The little Italian abortion survivor, glimpsing an epidemic
I was out-of-pocket all day yesterday but read on my phone about the 22-week-old baby boy who survived his abortion for 2 days in Italy. The story was heartbreaking, more so because I know without a doubt babies his age are surviving their abortions every day across America and getting similar treatment. I would even venture to say this is a worldwide epidemic.
For instance, only last week I spoke at length after a pro-life event with an L&D RN who told me babies survive their abortions at her hospital, and doctors pressure nurses to give them 0-0 APGAR scores, in other words, chart that the babies were born dead when they were not. I could only urge the nurse to take action. There was nothing more I could do.
We have a Born Alive Infants Protection Act that is not being enforced, incredibly frustrating and painful.
The Catch-22 is representatives from DHHS told me enforcement of BAIPA is report driven….
They refused to proactively query hospitals and abortion mills on late-term abortion policies. (And this was under the Bush administration. How much less can we expect DHHS reps under Obama and Sebelius to drag their feet?)
Yet hospital and abortion staff won’t report what they know. Even if they do, we saw with the baby Shanice case in Hialeah, FL, that viability becomes an issue to prosecutors, when whether one would live or die if not murdered is absolutely irrelevant.
Back to the little Italian abortion survivor, the Telegraph carries an extended story, but here it is in a nutshell, from Sky News, and by the way, the baby wasn’t a “foetus”:
A baby boy who was left to die after a botched abortion has survived for two days.
The 22-week-old foetus later died in intensive care in the city of Rossano in southern Italy.
The baby’s mother opted for a termination after scans suggested the child might be disabled.
The procedure was carried out at the Rossano Calabro hospital on Saturday but 20 hours after the operation the hospital chaplain was praying to the baby when he discovered it was still alive.
Father Antonio Martello informed doctors who immediately transferred the child to a specialist neo-natal unit at a neighbouring hospital where he died on Monday.
Italian police are investigating if there is a case for homicide or abandonment because according to Italian law, doctors have a legal obligation to preserve the life of the baby after it survives an abortion.
The Italian government is also considering an investigation into the conduct of the hospital staff….
And what was the baby’s disability? According to Catholic.net:
Prenatal scans had shown two malformations in the boy, in his palate and lip.
Cleft lip and palate.
[Map via Wikipedia]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
The victim was a baby boy. The proper pronoun is therefore HE, not IT! How can a reporter not realize the humanity of a child in a case like this?
Horrific.
Some pro-choicer/aborts have said that BAIPA is a useless law for the fact that no one is ever charged under it.
What’s wrong with this picture?
At least the mother in Italy wasn’t burdened with the decision whether or not to save the baby.
I have an overwhelming sense as a LIFE intercessor, that this issue – induced abortion through forced delivery, and the treatment of its survivors – is an area that the LORD wants us to work very hard to expose. First of all, it is horrific, just utterly barbaric, and I think it is a way abortionists use to escape their own personal culpability (like the “chemical coat-hanger” RU-486) of having to dismember a baby during an abortion – Just induce and leave the too-small infant to die. These babies are forced out of the womb and presumed to be too young to survive, but there are babies who live for hours and even days after forced delivery, cast off and left to die and not protected by “health care” providers.
Exposing the barbarism of induced delivery abortion is another way of forcing people to look at the reality of what an abortion is. That baby never was a “blob of tissue” but it is a lot harder to write him off as one if you see an image him gasping for breath an hour after a forced delivery.
Personally I think a legal case could be made for the constitutionally protected personhood rights of these children as they are forced early from the womb, and are clearly persons, breathing and with a beating heart, before and during delivery and for a period of time after delivery.
Laws should be strengthened on a state level to increase health care workers’ responsibility and protection (whistle-blower laws directly related to BAI) and legal consequences for not reporting violations of born alive infant protection statues and laws.
The Prolife movement needs to trumpet this from every mountaintop. If we do not, our enemy will see our lack of resistance and push to the next level of atrocity, which is out and out infanticide of unwanted full-term children, already born. If you deny this can happen, you have not been paying attention – it is already practiced in other parts of the globe; coming soon to a neighborhood near you, IF we don’t RESIST this devil and cause it to flee.
