Posted on 08/24/2004 2:13:22 AM PDT by cpforlife.org
OPINION -- When President Bush signed the Born Alive Infants Protection Act into law two years ago this month, I thought the practice of aborting babies alive would end.
It hasn’t.
Because I travel the country and speak about my experience as a nurse who witnessed babies being aborted alive, I am occasionally approached by nurses who relate similar stories.
And when I am interviewed on the radio, nurses will invariably call in and tell about them, too. Kentucky, California, Pennsylvania, everywhere.
The following came to me via email from a nurse just a few months ago. The hospital where this took place is in the Columbus, Ohio, area:
A woman without prenatal care arrived at the hospital at 22 weeks [gestation] with twins. She had no insurance. On assessment she was found to have a heart problem and very high blood pressure. She was seen by our high-risk perinatologist, who recommended delivery for her health. She was placed on I.V. Magnesium Sulfate and monitored. In the morning, while I was caring for her, her blood pressures were stable, and her life did not seem in imminent danger. I even discussed the possibility of turning the Mag off with her doctor.
The residents then went in to her room. I remember one of them saying, “We can’t make her out as some sort of monster because she does not want these babies.” I believe if the patient had wanted the babies, every effort would have been made to keep her pregnant until they were viable.
However, since this was an unwanted pregnancy and “her life was in danger,” approval was given to induce labor. The twins were born. No measures were made to resuscitate the infants. They were not assessed by anyone but the RN caring for the mother. They died shortly afterward. The weights were not taken until the babies died. It was absolutely horrible.
A nurse in Florida sent this to me:
I came to work one morning to find myself assigned to a 25-week termination. At 25 weeks, a baby’s organs are all formed, the eyelids open, and the baby has the potential for survival outside the mother. This baby was being aborted because he had a genetic abnormality called Trisomy 18. When I said I didn’t want to do this, I was told I had a responsibility to care for the patient.
I was called to the room by my patient when she felt the baby coming. The obstetrician was not in the hospital.
The baby delivered quickly, totally encased in the amniotic fluid-filled sac. When I broke the bag of water, the baby began breathing. I never expected the baby to survive, and I immediately panicked, because everything in me said I needed to resuscitate this baby.
I called the neonatal nurse practitioner to the room. She said I could do nothing but monitor for the time of death. I can’t even begin to convey to you the overwhelming emotion that came over me - fear, anger, grief. I sat on the patient’s bed sobbing as I waited for the heartbeat and respirations to cease. The baby died in approximately one hour. I immediately resigned.
The Born Alive Infants Protection Act is like the proverbial tree that fell in the woods no one heard.
This became clear when, on the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade last year, my former employer, Christ Hospital, in Oak Lawn, was called and asked what changes had been made in policy following the passage of BAIPA.
According to IllinoisLeader.com, the spokesman “was not familiar with the federal legislation or what it contained,” and asked, “Is there a law?”
Of all the hospitals in all the world, this one should have known. But apparently, no government agency relayed the message.
Here’s the message. BAIPA states that any baby born alive, no matter what gestational age, is a legal person for the purposes of U.S. law.
BAIPA would not stop the abortion method that sometimes results in babies being aborted alive. Babies being aborted are not legal persons.
But if the baby somehow survives the first attempt to kill him or her, the physician should not get a second chance. If the baby survives, the physician should do everything possible to save the baby, if the baby is viable.
That is schizophrenic medicine, I know. But America is schizophrenic when it comes to saving and killing babies; medicine only reflects our society.
That babies are still being aborted alive in America in 2004 is no secret. Abortionist Leroy Carhart testified earlier this year during the partial birth abortion ban hearings that about once a month he inadvertently aborts babies alive.
Secretary of Health & Human Services Tommy Thompson, what are you going to do about this?
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and they are worried about obesity?!
It's a world gone mad....
I've forwarded the story to the National Right to Life Commitee and asked what's going on!
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