Each and every time an unborn baby undergoes prenatal surgery, often because of signs the baby has spina bifida, it unavoidably raises the obvious question for pro-abortion partisans.
This child is either partially or completely removed from her mother’s womb, surgeons work their wondrous ways, and she is placed back inside her mom where she nestles down until delivery time. Baby when she was in the womb, baby when she was temporarily outside the womb, and baby when she is returned to home base.
Yet a “unwanted” child of a similar age is…what? When a woman decides she does not wish to “carry her pregnancy” to completion, does it make sense that the baby can be dehumanized into a “choice”? It’s cognitive dissonance on steroids.
We’ve written dozens of stories about successful fetal surgery. To take one example from earlier this year, Bethan Simpson, of Maldon, Essex, England. At her 20 week scan, she learned her unborn daughter had spina bifida.
Spina bifida is a congenital defect of the spine, of unknown origins. The spinal cord is left exposed through a gap in the backbone which can lead to a variety of serious problems including paralysis.
Mrs. Simpson wrote on her Facebook page, “Our lives were such a rollercoaster for the next few weeks. We were offered continuing pregnancy, ending pregnancy or a new option called fetal surgery – fixing her before she is born. We had to do it.”
She added that the decision to have fetal surgery was a “no-brainer.”
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Following a series of tests and scans, the four-hour surgery took place at University College Hospital in London last December, the BBC reported. The operation, the BBC wrote,
involved opening her womb and lifting her baby into position to repair the hole, as well as repositioning the baby’s spinal cord.
“I came out of surgery at one o’clock and could feel her moving that evening,” Mrs. Simpson said.
“It was reassuring to feel that first kick after the anaesthetic wore off. She’s bigger now, of course, and her kicks are stronger.”
Mrs. Simpson said she remembered the surgeon telling her on the ward later: “I’ve held your baby.”
“Her lesion was small and she smashed surgery like you wouldn’t believe,” Mrs. Simpson of her daughter. “They took her out of my womb and popped her straight back in to stay there as long as she can.”
According to media reports, Mrs. Simpson is the fourth mother whose unborn child has undergone fetal surgery in the U.K.
At the same time Mrs. Simpson acknowledged that most babies prenatally diagnosed with spina bifida are not as lucky as her daughter.
“Sadly 80% of babies in England are terminated when their parents get told their baby has this condition,” Mrs. Simpson wrote at the time. Spina bifida is “not a death sentence. She has the same potential as every one of us.”
Simpson considers her daughter to be “extra special.”
“I feel our baby kick me day in and day out,” she wrote on Facebook. “That’s never changed. She’s extra special. She’s part of history and our daughter has shown just how much she deserves this life.”
In a Facebook update posted today, we read
She’s beyond exceptional. She’s spina beautiful and she’s not letting her condition defy her. No matter how little she is, she genuinely is my hero, she’s my saviour and I’m so proud to show her off and to say a big up yours to people who doubted her pregnancy.
Elouise Poppy Mae Simpson – keep being you and shining bright.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
