoming their babies into the world.

“This baby boy fought for his life for five hours before taking his final breath. This is not an uncommon occurrence.”

Ms Adsett told the inquiry that she was a “conscientious objector when it comes to providing care for women aborting their babies”, but said she was “happy to make myself available to hold a baby who was born alive after an abortion”.

“These babies deserve better. They deserve to have the same rights that all of us human beings have,” she said.

Ms Adsett was asked by the Queensland director of the Australian Christian Lobby, Rob Norman, to appear at the inquiry after she made contact with the group more than six months ago to raise awareness of the issue of babies born alive after abortions. She holds no formal staff position with the ACL, but has recently undertaken some volunteer work for it.

While Mr Katter’s bill addresses a rare aspect of abortion, it is not intended to create a barrier to it. It is instead focused on the medical care provided to a baby following an abortion.

Under the bill, the duty of a registered health practitioner to provide medical care and treatment to a person born as a result of a termination would be “no different” from their duty to anybody else.

This means babies would be given care allowing them to survive where possible, while babies unable to survive would instead be given palliative care.

In her submission to the inquiry, University of Adelaide law professor Joanna Howe noted there had been 328 babies born alive and left to die in Queensland between 2010 and 2020.

Professor Howe said the bill would bring Queensland into line with “recent best-practice reform in South Australia and New South Wales, which provides for equal treatment to all children born alive in those jurisdictions irrespective of the circumstances of their birth”.