British authorities heard an awful account this week of a baby who was born alive after a failed late-term abortion and then left to die in his mother’s arms.
The Bolton News reports baby Mohammed Rehman Ahmed was born crying on Feb. 17 at the Royal Bolton Hospital in England, about a day after his mother underwent a late-term abortion. The premature baby died a short time later in his mother Sofia Khan’s arms.
This week, authorities held an inquest into the botched abortion and Mohammed’s live birth and death. According to the report, his parents opted for a late-term abortion after learning he had spina bifida at 21 weeks of pregnancy.
On Feb. 16, a doctor at St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester injected poison into Khan’s umbilical cord to abort the baby boy, according to the report. Dr. Philip Bullen, who performed the abortion, told the inquest that he later checked for a heartbeat but did not detect one; so he sent Khan to the Royal Bolton Hospital to induce labor.
Later that evening, while she was in labor, Khan said she felt her baby move. She told the inquest that she mentioned it to one of her midwives, Aameena Hajee, and asked if she would check for a heartbeat.
“I felt I was made to feel I had imagined it and I was just being silly and I began to doubt myself,” Khan said.
Hajee told the inquest that she does not remember Khan asking for the scan.
Early the next morning, Khan gave birth to her baby boy – alive and crying.
Here’s more from the report:
Mrs Khan told how she how she heard him cry. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
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[Midwife Carol] Grundy, who delivered Mohammed, said he had come quickly and described how she was trying to prepare the room, not expecting the baby to be born alive.
She added that after Mohammed was born crying and moving she quickly prepared the area for a live birth and called for assistance.
Mrs Khan then held Mohammed until he died.
Mr Nelson recorded a conclusion of death by natural causes. He stated that Mohammed’s death was due to extreme prematurity brought about by compassionate termination of pregnancy, with a secondary cause of congenital malformations.
The abortion doctor said they would change things in the future by listening for a baby’s heartbeat longer to ensure he or she is dead before sending women for induced labor.
This case is especially horrific because there is a chance the baby may have survived. Though no one can predict the future, spina bifida typically is not fatal, and a new in-utero surgical procedure is helping unborn babies with the disorder. What’s more, premature babies at 22 weeks are surviving outside the womb at a greater rate than ever before.
But doctors suggested that Mohammed be aborted, and even called killing him “compassionate” – simply because he had a disability. His disability did not make him any less worthy of life, any less of a human being, but society has accepted this form of deadly discrimination.
Some babies have been fortunate enough to survive abortions, receive the care that they deserve and be given a second chance at life. Melissa Ohden, Gianna Jessen and Claire Culwell are three of the most familiar survivors. Their stories and dozens of others show that babies in the womb are valuable human beings, and abortion is a cruel injustice against children in our world today.
LifeNews Note: File photo.
