Hearing on H.R. 4292, the "Born Alive Infant Protection Act of 2000"
July 20, 2000
I am a Registered Nurse who has worked in the Labor & Delivery Department at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, for the past five years. Christ Hospital performs abortions on women in their second or even third trimesters of pregnancy. Sometimes the babies being aborted are healthy, and sometimes they are not.
The method of abortion that Christ Hospital uses is called "induced labor abortion," also now known as "live birth abortion." This type of abortion can be performed different ways, but the goal always is to cause a pregnant woman's cervix to open so that she will deliver a premature baby who dies during the birth process or soon afterward. The way that induced abortion is most often executed at my hospital is by the physician inserting a medication called Cytotec into the birth canal close to the cervix. Cytotec irritates the cervix and stimulates it to open. When this occurs, the small, preterm baby drops out of the uterus, oftentimes alive. It is not uncommon for one of these live aborted babies to linger for an hour or two or even longer. One of them once lived for almost eight hours.
In the event that a baby is aborted alive, he or she receives no medical assessments or care but is only given what my hospital calls "comfort care." "Comfort care" is defined as keeping the baby warm in a blanket until he or she dies, although even this minimal compassion is not always provided. It is not required that these babies be held during their short lives.
One night, a nursing co-worker was taking an aborted Down's Syndrome baby who was born alive to our Soiled Utility Room because his parents did not want to hold him, and she did not have time to hold him. I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone in a Soiled Utility Room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived. He was 21 to 22 weeks old, weighed about ½ pound, and was about 10 inches long. He was too weak to move very much, expending any energy he had trying to breathe. Toward the end he was so quiet that I couldn't tell if he was still alive unless I held him up to the light to see if his heart was still beating through his chest wall. After he was pronounced dead, we folded his little arms across his chest, wrapped him in a tiny shroud, and carried him to the hospital morgue where all of our dead patients are taken.
Other co-workers have told me many upsetting stories about live aborted babies whom they have cared for. I was told about an aborted baby who was supposed to have Spina bifida but was delivered with an intact spine. Another nurse is haunted by the memory of an aborted baby who came out weighing much more than expected ~ almost two pounds. She is haunted because she doesn't know if she made a mistake by not getting that baby medical help. A Support Associate told me about a live aborted baby who was left to die on the counter of the Soiled Utility Room wrapped in a disposable towel. This baby was accidentally thrown into the garbage, and when they later were going through the trash to find the baby, the baby fell out of the towel and on to the floor.
I was recently told about a situation by a nurse who said, "I can't stop thinking about it." She had a patient who was 23+ weeks pregnant, and it did not look as if her baby would be able to continue to live inside of her. The baby was healthy and had up to a 39% chance of survival, according to national statistics. But the patient chose to abort. The baby was born alive. If the mother had wanted everything done for her baby, there would have been a neonatologist, pediatric resident, neonatal nurse, and respiratory therapist present for the delivery, and the baby would have been taken to our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for specialized care. Instead, the only personnel present for this delivery were an obstetrical resident and my co-worker. After delivery the baby, who showed early signs of thriving, was merely wrapped in a blanket and kept in the Labor & Delivery Department until she died 2-1/2 hours later.
Something is very wrong with a legal system that says doctors are mandated to pronounce babies dead but are not mandated to assess babies for life and chances of survival. In other words, our laws currently say that babies have no rights to medical oversight until they are dead. We look the other way and pretend that these babies aren't human while they're alive but human only after they are dead. We issue these babies both birth and death certificates, but it is really only the death certificate that matters. No other children in America are medically abandoned like this.
Abortion is a cancer that is literally killing America. It is killing our children while it is killing our consciences. It began when we took God out of our decision-making and proclaimed that the little beings growing inside of women were "products of conception" and not little girls and little boys. Who should be surprised that we keep pushing the envelope so that now we are aborting these "products of conception" alive? I even work at a hospital named "Christ" that does this very thing! It is beyond me to comprehend that we're doing what we're doing now, and so I can't even imagine what horrible ways we will think of next to torture our children. Please help put an end to this by proclaiming infants as American human being homo sapiens with the same legal and medical rights that you and I big people have. Thank you.
