A BABY boy was born alive after an abortion operation at a Bedfordshire hospital in September. He is now seven weeks old.
But now police are investigating the circumstances of the "abortion" after Life, the anti-a;.)ortion organisation, had alleged that the child was "left to die" and was only taken to the hospital's special care unit after nurses heard his screams.
Police are inquiring into the allegation that the abortion might have been illegal. The pregnancy was supposed to have been only 23 weeks old, but doctors later judged that it was 34 weeks old. Under the 1967 Abortion Act, any abortion carried out on a foetus known to be more than 28 weeks old is illegal.
According to Professor John Scarisbrick, chairman of Life, the abortion was carried out on a 23-year-old woman, and the baby was then wrapped in a sheet and taken to a sluice room "where the rubbish and debris was put". Only after nurses had heard the baby's cries and protested was the baby taken. to the special care unit, he said.
The boy has been christened Timothy John by the nurses. Mr Timothy Hunt, the hospital administrator, said that the hospital was co-operating with the police inquiry, and added: "The baby is fit and well, even though he is in the special unit."