Woman Says “Late-Term Abortion Was the Right Choice for Me and About Compassion for Our Baby”

Opinion   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Oct 21, 2016   |   2:04PM   |   Washington, DC

Is intentionally killing another human being ever a compassionate choice? Abortion advocates would have us believe so.

In the New York Times on Thursday, a California mother made the case for why she believes her decision to abort her late-term unborn child was “the right choice for me.”

Meredith Isaksen wrote the piece in response to the comments about late-term abortion during the presidential debate on Wednesday. Republican Donald Trump exposed the cruel nature of late-term and partial-birth abortions, while Democrat Hillary Clinton defended them as medically necessary.

Isaksen said she had the abortion at 22 weeks of pregnancy, just one week after doctors detected a fatal heart problem in her unborn son. She said half of her baby’s heart was missing, and doctors said he probably would not survive birth. If he would have survived, Isaksen said her son would have needed a heart transplant.

Instead, she and her husband opted for a late-term abortion.

She wrote:

For us, the decision was about compassion for our unborn baby, who would face overwhelming and horribly painful obstacles. Compassion for our 2-year-old son, who would contend with hours upon hours in a hospital, missing out on invaluable time spent with his parents, and the death of a very real sibling. It was about compassion for our marriage. Perhaps most important, it was about our belief that parenthood sometimes means we sacrifice our own dreams so our children don’t have to suffer.

As the day of my termination approached and I felt my baby’s kicks and wiggles, I simultaneously wanted to crawl out of my skin and suspend us together in time. I wanted him to know how important he was to me, that the well of my grief and love for him would stretch deeper and deeper into the vastness of our family’s small yet limitless life. He may have moved inside me for only five months, but he had touched and shaped me in ways I could never have imagined.

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She criticized Trump for describing the cruel way that a late-term abortion destroys a baby’s life, claiming his comments were “void of consideration for women.”

Isaksen continued:

Such politicians would have you believe that women like me shouldn’t get to make the choice I made. That our baby, despite his tiny misshapen heart and nonexistent aorta, should have a chance “to live,” even though that life might have lasted mere minutes. Even though that life would have been excruciatingly painful. These politicians are ignorant of the sacrifices and blessings that come with carrying a pregnancy (let alone a nonviable pregnancy).

What Trump said was, “You can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother.” While he did not use medical terms, Trump’s description is not far from the truth. One of the most common late-term abortion procedures is a dilation and evacuation (D&E).

Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist, described a D&E abortion this way: “After the amniotic fluid is removed, the abortionist uses a sopher clamp — a grasping instrument with rows of sharp “teeth” — to grasp and pull the baby’s arms and legs, tearing the limbs from the child’s body. The abortionist continues to grasp intestines, spine, heart, lungs, and any other limbs or body parts. The most difficult part of the procedure is usually finding, grasping and crushing the baby’s head. After removing pieces of the child’s skull, the abortionist uses a curette to scrape the uterus and remove the placenta and any remaining parts of the baby.”

An abortion does not prevent a child from suffering; according to scientific evidence, an abortion can cause a child to suffer a painful, barbaric death. Strong scientific evidence shows that unborn babies can feel pain by 20 weeks or even earlier.

Human suffering brings out a deep sense of compassion and urgency to act in most people. But there are some in our culture today who are twisting these innate human desires to push an agenda that allows human beings to intentionally kill the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Instead of pushing abortion, society should be offering families like the Isaksens the best medical care, pain management and support available. Every baby who is suffering from medical issues, whether inside or outside of the womb, deserves to be treated with the same dignity, care and respect.

19weekbaby2
LifeNews Note: Baby miscarried at 19 weeks.