A baby born alive after an unsuccessful late-term abortion was “left gasping without medical assistance for two hours before dying” at a hospital in New Zealand.

The incident was witnessed by a healthcare student who has since been left traumatised from the ordeal.

“Normally a late-term abortion is performed on babies that have medical issues, but this baby was completely healthy – so instead of using an infanticide injection to stop the heart from beating before expelling the baby from the womb, the mother was just induced”, she said.

Because the baby’s life was not ended before birth using feticide, it was more likely that, at 21 weeks, the baby would survive the induction. The student said this is not uncommon and “in these situations, the baby is just left to die”.

“We wouldn’t do that to an animal. I was horrified” she said.