Saving babies: a new outlook abortion "rights" proponents are finding that their position is becoming even more indefensible because of the increased viability of small-sized infants.

Proponents of abortion have always maintained that abortion--that is, killing babies--is not murder, but a "termination of fetal tissue." And the legal system has upheld that viewpoint ever since the Roe v. Wade decision, even to the point of accepting third-trimester abortions and partial-birth abortions. However, recent events have called negative attention to the "logic" of the pro-abortion stance.

On September 19, 2004, twins were born to Mahajabeen Shaik--not an unusual occurrence of itself. But what was unusual was that the twins, Rumaisa and Hiba, weighed just 8.6 ounces and 1 pound 4 ounces at birth, when they were delivered by C-section after only 25 weeks and 6 days in their mother's womb (15 weeks before their normal delivery date). William MacMillan, the attending obstetrician, stated, "We were a little surprised at just how small Rumaisa was, but pleased to see that she was vigorous and seemed to be getting a good start."

Rumaisa has the distinction of being the world's tiniest surviving baby--she was about the size of a cell phone at birth. More important, she was smaller than babies who are killed routinely by abortionists. Despite their tiny size, Shaik referred to the healthy infants as a "great blessing." As of mid-December, Rumaisa was doing well and was slated to go home to join her sister Hiba in early January.

The care given to and the attitude taken toward Rumaisa are in stark contrast to those involving "Baby Hope" in 1999. This unnamed baby was delivered at an E.R. after a partial-birth abortion went awry. The baby was born at 22 weeks and weighed 1 pound (almost twice as much as Rumaisa). Despite the fact that the baby was perfectly formed and continued to breathe on her own for three hours after her birth, attending doctors decided that she was "unlikely to survive" and that nothing should be done for her. A medical technician, Shelly Lowe, felt sorry for the infant and held her in her arms for those three hours. When the infant finally died, the death certificate stated the cause of death as "extreme prematurity secondary to induced abortion" (which is considered a "natural" cause of death). Vicki Saporta, director of the National Abortion Federation, passed off Hope's death as a "miscarriage of a 22-week nonviable fetus." Lowe's perspective differs vividly from Saporta's statement. Lowe described Baby Hope as having "no voice to tell us that she needed our help that early morning, because others had decided for her that she was worthless and removed her from the ultimate and perfect life support equipment--her mother's womb."

There have been other "failed abortions" that ended more happily than Baby Hope's tragic fate. In the January 17, 2000 issue of THE NEW AMERICAN, William F. Jasper chronicled several "survivors" who miraculously avoided the scalpel, poisons, and other diabolical methods used to kill babies in the womb--survivors such as Gianna Jessen, Sarah Smith, and Sarah Brown. These survivors, says Jasper, are "unanswerable, living refutations" of babies within the womb being mere "blobs of tissue"--rather, they are tiny humans with the same unalienable rights as every other human.*

Legal Recognition

The debate over what is a baby and what is merely a fetus arose more recently when in mid-December, Lisa Montgomery allegedly attacked and strangled an eight-months-pregnant mother, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, then sliced open the woman's womb and stole the baby. Montgomery has been charged with kidnapping the baby. But if Stinnett had gone to an abortion clinic and had her child killed by an abortionist, there would have been no crime. Paradoxically, when Nodaway County (Missouri) Sheriff Ben Espey called in an Amber Alert after finding the body of the baby's mother, it took nine hours for the alert to be issued. "We had a live baby, and I thought that should qualify as an Amber Alert," stated Espey. "The information I was getting was that we didn't have enough information such as hair color, eye color, skin complexion, size and weight."

But eventually, the Amber Alert was issued, and it was credited with helping authorities find the baby (who had miraculously made the jump from fetus to baby in a few seconds), apparently physically unharmed, in an east Kansas home.

Again, just two weeks later, a man was arrested for brutally attacking his pregnant girlfriend in San Jose and was being charged with murder after her baby died. She was 18 weeks pregnant. The man, Clifford Watkins, is being held without bail in the Santa Clara County Jail.

Twenty-five weeks ... 22 weeks ... 18 weeks.... Those who argue for abortion are left with an untenable position--killing babies in the womb (or just outside of it) is murder and is being recognized as such. It can't be murder on Tuesdays by boyfriends, but a "viable medical procedure" on Thursdays by a licensed abortionist. Thanks to Rumaisa, other "survivors," their tragic counterpart Baby Hope, and the recent prosecution of crimes against babies in the womb, perhaps America is poised to reject the culture of death and embark on a new celebration of life.

* "The Survivors" by William E Jasper is available online at www.thenewamerican.com/focus/abortion/ listed under "Recommended Articles."