Patrina Mosley is the Director of Life, Culture and Women's Advocacy at Family Research Council. This article appeared on TownHall.com on May 10, 2019.
President Trump is taking heat for comments he made at a Wisconsin rally where he described what happens to a child after she is born alive following a failed abortion, saying, “The baby is born. The mother meets with the doctor, they take care of the baby, they wrap the baby beautifully, and then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby. I don't think so. It's incredible.”
The mainstream media are “fact-checking” Trump’s statement as if it is incorrect.
But the abortion industry and the media have tiptoed around the basic question. So, I simply pose the question back to them: what happens to a baby when she survives an abortion attempt? Is she given medical care as any other patient would receive, or is she left to die?
Trump’s statement was only recalling what Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said: “I can tell you exactly what happens: If a mother is in labor…the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and mother.”
So, according to Gov. Northam, whether a newborn gets the chance to live or not is a matter for “discussion.” Precious moments slip by as the infant is fighting for her life on the delivery table, but the mother and doctor are discussing whether or not she should live? At this point we are no longer talking about abortion or a woman’s body. We are talking about a child who has clearly become the patient.
What happens when the mother and doctor decide not to let the infant live? Do they withhold care and let the infant die on its own or do they kill the infant? And how? The media claims Trump’s comment is incorrect, but no one in the abortion industry will answer the question.
Here’s what we do know: in the Kermit Gosnell trial (which received very little media attention), eye-witnesses testified that babies were moving and breathing before their spinal cords were cut; others were flushed in toilets or were thrown in the garbage with a shoebox for a coffin--while still alive inside!
The fact is, babies can survive abortion attempts.
The CDC tells us that, between 2003-2014, at least 143 infants died after being born alive during an abortion procedure, and the report even admits that this number is underestimated.
That’s an average of one infant a month! According to the report, some of these infants hung on to life for more than 24 hours after the induced abortion before they died!
Unfortunately, this report does not explain how these infants died. The mainstream media is insistent that President Trump’s characterization is incorrect, so I repeat: what happens when a mother and doctor decide the child should not live?
There is little if any required reporting on infants born alive after a failed abortion (only six states), and there are no federal abortion reporting requirements, which means there are probably more horrors untold.
The information we do have comes only due to the courage of eyewitnesses who have blown the whistle on infanticide happening right before their eyes. And it is due to the compassion of those who could not bear to watch a child struggle for life and so stepped in to save people like Melissa Oden and Gianna Jessen.
Our failure to protect these newborns is why Congress needs to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would add enforcement mechanisms to prosecute doctors who deny life-saving medical care to infants who survive abortion - putting an end to birth day abortions.
When a child comes into this world, wanted or unwanted, they should be met with a warm hat typically given by hospitals to newborns and like the ones in our End Birth Day Abortions campaign. Afterwards they can be adopted into a loving home by those who desire children. There is no need to kill the unwanted child just because moments prior they were destined for death.
When babies survive abortion, they will be either intentionally kept alive or intentionally put to death. There’s no in-between. If Trump’s comments are untrue, as the media claims, then they should tell us what actually happens to a child that is born alive, if the mother and doctor decide she should not receive care. The country deserves to know an answer to this.