Operation Rescue has a reward for whistleblowers on abortionist who break the law. Maybe there should be one for nurses to record these babies being left to die.
This is the sort of news I don’t miss as a former editor … it just destroys me emotionally every time I read of such occurrences. How can people be so flipping callous and hard-hearted?
I truly do not understand this world. We’ll save the whales but we’ll also murder our children. Old “Horns” really has done a number on world, hasn’t he?
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Perhaps, since “born-alive” infant protection laws currently exist and are not being enforced, health care workers can be convinced to report the violations and the strong arming and coercion by abortionists who force them to violate the law – IF Prolife lawyers begin to sue abortionists, hospitals and other “health care” providers in CIVIL court for damages related to the trauma that L&D nurses and other health care workers involved have had to endure due to the abortionists breaking existing laws, and the implied threat of loss of employment, advancement, etc.
It is, after all, all about the money for the abortion industry. Laws will not curb their bad behavior, but large financial awards against them, and the legal fees associated with being tied up by many different lawsuits all over the nation will. We must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves in this.
Aborted for … a cleft lip??? Wow.
The quest for the perfect baby… it makes me wonder what kind of parents these people would have made and why would they want a child in the first place.
How can you want a child for 22 weeks and then decide, for superficial reasons, that the child is not good enough for you. I can’t imagine how traumatic it would be to go through labor and deliver a child intended to die, or what kind of mindset a person would have to have for it not to be traumatic.
I am 23 weeks pregnant as I write this and I cringe and catch my breath if I feel any cramping. I am terrified of going into pre-term labor for fear of losing this precious boy. To deliberately end his life, especially after feeling him tumble and kick… it is beyond comprehension.
Dhalgren? Thoughts?
Cleft palate. For heaven’s sake…
How do you say “fool” in Italian?
What, that free healthcare in Italy couldn’t treat the little bambino?
Good point, RooForLife. According to OR’s website, the reward program applies to ALL violations of the law by abortion businesses.
http://www.operationrescue.org/archives/amazing-new-strategy-will-put-abortionists-out-of-business-peacefully-legally-and-swiftly/#more-6594
“The list includes (but is not limited to)…
•Health / Safety Risks
•Statutory Rape
•Sexual Harassment
•Sexual Assault
•Child Abuse
•Income Tax Evasion
•Medicaid Fraud
•Insurance Fraud
•Money Laundering
•Physical Assault
•Consumer Fraud
•Employment Issues”
So I don’t see why BAIPA violations wouldn’t come under that. Jill, would it be possible for you to pass this info on to the RN you spoke with?
Where’s the outrage from the church?
We are indeed in the Last Days when the sheep and goats are being separated for judgment.
“Dhalgren? Thoughts?
Posted by: Alex at April 29, 2010 9:39 AM”
Dahlgren has left the room.
My wife was an LVN in a public hospital for many years. She’s retired now, but when she was ‘challenging the boards’ to get her LVN license, she had to work in many areas of the hospital. One, of course, was OB/Gyn and L&D (Labor and Delivery). She chose OB/Gyn rather than L&D as they performed abortions there (hey, at least it was a public hospital).
At the hospital where she worked, nurses and aides were given a choice to opt out of anything dealing with abortion, of course, she retired nearly 20 years ago, so I have no idea if that is still the case.
The point I’m trying to make is if this policy is the case at most hospitals, then you’re mostly going to get people ‘OK’ with abortion working with the abortionists.
There’s also the whisleblower status turning someone in gives you. I’d imagine it is very hard to turn on someone you’ve worked with for years.
(Sarcasm!) Because you know that cleft lip and palate is SO not fixable… just impossible, right? He’ll be disabled for the rest of his life. It’s not like a routine, relatively cheap surgery would fix him up just fine, right? Sniff. (/sarcasm)
Puh-leeze. Abortion is so lame to begin with, but using a cleft lip and palate as some sort of “well, I had to because ‘it’ was disabled” excuse is just… stupid.
Poor little boy.
