By Victoria Franco
Staff Writer
Allowing a woman to have an abortion when the baby has developed to be the size of a papaya and approximately a foot long is a heinous way to treat a life with a beating heart.
On Jan. 22, the Reproductive Health Act expanded on the rights of a mother after 24 weeks of pregnancy regarding abortion.
According to Time Magazine, the law “allow[s] a woman to get an abortion after 24 weeks if her health is threatened, not just her life, and if the fetus would be unable to survive outside the womb.”
Let us start off by getting one thing straight, calling an unborn child a “fetus” is not going to suffice. We need to stop acting like we aren’t debating whether or not we want to kill an unborn child whose life has yet to begin.
According the American Pregnancy Association, a developing baby who is more than 24 weeks old is accumulating more weight because of baby fat and is developing growing muscles, organs and bones.
At this rate, if a mother was able to peek into her womb to get a glance at her child, she would be able to identify what characteristics the baby has and she would possibly be able to guess their appearance.
With all pregnancies comes risks and health factors.
However, there is no one that can give you a solid guarantee that the mother involved in a pregnancy or the baby will for sure die if the pregnancy is not terminated.
Have these lawmakers not heard of having faith in God?
Or rather, are they assuming that children born with prenatal diasbilties will have no chance to overcome them?
Pro-abortion individuals claim it is wrong to force a pregnant woman to meet her full-term pregnancy knowing her baby is going to die or she herself may not make it, but these people are wrong.
A doctor can only guarantee prenatal health risks to a certain extent. If a mother goes through with an abortion past the 24-week stage in her pregnancy, she is certain of the baby’s death but would always be uncertain if that baby could have lived.
When my mother was pregnant with me, she felt that pregnancy was different from the previous two she had.
After going to the doctor for a checkup, she was told I would be born with spina bifida, if I even made it to term.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that spina bifida, sometimes called “split spine,” is a birth defect in which a newborn’s backbone and membranes around the spinal cord don’t connect properly.
This often results in membranes outside the spine bunching up to form a tumor-like bump on the lower back.
Doctors stated I would have many complications in life such as not being able to walk and having to be fed through a tube. For a lack of better words, I would be a vegetable.
My mother always said there was something in her that told her to have faith.
She said she would not rely on an abortion to save her, so she decided to deliver me to term and see where things went from there.
Those doctors couldn’t have been further from the truth.
My mother did give birth to a child with spina bifida, but one who was fully functioning. I may not have the full ability to walk, but I am able to lead a normal life with little to no help.
Can we take a moment to think what would have happened if my mother would have listened to the doctors?
She would have never known she would give birth to a semi-healthy baby who would grow up to be a high-functioning adult in society today.
A law that is permitting women to have abortions as late as three months into a pregnancy is one that should not be spread throughout this country.
It was a mistake for this law to be allowed in New York, and it would be tragic to allow a movement like this to further itself.