Where is the choice for the child? Where is the voice of the child, who is listening to this cry or silent cry, all in the name of choice or lets say an option for the mother?!!! We no longer value LIFE, HOW SAD!! All human beings just need to see pictures of the result of pregnancy that is terminated either medically necessary, let's say to protect the life of the mother or it should be a part of health curriculums (in pictures and details). The Dept of Education obviously feels that our children need to know about pregnancy, sex and birth control, but yet we fail to adequately show the other side of pregnancies that lets say are unwanted for a reason or another!! This topic is so deeeeeeeeP, but someone such as yourself has given us that information that we either know about or don't even want to think about it, but even if one person's deep thought or conscience has been touched it is so worth it. Thank you for sharing and may the Lord enable you to either continue or to stop, all in the name of those silent cries of the unborn we don't want to talk or think about for whatever reason.
I actually don't have a problem talking about the unborn and I was shown pictures of fetuses at all stages of development. I just don't have the same feelings as you do about all abortions.
Peg, yes, I am troubled by the notion of babies dying alone. And no, I don't think they are all being murdered (and as long as it's legal, I don't think that's the right language to use). I don't think they are all being aborted simply because a woman doesn't want them (there are probably health issues involved and I think of that as different). I think late term abortions for convinience are wrong. I am sure you probably think all abortions are murders, which is fine. I just don't and would appreciate it is people could understand that rather than attack my belief. I don't think a 7 week embryo is the same as a full term baby (and no one can truthfully say that they are the same unless they are extremely uneducated). I understand it has the potential to be a baby, but that's a big difference to me even if it isn't to you. Can you at least understand why I might feel that way even if you disagree?
I don't have a moral problem with early abortions or with later abortions if there are health issues (if you want to discuss that further, I am perfectly willing to explain why I feel that way). I don't think of either as murder. An abortion would not be my choice, but I am glad it's still my choice to make.
I can't tell you strongly enough how much I disagree with the prochoice movements tactics sometimes. Their goals are admirable, but I think they often go about it so wrongly that it's unbelievable to me. One example is the attacking stance they take, and the focus they put on extremely rarely performed procedures. I think they would be much more successful without the rhetoric and by applying realistic plans to decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies and the much more common early abortions.
*Just a warning, I am pro-life, so if you are pro-choice and believe this reply may offend you, please scroll away now.*
I am sick and tired of the abortion advocates to be the one with the louder voice. In 4 out of 5 conversations about abortions I've experienced, it is always the pro-choicer to be more vocal while the pro-life person is too worried about offending someone. Well, I'm not. I find the initial post hideously upsetting and I think it is disgusting the way abortion is so widely accepted and commonplace. On this anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I would like to take the time and reflect on all the wonderful people we have missed out in this world due to a bad decision. As nurses, we are taught that the age of viability is 20 weeks---even at that late of stage what gives these people the right to abort their children?! I mean, preterm babies being thrown in the trash---it's a disgusting state we've tumbled into. I live in Texas and I praise our state system for implementing a new program dealing with abortion. Before you get one, you must wait an obligatory 24hrs, have a sonogram and read literature that shows actual pictures of the fetus at different stages of development ie they're seeing that it is not just "a blob of tissue." Partial abortion is murder. Why is it that there is such a controversial question over euthanasia when we go about aborting people without their consent? We protest in the streets about sending our sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends and relatives to a foreign land to fight for our freedom, but willingly accept killing our own children at home. I apologize for those I may have offended, but as a women's health advocate AND pro-lifer, I have seen and experienced friends and family who have come to me for psychological counseling due to the enormous amount of grief and pain these women carry about them for the rest of their lives for a bad decision. It's hurtful for everyone involved. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and you shouldn't start messing with the Divine plan of things. I'm writing this in rememberance of all those that didn't get a chance, and for all those that did have a chance and were thrown away, still.
Abortion is not an option, it is a consequence of your actions. :stone
Quoting SarahCeleste: As nurses, we are taught that the age of viability is 20 weeks---even at that late of stage what gives these people the right to abort their children?! I mean, preterm babies being thrown in the trash---it's a disgusting state we've tumbled into.
A 20 week fetus is NOT viable.
A 20 week fetus has not developed eyelids. Their bone marrow is not fully developed. Their organs, particularly the intestines and the lungs, are TREMENDOUSLY underdeveloped. They typically weigh approximately 250 grams. Even in the most experimental teaching hospital, the age of viablitity is 22+weeks and a minimum of 400-500 grams. A 20 week fetus delivered lady partslly would be termed a miscarriage. A 20 week fetus is not compatible with life in any way, shape, or form. There is no intervention known to mankind that would save a 20 week fetus outside of its mother's womb.