I am so very sorry sweet little boy. So sorry you were alone and trying to survive…alone. I am so sorry that your own mother had forsaken you, the doctors had forsaken you, the world had forsaken you. You were such a fighter!!!
Now you are safe, sweet boy.
Though my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will receive me. Psalm 27:10
Our oldest son was born with a large cleft lip and palate about 12 years ago. We were told “don’t take him home. He’s most likely going to have severe genetic anomolies and will be a failure to thrive. You’ll just end up bringing him back to die”. We refused, and this child is such a blessing. He has a fantastic sense of humor, has been reading at the high school level since 4th grade according to state tests, loves military history, and is an amazing handsome kid. He’s had surgeries and braces, but so have I. Disabled? NO. Blessing? YES. Moms and Dads, love your baby and reap blessings.
From Wikipedia: A cleft lip or palate can be successfully treated with surgery, especially so if conducted soon after birth or in early childhood.
So this is enough to kill? Wow, our society is messed up.
Thank you Jodi for that beautiful testimony! My nephew was born with a cleft lip and at 10yo is the JOY of his mother’s life!!
Thank you, Jodi!!! So glad you refused that medical advice!!
Maybe O’Reilly or Hannity would be interested in this story…
Amy1,
I agree with you. It’s time to bring this horrible practice to the fore again.
Joaquin Phoenix is one of our most talented actors and he was born with a similar ‘deformity’. I was born a premie myself. I treasure the stories of how my parents worried about me, visited me, watched over my incubator, unable to cuddle me until weeks later. My mom laughed when I got older how she could slip a ring on my finger like a bracelet. My parents were ordinary people facing adversity. How awesome they were. I hope our society returns to humanity. Soon.
It is my sincere desire that the same indignation and outrage over aborting a baby with cleft lip and palate, will be extended to babies who are aborted for fatal diagnoses, like anencephaly, certain trisomies, renal agenesis, etc. All of these little lives were created with purpose, and only the hand of God should determine when they return to Him. Someone’s perception of the quality of life a person will have (even if that life is only for days, moments, or only in the safety of its mother’s womb ) should never be the determining factor in the quantity of life they experience. Babies with fatal prenatal diagnoses are every bit as ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ as those who are without.
Some may find this interesting.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7410863
What a lovely story, Jodi. Thank you.
The actor Stacey Keach also was born with a cleft lip/palate.
Dhalgren? Thoughts?
If a 22 week-old fetus is removed via a D&E and still has a heartbeat, it is a botched abortion. But by no means, it is not ‘born.’
This post is based on nothing but myths, misconceptions, and lies.
Doctors in the US are advised to stop a fetus’ heart before performing a D&E if they feel there is any risk of such an error being made. And Obama is in no way involved in enforcing the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. That is for Holder and his USAs to enforce.
So was AZ Congressman Trent Franks, which I think is one reason he’s such a hard core pro-lifer. Just saw him on Fox this morning discussing the AZ immigration bill.
Dhalgren,
What is the difference between this boy(“botched abortion”)and a preemie born at 22 weeks?
Prenatal scans had shown two malformations in the boy, in his palate and lip.
Brutal.
Posted by: carder at April 29, 2010 9:45 AM
“How do you say “fool” in Italian?”
————————————————–
Same as in English, Irish, and Kenyan:
Barrak Obama.
yor bro ken
Ken, that was funny. You’re getting better.
Posted by: Dhalgren at April 29, 2010 1:06 PM
“Doctors in the US are advised to stop a fetus’ heart before performing a D&E if they feel there is any risk of such an error being made.”
—————————————————-
Three questions d’ halgren:
1. What is the species of the ‘fetus’ are you talking about?
If you are not sure, just check the species of the female that conceived the fetus.
2. Just what exactly is the ‘error’ that is being made here that the medical professionals should have avoided?
3. How did you survive this long being as willfully ignorant as you are?
Should we attribute it to the misapplied mercy and kindess of straners?
Are you a beneificiary of the ‘endangered species’ act?
yor bro ken
My cousin was born with a cleft palate, though not the lip part. He had surgery and he has a slight speech impediment today (he’s almost nine), but seriously? Not a huge devastation.
