A 30-week-old “viable” baby named Ronnie has died after a Yorkshire hospital gave his mother an abortion drug after his gestation age was wrongly calculated to be 12 weeks.

An inquest has been held after a mother from East Yorkshire aborted her baby boy, mistakenly believing that he was 12 weeks old when he was 30 weeks.

After being given an abortion drug called mifepristone, the mother was shocked when she gave birth to a baby in a hospital toilet. The baby was still alive and was rushed to a maternity unit, where he later died on 30 October last year.

The circumstances of Ronnie’s death have since been investigated by an independent medical practitioner, who concluded that there had been “too much to do” for overloaded staff at the hospital.

While Ronnie was born prematurely, in normal circumstances a baby born at his stage of gestation would have had a 95% chance of survival.

Senior Coroner Professor Paul Marks, hearing the case, confirmed the predominant cause of death to be brain damage after being “born alive… after a legal termination of pregnancy”. Ronnie was a “viable” baby, he said, but “his condition deteriorated relentlessly”.

SPUC comment

A SPUC spokesperson said: “This horrific blunder reveals a cavalier and shocking attitude towards unborn babies.

“A ‘viable’ baby has been killed because, it has been claimed, overworked staff had ‘too much to do’.

“While medical staff subsequently did their best to save Ronnie’s life, the endemic lack of concern for his wellbeing that is central to abortion ideology meant that efforts to save him were in vain.

“Important questions must be asked here. How could a 30-week-old baby be said to be 12 weeks? What is going on inside our hospitals? Most importantly, why is it deemed acceptable to kill unborn babies even at 12 weeks or less?”

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