(This is not directed specifically at anyone; just wanted to clarify!)
If you're curious as to the result of 22 or 23 weekers born prematurely, I implore you to take a look at some of the train wrecks that don't make it out of the hospital, or, even more frightening to me, some of those that do. Come work in the NICU.
I'm not referring to your own child, whose miraculous recovery stunned the entire medical community and who is now a healthy, happy three-year-old. I'm not referring to your neighbor's sister's cousin who had octuplets, all of whom survived, and were granted a free ticket through life from the viewers of 20/20 in the form of a new house and free college educations. I'm asking you to come to the front lines here and take a nice, long gander at some of the "babies" we're being implored to save.
"Mother Nature" has a plan, indeed, and it doesn't include being able to survive outside the uterus before a certain age and stage of development, no matter how much some of us may wish it to be so.
Furthermore, *I* implore every pregnant woman in America to consider this before you demand tearfully, "...do everything you can! Save my baby!" because whether you want to admit this to yourself or not, the end result of what we do could be far worse than allowing them to die as nature/God intended.
Someone here mentioned that they believed in not interfering with the Divine Plan. This is an interesting point, IMO, which segues into a sub-topic of this discussion. The entire reason my job exists is because of interference. The development of high tech infant intensive care is a direct result of someone, somewhere (MD's and our federal government, at the "reqest" of grieving parents in the 1950's and 1960's, and, in one form or another, as far back as circus sideshows in the early 20th century) deciding that no, thousands of years of survival of the fittest was no longer "desirable". The pot of gold at the end of that rainbow was the ability to "interfere" with the natural birth process and "save" pre-term babies who, before modern medical "advancement" would have not been considered viable in the least. Yes, there are so-called miracle babies. Yes, a fair (?) portion of the neonatal population will survive in some state thanks to these advancements (ie, surfactant replacement, HFOV technology, etc.). Yet, I ask you once again to consider those who survive with debilitating consequences- mental and physical both. Those children with profound CP or PVL. Those babies who end up, as a result of our attempts to save their "lives", undergoing multiple surgeries and a nice, long life in the NICU on pressors and steroids and antibiotics, edematous beyond recognition, septic, in a vegetative state, spastic and knowing nothing but physical torture and pain for the four or five or eight or twelve months that they manage to "survive". Can't eat? Let's g-tube 'em. Can't breathe? Trach 'em and let LTC deal with the after-effects.
If you're going to consider whether not abortion is part of your religious beliefs, I politely step aside from the conversation, but if you're going to consider abortion as a humane or atrocious act, I ask (and I am allowed to ask, just as you are allowed your opinions) that you consider all sides of the situation before coming to a conclusion.
I would give up my job in a heartbeat if I knew that another truly unviable baby would never have to suffer the consequences of our "life-saving" interventions again.
The prolifers are worried about offending people? You must not be in the same threads I've been in. I have found most pro-lifers and Christians seem to be very good and making their voices heard on this bb. I have seen more comments about the "child's" rights, the woman's lack of morals and spiritual future, God's feelings on the matter, etc. than I would normally expect, not to mention questionning how any person could possibly feel differently than them, unless they are crazy or stupid or evil.
Hey, girlfriend (or am I making an unwarranted gender assumption -- sorry!), once again (all) your posts on this thread are right on the money. You save me lots of time and effort -- I would have to write MANY more looong posts if you didn't already say everything I was going to say!
I have no problem with people sincerely feeling that abortion is wrong. I just have a problem with them attempting to force their personal view on people who don't agree. If you object to abortion, feel free not to have one! But don't try to make such personal, private decisions about *other* people's lives. We live in a diverse, pluralistic society with people of many views and beliefs, not a theocracy ...
What I never understand (and I'm asking this seriously, not to be ugly -- maybe someone out there can explain it to me) is, how come the pro-life people are all whipped up about abortion clinics and some woman who's caught in a bad situation and feels like the best choice she can make is to terminate a pregnancy, but no one is picketing or bombing the IVF clinics???? All these IVF procedures involve creating many fertilized embryos (or, "pre-born children," as so many of the pro-life folks seem to like to refer to embryos and fetuses), KNOWING that only a few will be implanted and the remainder will end up being destroyed sooner or later. If you sincerely believe that every fertilized embryo is a precious human life that must be protected, isn't that just as bad (if not worse!) than a "regular" abortion?
