As originally published for National Right to Life’s News Today on May 2, 2013 as “An Epiphany for an Abortion Survivor.”
I had an epiphany today at Live Action’s ‘Stop the Killing’ rally outside of abortionist Dr. Cesare Santangelo’s clinic in Washington, DC. A videotape of Santangelo’s abortion clinic taken by an undercover investigator for Live Action and released on Monday included this comment from Santangelo. When asked what he would do if a baby survived an abortion, he said,
“You know, there are certain things you do. Obviously, you’re here for a certain procedure [an abortion] and if your pregnancy were—Let’s say you went into labor, the membranes ruptured, and you delivered before we got to the termination part of the procedure here, you know? Then … we would not help it.”
Equally (if not more) callous comments were contained in a video Live Action released the day before. A clinician from the Women’s Health Center in the Bronx, New York, was asked by a pregnant Live Action investigator what should she do if at the end of what is supposed to be a two-day abortion she goes home and “it” just “pops out.”
The clinician responded, “If it come out, then it comes out. Flush it!”
As I said earlier today, “When I hear things like, ‘flush it down the toilet’ or ‘leave it to die,’ it horrifies me. I am so grateful for the medical professionals who found me after my biological mother’s failed abortion and provided me with medical care that sustained my life.
I’ve written frequently for NRL News Today of late about how the conversation about abortion has shifted to an all-out admittance by those who are pro-abortion that they recognize the humanity of the unborn but find it disposable anyway.
It was surreal to realize that I was standing in front of a building where other children who had survived failed abortions likely suffered a much different fate than I did. In the video Santangelo admits that they don’t provide medical care to children who survive “failed” abortions, but it struck me how I’ve now had to move from advocating that unborn children be protected and respected in the womb to advocating that we be provided medical care if we are fortunate enough to live!
I gestured to the fourth floor of the office building where Santangelo’s practice is, and I encouraged him to come face to face with abortion survivors to acknowledge our humanity and the devastation that he has sown. I suddenly realized today that this is what it’s come to in our world. Abortion has come so far that not only has the conversation about it changed, but so, too, has the depth and breadth of the fight.
We know the pro-abortion industry has been fighting tooth and nail for the last forty years to weave abortion into the fabric of our society and a highly profitable business for them.
We know how the pro-life movement has had to fight the battle for life on so many different fronts, ranging from the protection of life from the moment of conception to regulating abortion clinics so as to protect women, and everywhere in between. To me, it often feels like we are battling a war that has raged on and on for decades.
When I survey the current landscape, however, I see that at this very moment in time, we may be in the most important battle yet.
Although the abortion industry has attempted to paint abortionist Kermit Gosnell as an exception—an “outlier” or “renegade”–we know that Gosnell is not alone or unique in his inhumane treatment of women and children. Live Action’s undercover investigation, “Inhuman,” is helping to bring this truth to light.
By and large the media has done its best to ignore the horrors which prosecutors charge took place at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society. Likewise little to no attention is paid to the sordid practices of other abortionists.
But individuals and organizations in the pro-life movement have used successful social media campaigns to raise awareness and influence the media to report it. I am using one right now—National Right to Life News Today—and this story will be tweeted and re-tweeted all over the blogosphere.
That’s what hit me so strongly at today’s rally. I am no longer just a voice for the voiceless children in the womb. Like you, I am a voice for the children who survive failed abortions like me but are rendered voiceless by the actions (or inactions) of abortionists like Santangelo. I am a voice for those children who miraculously survived an abortion but who are not aware of their own stories of survival or don’t feel called (or courageous enough) to share of it publicly.
As surreal as living this life of a survivor is, I am deeply grateful to have been made for such a time as this. I am likewise grateful to be working alongside people like those that I was alongside in Washington, DC today, and all of you, who were clearly made for such a time as this, too.
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