Mainstream Media: Pre-term Baby’s Survival Will Have Big Impact on Abortion Debate

FLORIDA, United States, February 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The survival of pre-term baby Amillia Taylor, at 21 weeks gestation the youngest know child to survive premature birth, has produced an increase in media debate on the abortion issue.

Mainstream media outlets in the United States have acknowledged that the baby’s life raises “big questions” about legal abortion, . Weighing less than 10oz and just nine ½ inches long, Amillia was born one month earlier than the date considered viable for most babies, 25 weeks. About half of the babies born at 25 weeks will survive. Abortion laws are often based on an assumption of viability, with the cut-off being set at the point where babies would be likely to survive outside the womb.

ABC anchor Charles Gibson made the account of Amillia’s survival the top story on World News Tuesday night, calling the baby, “A tiny miracle that raises big questions in the debate over abortion, ” according to a blog report by Brent Baker posted on NewsBusters.com Feb.20.

“The fact that she has survived and grown to more than four pounds, and is about to go home, is a miracle, yes, but a miracle that may have an effect on the debate over abortion. And it may change what people think about life.”

Dan Harris, pro-abortion reporter for ABC, pointed out that in most of the country, Amillia could have been legally aborted well past the point of her birth.

“Only one state, North Carolina, explicitly prohibits aborting a fetus at the point at which Amillia was born; 12 states permit abortion at that point; 23 states leave it to a doctor to decide whether the fetus is viable; and in 14 states, there are no laws on the books that would prevent such an abortion.”

Tony Perkins, with the Family Research Council, was interviewed by ABC for the story. “As we see, with the advancement of medical technology, we have children surviving outside the womb younger and younger,” Perkins said. “It really brings into focus how valuable and how precious this human life really is.”

Now weighing a healthy four lbs, Amillia is due to be released from hospital within the next few days. Apart from some respiratory and digestive difficulties, her doctors said she has done remarkably well.

“She told us early on from the start that she was a fighter and she wanted to be here,” said Dr. William Smalling from the Baptist Children’s Hospital in Kendall, Florida.

Comments posted on Newsbusters pointed out that at 35 weeks from conception, Amillia is still three weeks from her natural birth date and could legally be aborted in many states if she had remained in her mother‘s womb.

See full coverage posted on NewsBusters.com:
http://newsbusters.org/node/10954

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

“Non-viable” Baby Girl Survives Birth at 21 Weeks, Weighing Under 10oz
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07022003.html

Ah yes, I see, good point. I'll pick that up. Once it's addressed as an organism its full destiny cannot be denied.

But, just to play devil's advocate, the silly arguments could still be used, "But is it a viable organism?", "But is it really a human organism?".

I was trying to focus on their transparent motives. As a point of behavioral psychology, life forms (human and otherwise) will not engage in pointless activity they see no stimulus in. What's the stimulus of stopping a process? To avoid the conclusion of it. What's the conclusion in this case? A baby, ergo the abortionist is crystal clear on what they want to destroy.

I'm sorry, but I find it difficult to follow your logic on this one. Using phrases like "blob of cells" and "viable" are just misleading gibberish which mask the much simpler truth.

Perhaps I should clarify. If a baby is sufficiently well-formed that it can be removed from the womb and still survive, even many pro-choice people will have trouble regarding it as anything other than a baby even if they would regard earlier forms of prenatal life as nothing but a "blob of cells".

If the pro-life forces would focus their efforts on protecting those unborn children whom 90% of the public would regard as babies rather than "blobs of cells", that would help create a split between the hard-core abortion advocates and the more moderate middle.

While I wouldn't want pro-life groups to say that the younger unborn children were merely "blobs of cells", I wouldn't suggest that they contest that claim too strenuously right now. Focus instead on improving the status quo.

The extremely vast majority (probably over 90%) of people believe abortion should be legal in at least some cases but should not be totally unrestricted. The only way pro-lifers will be able to protect any unborn children is if they can win the support of a sizable percentage of that group. If they can agree to disagree for the moment about the status of the unborn children who are not yet viable, I think they could win supermajority support for protecting those that clearly are.

I did not know until then that one of my students had an abortion at six weeks gestation when she was 18.

One thing I've posted before and will post again: in addition to working on an incremental strategy to roll back abortion, pro-lifers should also put forth another message which isn't purely about abortion, but could pay them enormous dividends:

A person who has done a bad thing, recognizes that it was a bad thing, and seeks to atone for it, their bad deed will no longer make them a bad person and will no longer trouble their conscience.
A person who has done a bad thing, but seeks to deny that the deed in question was bad, will be damaged by the deed as long as they continue their denial. No amount of pretending the deed was really "okay" will ever clear their concience.
Acknowledging one's mistakes is often difficult, but it's the only way to ever be free of them.

While the above message can work well in a religious context, there are many people for whom religious messages are worse than meaningless. The secular message should still be effective for religious people, but unlike the religious one should also be effective for atheists.

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Pro-Life/Pro-Baby Ping!