Prolifers like to say that every late term abortion Dr. Tiller provided was "frivolous". No, they weren't. The story of Baby Faith is the story of prolife ideology gone horribly awry.
The Story of Baby Faith Hope is a blog written by a 23 year old woman who discovered she was pregnant with an anencephalic baby. Anencephaly is a neural tube defect which results in a baby that is missing most of its brain. In fact, such babies are missing most of their heads and are born without the top of the skull. You can see some pretty horrifying pictures of you search "anencephaly pictures". These babies have no hope for survival, the only possibility for them is suffering and death. It's a tragedy, plain and simple.
My name is Myah Walker. In about 8 weeks from now I will be giving birth to my little girl, Faith Hope. Faith was diagnosed with anencephaly at my 19-week ultrasound on September 12.
Anything after 20 weeks is a late term abortion. Thank whatever you want they are legal in such circumstances, because I can't imagine being faced with this sort of news and then being forced to rush about trying to get an appointment for an abortion within 5-7 days.
Myah is staunchly prolife.
When given the option to either carry her to term or terminate the pregnancy, I immediately told the doctor that I wanted to carry her to term. It was not a decision that I had to think about. For some reason I had to give the doctors my decision over and over again, which was frustrating. One doctor asked, "Can I ask why you want to continue this pregnancy?" I guess some people are baffled by unconditional love.
No, sweetie, like me they were baffled that you would want to put yourself and a baby through such pain unnecessarily. I can't possibly judge you, the position you were in is unthinkably cruel, but I can't imagine making the same choice, nor should I or any other woman be forced to.
What happens next, however, is even worse. After giving birth, Myah believes that baby Faith has some chance at a normal life. At one point, she describes baby Faith as "advanced". She does everything possible to keep her alive, feeding baby Faith through a tube because she can't coordinate sucking and swallowing, giving her medication after medication for her breathing difficulties, trying to find a pediatrician for her.
What's truly cruel is that Myah blames herself for her baby's death.
On May 23rd, 2009, Faith passed into Heaven. She died of a gastro-intestinal bleed. She did not die of anencephaly, as predicted. She died of a stomach ulcer... something that may have been prevented if we had found our Pediatrician a little sooner. It breaks my heart to think that if we had done things differently, that Faith might not have suffered the way she did. But I have peace knowing that she is safe in Heaven now, living a beautiful pain-free life.
No, Myah, you did not kill your baby. No pediatrician could have saved her. Yes, the medication she was on caused the ulcer, but without the medication, she would have died sooner. She had no chance at all. You did nothing wrong.
To make matters even worse, prolife groups published fairy tales about Baby Faith's short, painful existence.
When the baby was born, she was apparently able to both see and hear and suffered no health problems other than anencephaly. No medication was required in Faith’s daily care and she was able to breastfeed, although she also received nutrition through a tube.
That's an outright lie.
When the baby was born, she had half a skull. Almost every post after Baby Faith was born chronicled her health problems, from constant breathing difficulties to eye infections and bleeding ulcers and she took medication every day of her life.
If Myah had had an abortion, she could have moved on. Instead, she gave birth to a doomed child, came to believe she was not only normal, but advanced, and now blames herself for her baby's death. This is the malignancy of prolife ideology, and ideology that forces innocent women and children to suffer horribly. I can hope that baby Faith couldn't feel pain, but I doubt it. She could open her eyes, she could make noises and move her limbs, she could probably feel pain.
This is what "no abortion ever" forces upon its victims. It is evil.
Even in the days when I was morally opposed to abortion, I despised the pro-life movement because to them life was not a "value" but a fetish. What with the myth spreading ("abortion causes breast cancer", birth control kills babies/women" ect.), opposition to late-term abortion (those are the ones that are actually done to save the woman's life), the opposition to life-saving contraception with no reason given other than "most of the excuses that women give for having their children killed through abortion are the exact same reasons we give for not having children." and the terrorist activities. These people care more about the reputation defending life than about defending life itself.
ReplyDeleteEnd rant.
If it weren't disgusting to joke about sad stories like this one, I'd say something like "Well, it's no surprise that fundies believe it's possible to live without a brain."
ReplyDeletePoor kid. Poor brainwashed mother...
How absolutely heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteThe sister of one of my best friends (we'll call her R) received a diagnosis that involved the words "incompatible with life" at her 20 week scan. She and her husband made the decision to terminate at 25 weeks. One of R's best friends made the mistake of telling her mother. That mother had the gall to call R's parents and beg them to convince their daughter not to terminate, that it wasn't "God's plan." How they felt this was ANY of their business turns my stomach. (That friend must have felt beyond awful for spilling the beans to her mom.)
They just had a beautiful, healthy baby a few weeks ago, and I can't even imagine how welcome and loved that baby is. That friend's mother can stick it up her ass.
Yeah, I have a family member that received the same diagnosis with her first pregnancy. She's prochoice, but she desperately wanted that baby. She went to 4 high risk OB/GYNs begging for another option, a different diagnosis, but there was none. The baby had one of the nastier trisomies, and there just wasn't any hope.
ReplyDeleteShe had an abortion, mourned for about a year, and has since had 2 healthy children. Her sister still doesn't speak to her.
My god. I feel for her, I really do, but I also hate her for putting her baby through that pain. I can't help it, I know the depth of love I feel for my daughter, and I would never put her through that. Never.
ReplyDeletei can't tell which is more -
ReplyDeletemy sadness at the needless pain, all around, or my rage for the needless pain, all around.
i tried to read on her blog - it's just.
gonna be honest here - there are times when i *do* wish my mother had aborted me - i was an unplanned pregnancy, my parents only got married because of that pregnancy, and etc. most of the time i can enjoy life.
but that... that was an absolute *mockery* of life, all around...