‘I lived when I was supposed to die, as a 31-week-old baby’

As an abortion survivor, I celebrated in June 2022 when, with its Dobbs ruling, the Supreme Court brought an end to the Roe era. Under Dobbs, we the people now have a say on the issue of abortion through our elected representatives. The Dobbs decision has led to many victories in the fight for life, and for that I am grateful. We now have 24 states with laws protecting unborn children at 15 weeks or sooner. The cultural conversations surrounding abortion have reached a new intensity, as it seems each state is arguing the issue. What about my right to live? What about the preborn babies still fighting for their lives?

This new era, however, has unfortunately bred abortion extremism. Too many Democrats have gone from pro-choice to pro-abortion, and the abortion lobby has ramped up aggressive campaigns to promote the procedure – without restrictions, sensible delays, medical examinations, or safety regulations.

This is what is happening in Pennsylvania.

State Rep. Kristine Howard has introduced a bill so extreme as to be almost unfathomable. House Bill 2304 removes health and safety protections for women, including the 24-hour waiting period, parental consent for minors, and informed consent required in current law. Worst of all, it eradicates the law protecting babies born alive after a failed abortion.

I was born alive after a failed abortion attempt. I lived when I was supposed to die, as a 31-week-old baby.

I grew up in Iowa, in a loving home knowing that I had been adopted by parents who loved me. I had a happy, normal childhood. At the age of fourteen, I found out that I had survived an abortion. What did it mean to survive something like this? Who was my birth mother? How could my birth mother give me up? These are only a few of the questions that I wrestled with for decades.

When my birth mother was 31 weeks pregnant, her mother – a prominent nurse at a local hospital in Sioux City, Iowa – forced her to have a saline-induced abortion to end my life. For days they injected a toxic solution into the amniotic fluid, a solution designed to poison and scald me until I was delivered dead. On the fifth day, I was born alive, but my birth mother was led to believe the abortion was successful. I was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit, where, without my birth mother’s knowledge, I survived. I was later placed for adoption.

I always knew growing up that I was adopted, and my adoptive parents told me that I had survived a saline abortion, but the details became clearer after ten years of searching. After trying countless times to find my birth family through adoption records, I found the answer through my medical records. Within those papers, I discovered more details about my birth and read for the first time that a “saline abortion” had been “performed but was unsuccessful.” And I learned my birth parents’ names.

In 2016, I reunited with my birth mother, Ruth. I will never forget the pain in her eyes when we first met – a pain that my survival helped dull but could never erase. Ruth was led to believe that her abortion had been a success for over thirty years and that I didn’t exist. She was shocked to learn that I had survived the abortion. Ruth questioned how I could ever love her or forgive her. I’m grateful that I have been able to offer her unconditional love.

Today’s culture falsely declares that abortion is not just a choice but a right. It creates a narrative that a child who is aborted is unlovable and unwanted. I wish that our society valued unborn life. But how is it that we cannot all agree, at least, that our laws should protect babies after they are born?

The heartless policies of HB 2304 have no place in Pennsylvania or any state. I call on Democrats and Republicans alike to reject this measure.

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