“If a 22 week-old fetus is removed via a D&E and still has a heartbeat, it is a botched abortion. But by no means, it is not ‘born.'”
Only if you’re a Shakespearean thane…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macduff_(Macbeth)
Dhalgren….
how can you possibly say that a child who leaves his mother’s womb and his heart is beating and he is breathing (which he had to be to still be alive all that time later) has not been born?
According to Webster’s: birth is “1 a : the emergence of a new individual from the body of its parent b : the act or process of bringing forth young from the womb”
This child was born. It may not have been the intention, but he was born, alive, which is the whole point of the “BORN ALIVE INFANT PROTECTION ACT”.
Way to try to get around the law… oh, no, I don’t have to provide medical care. This child with a heartbeat who is breathing wasn’t “born alive”, he is just a botched abortion. Um, no… heart beating, lungs breathing… that equals BORN ALIVE.
It is well known that cleft lips and cleft palates can be corrected by surgery. So why would you want to abort an otherwise wanted child, just because of a correctable condition? This society has become so abortion happy that it’s considered the first solution for everything an unborn baby might experience in the future. Somebody is getting profits form the abortions and they want abortion to be the first choice, no matter what. If it was up to them, there would be no babies born. They’d all be aborted for the profit of the abortionists.
We have been hearing so much good news lately I think it is only a matter of time before nurses start speaking up.
several thoughts:
First of all, God is good. he provided a priest at the hour of death for this tiny soul. Simply amazing. A little saint in heaven this day.
Secondly:
Aborted for … a cleft lip??? Wow.
Posted by: Bekah Ferguson at April 29, 2010 9:31 AM
Bottom line for proaborts: the baby HAS to die. :(
My son was born with a correctable birth defect about on par with a cleft palate called hypospadias. Thankfully, it isn’t something that can be detected via ultrasound. I hope it never is. It chills me to my soul to think that people would kill their little boys because of this completely correctable condition.
Hal,
I would love to give up my day job, but I don’t think americans have quite recovered from their morning after buyers remorse of voting for b.o. because they thought he would really be different.
It would still be a little pre-mature to rub salt in their as yet unhealed wounds, though the additional pain might serve a thereauputic value as some sort of aversion therapy.
None is a as quick to anger as a fool exposed while waist deep in his own folly.
My nephew Sam, whose 9th birthday is today, was born with a cleft lip. Its easily fixable. How sad that this little child was considered “imperfect”!
If you want to help children around the world get their surgeries, The Smile Train is a good organization to donate to. You can donate as little as you can afford ($250 is how much needed for the surgery).
liz, i want to donate to the smile train! i’ve seen them advertise in magazines. these abortions are all disturbing because it seems like women are aborting, well,….just because! i cannot believe that women actually want this for themselves. or for their children. it’s so confusing to me!??????????
Dhalgren. Wow – you are REALLY uniformed, or just being disingenuous. We are talking about “induced labor” abortion, specifically on this thread; or “Forced delivery.” The cervix is often manually dilated and the mother is given a drug to stimulate labor and the baby is delivered, presumably too early to survive outside the womb; but many times DO survive the delivery and are BORN ALIVE.
Just in case you have doubts/unbelief about this, Here is the description from ACOG’s website:
“For abortions later in pregnancy, labor may be induced with drugs that can be put in the vagina, injected into the uterus, or given through an intravenous (IV) line. Prostaglandins, the most widely used drugs for labor—inducing abortions, cause the uterus to contract. Other agents—such as saline, urea, or oxytocin—are used less often. Sometimes more than one drug is used to induce labor.
These drugs usually cause labor within 12 hours and the abortion usually occurs within 12–24 hours. Labor–inducing drugs may cause side effects such as nausea, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea.”
Dhalgren, dilation and extraction, otherwise known as “partial-birth abortion” is no longer performed in this nation (legally).
None is a as quick to anger as a fool exposed while waist deep in his own folly.
Posted by: yor bro ken at April 29, 2010 6:26 PM
so true.
How careless to let a child die for something so small. I mean abortion is wrong any way you do it but over something like that which can easily be fixed with a surgery. Wow
More than careless…..evil.
I am horrified by the concept of designer children. I am more horrified that this infant boy died.