I'm thinking about this today because the new issue of Newsweek has the cover story about companies now offering people the option (for $$$$$$, of course!) of selecting the sex of their child. Some of the technology involves sorting sperm so that you make sure the ovum is fertilized by X-chromosome sperm. But, the other technique is the standard IVF with the added step of sexing the embryos and making sure that the right sex embryo is implanted. The couple highlighted in the article wants a girl, so 13 (if I'm remembering correctly -- it was either 12 or 13) fertilized embryos were produced and a female one was implanted. Well, that means that roughly a dozen "pre-born children" are going to end up in the trash at some point -- why don't I hear the pro-life community objecting to that? I repeat, I'm not trying to be ugly or provocative, I just truly don't understand why there seems to be a distinction made. Can anyone here explain that?
Just because something is legal does not make it moral. Just because something is legal does not mean that we should not crusade to stop the atrocities.
I will liken abortion to concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Those were legal. They were also crimes against humanity[/b] as is abortion.
I have no problem with premies that are not treated aggressively and allowed to die with dignity and peace. I don't work in a NICU so I can't imagine how hard it would be to see these little ones with tubes hanging out all over and know that they will have no chance for a normal life. I don't know how hard it is to try and gently and kindly tell the parents of these little ones the pros and cons of aggressive treatment and convince them to make a realistic and compassionate decision.
Sometimes I think the medical community has progressed too far with too many ways to save someone that should be allowed to die peacefully. I think that spans to all age groups too. I have seen too many patients come into ER coded or near coded that are treated aggressively because the family can't or won't let go and let the patient die peacefully.
That said, I don't agree with abortions at any stage; but I just can't understand aborting a child that is less than perfect. Aborting because they are going to be Down's or a dwarf? How sick is that? To me, if you are going to choose to get pregnant then you should be prepared to face the whatever you're given by God.
Ok, ok, I know that there are circumstances when you don't necessarily choose to get pregnant (i.e. rape). I have conflicted emotions about this.
LOL elkpark! I had to laugh because you said what I have always thought: if you are against abortions, don't have one. I also apreciate how people may feel against abortion, but I don't understand why they can't see the other side, even if they disagree. We are not all religious. I have seen so many unwanted children and unfit parents that I hope abortion remains legal.
I don't know why no one cares about the IVF issue or why people don't protest women using birth control like depo, which can result in the expulsion of a fertilized egg.
The prolifers are worried about offending people? You must not be in the same threads I've been in. I have found most pro-lifers and Christians seem to be very good and making their voices heard on this bb. I have seen more comments about the "child's" rights, the woman's lack of morals and spiritual future, God's feelings on the matter, etc. than I would normally expect, not to mention questionning how any person could possibly feel differently than them, unless they are crazy or stupid or evil.
We protest in the streets about sending our sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends and relatives to a foreign land to fight for our freedom, but willingly accept killing our own children at home. I apologize for those I may have offended, but as a women's health advocate AND pro-lifer, I have seen and experienced friends and family who have come to me for psychological counseling due to the enormous amount of grief and pain these women carry about them for the rest of their lives for a bad decision. It's hurtful for everyone involved. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and you shouldn't start messing with the Divine plan of things. I'm writing this in rememberance of all those that didn't get a chance, and for all those that did have a chance and were thrown away, still. 
ilovetheelderly
23 Posts
Where is the choice for the child? Where is the voice of the child, who is listening to this cry or silent cry, all in the name of choice or lets say an option for the mother?!!! We no longer value LIFE, HOW SAD!! All human beings just need to see pictures of the result of pregnancy that is terminated either medically necessary, let's say to protect the life of the mother or it should be a part of health curriculums (in pictures and details). The Dept of Education obviously feels that our children need to know about pregnancy, sex and birth control, but yet we fail to adequately show the other side of pregnancies that lets say are unwanted for a reason or another!! This topic is so deeeeeeeeP, but someone such as yourself has given us that information that we either know about or don't even want to think about it, but even if one person's deep thought or conscience has been touched it is so worth it. Thank you for sharing and may the Lord enable you to either continue or to stop, all in the name of those silent cries of the unborn we don't want to talk or think about for whatever reason.