I hope with all my heart that God sees fit to NEVER allow the mother AND father of that murdered infant boy…never never to conceive another child.
I also hope that nobody ever considers them fit parents for an adopted child either.
Don’t they understand that they have sinned against the Giver of Life, the Holy Spirit?!!
I hope somebody gets through to them and gets them to go to Confession, the sooner the better.
a cleft palate is just disgusting. if i found out i was pregnant with a fetus that had a cleft palate id abort for sure.
May God grant that you never have a child then Katie.
Katie, I’d much rather my child be born with a cleft palate than be a vapid, souless twit like you.
Katie
My oldest NEPHEW was born with a CLEFT LIP/palate and it was easily fixable by surgery! He is now 9 and except for a few speech issues he had, he’s NORMAL. He’s also pretty smart for his age.
How sad that people have an attitude like yours just because a child may not be “perfect”! Your attitude is called EUGENICS.
wow… how polite you all are. fyi i’m already 4 months pregnant theresa. my baby will be perfectly healthy, no physical or genetic problems at all since i also have excellent genes. sucks for women who cant do any better than giving birth to a baby with cleft palate or other nasty stuff but o well.
God forbid your child gets into any kind of accident, Katie and is physically or mentally disabled. Or maybe needs glasses at some point.
Katie, you came on here calling children “disgusting” and told us you would kill any child who isn’t perfect. You are the disgusting one.
Oh, and excellent genes have nothing to do with many birth defects, but I hope for your child’s sake that he doesn’t have any minor physical flaw.
Tell me, Katie, if your child’s born with a third nipple will you suffocate her at the hospital?
that isnt gonna happen so I’m not worried about that.
and at least a third nipple is covered under clothes. but a cleft palate? id be embarassed to show my baby to other people.
Wow, Katie. You seem pretty sure of yourself. Again, for your child’s sake I hope you’re right.
Oh, and you do realize that a cleft palate is a completely correctable condition, right? The “horror” of having to show your baby to other people could be fixed by his first birthday. Then he’d a be a perfect little doll for you to live vicariously through. That’s quite obviously what you want.
even surgery would still leave scars and from what i hear a lot of people still have speech problems afterwards. i don’t want to go thru all that.
Oh God, not a scar!
You do realize that your children will inevitably break a bone at some point during their lives, or need braces, or *gasp* need surgery, right?
Are you just going to kill them when that happens because you “don’t want to go thru all that”?
But what if it didn’t leave a scar and there were no speech problems? I think it would be a better idea to have the baby, give him the surgery, and if he had speech problems or a scar, THEN kill him. Otherwise, you may end up killing someone who could easily be manufactured into a perfect child, and morally speaking, killing a child who can easily be made perfect is just as wrong as killing a child who already is perfect.
There is also the other important possibility to consider which is that the child may end up being physically imperfect, but a genius. I’m no expert in morality, but I think that if your child was physically imperfect but was working on some really important work, you could morally permit the child to live and work on his work as long as he was isolated in a room, away from the general public, and never allowed to leave or be seen by anyone. So suppose a child has a cleft lip but has the intelligence to find a cure for breast cancer. In this case, I think it would be moral to use the child to the best of one’s advantage and have them find a cure (isolated in a room, of course). It’s a hard moral question, but the goal here is to get the most out of your product. There are ways to work around defects, assuming there is sufficient reason to. And of course, once the defective child is no longer useful, it would be morally permissible to dispose of him.
Hope that makes sense.
Katie. With children all people eventually learn to expect the unexpected.
Katie, whether you like it or not, truth hurts. I wasn’t hoping that you’d have no children for your sake, I was hoping it for their sakes. God have MERCY on your children, because to be raised by somebody who would not love you unless you are perfect would be awful. I pray your child finds love.
The truth is you think these deaths of these babiesis a choice up to the mother’s convenience. You are WRONG in your thinking, it is relativism and culture of death, and it would NOT be love ( nor kindness) if people HERE agreed with your point of view so as not to hurt your feelings.
They have a right to be horrified and even disgusted at your lack of love.
I have good genes too. They did not prevent me from having a bad fall at 10 and deforming my hip at the growth plate. I’m 55 now and have walked with a limp all this time. Nobody found me less attractive because of it, in fact nobody has ever even mentioned it. BUT It changed my life and I directly attribute that event as making me more quiet and stable in my living habits.
When I was in my fifth month of my pregnancy, I got a blood clot in my left foot which felt like standing on a marble. It HURT.
The doctors said “We can’t give you the medicine to dissolve the clot because the medicine COULD harm the fetus. You have to have an abortion or you will die.”
I asked “Are you saying that ABORTING my “fetus” won’t HARM my “fetus”?!? Aborting WILL without ANY doubt, kill my “fetus” which I have every intention of accepting in any condition! Medicine could possibly harm my child. I choose not to take any medicine. I choose NOT to abort, and we’ll see what happens.”
I carried him full term and had a natural normal uneventful childbirth.
My “Fetus” is now 33 years old, married, and had has given me a lovely daughter-in-law and 3 grandsons, one of which is in heaven.
Obviously I did not die, neither did he. His son Isaac, who is in heaven had a birth defect which did not appear on any of those popular scans. Good genes on both sides of the family.
You need to understand WHO is in control, Katie. And it is NOT you and your genes. You and your genes livein an environment which can be entirely hostile to you and your baby’s health, no matter how careful you are. An improperly worn seat belt, in a minor car accident can do horrible things to you and your uterus, and your preborn infant.
A simple slip and fall is what set early labor into motion for Isaac. And it was only after Mom went through child birth that Isaac’s defect became visible. My son and daughter in law welcomed him, even dead, and still warm the priest baptized him. Why? Because the Church admits it doesn’t know how long a soul remains with the body even after it apparently has died. After his heart stopped beating inside my daughter in law’s womb, the doctors offered her an abortion, a D&C. Both she and my son cried out “You are NOT going to cut up our baby, even though he is dead!!” He was not medical waste to be disposed of in a dump. His was a HUMAN BODY, even though dead. She gave birth and held him and saw his perfection even though he had an UNSEEN defect. He was beautiful. He was buried in a baby cemetery.
We love him even though he has died.
In my pregnancy, only way I was able to lay flat on my back in a hospital bed for the next five weeks, was by me realizing I was not in control, God is. I prayed every day, almost all day, for my “fetus” and for me.
When the doctors discovered that the blood clot was gone from my foot, all hell broke loose because they were sure it had moved and I was about to die. One day passed, and another, and they couldn’t locate it in any of the arteries between my foot and chest. 3 days, 4 days. Nothing happened.
A doctor said “Apparently the clot dissolved on its own…”
I asked why NONE of them had even mentioned the POSSIBILITY that the clot COULD dissolve on its own. Why did they all say “The clot will move, hit your lungs and heart, and you WILL die a very painful death, unless you abort.”
Doctors are not God.
If your child is born imperfect are you going to Kill it? Give it away? Abandon it physically and emotionally and spiritually?
I read an account of some teen gang members being caught for killing a teen from a rival gang. One teen boy yelled “Why are you arresting me? I was just performing a late term abortion!”
Murder is murder, no matter the age of the living creature inside or outside a womb.
My nephew had surgery at 4 months old. There is no visible scar left from the surgery. His speech issues are pretty much gone and the only “imperfection” he has right now is his braces on his teeth.
I hope your child never scrapes his/her knees, because scrapes and booboos leave scars!(Oh the horrors!) So can the chicken pox, so I hope that doesn’t happen either. You are acting as if a child born with cleft lip is a circus freak!
“We must remember that a baby, once born, is an Italian citizen equal to all the others, and is entitled to all fundamental rights, including the right to health and therefore to be given full support.” — Eugenia Roccella, Under-Secretary, Health Dept. Italia
Brava, Sgra Roccella! That’s how I see him. My people have one of the lowest birth rates in Europe! We Italians are aborting our own flesh and blood for cleft palates!?
My God, when I think of the Italo-American couples here who could have adopted him. And I know for a fact, there are infertile Italian couples who go all the way to Romania or Russia to adopt foreign babies when this child, one of our own, could have been placed with them.