I am writing this commentary in response to an event which occurred at the A-Z Women's Resource Center in Phoenix, Arizona on June 30. Perhaps you have heard or read about the now infamous "Baby Phoenix," the first infant to survive the horrible procedure of partial birth abortion. I will summarize the details for those whom this story has not yet reached.
Dr. John Biskind had begun an abortion procedure on a 17-year old mother who was supposedly carrying a fetus which was 23-24 weeks old (5-5.5 months). He soon found himself instead delivering a 6 lb. 2 oz., 37 week (nearly full-term) infant girl ... alive. Amazingly, the infant survived the procedure with a fractured skull and "two deep lacerations" on her face, but no reported brain damage.
My initial reaction to this story was one of sheer disgust, not to mention utter amazement that such a miscalculation could have been made at any licensed health center. Such a botched ultrasound diagnosis ought to be enough to strike fear into the heart of anyone who seeks the services of such abortion clinics. I simply could not believe that such an event had taken place. Yet, the more I have thought about this incident, the more I have begun to see it in a new light.
The thought which changed my mind was the following: the "Baby Phoenix" incident is nothing to drop one's jaw at. In fact, hearing about it shouldn't really surprise one at all. After all, the whole event began as just a normal, everyday procedure, right? The only amazing thing about it is that this time, a new human life resulted, and this is certainly no cause for concern. So wherein lies the rousing alarm of the "Baby Phoenix" incident? The shock lies not in the birth of the infant, but rather in the injuries she sustained and the gory details of this so-called "run-of-the-mill" procedure.
A partial birth abortion begins with the abortionist partially removing the fetus from the womb feet first. The baby's skull is then punctured with surgical scissors, and its brain is removed by suction to kill it. This repulsive, cruel procedure is currently considered acceptable in 43 of the 50 states in our nation. Had Baby Phoenix been 23-24 weeks old as assumed, she would have been merely another mark in the books, another one of the estimated thousands of unborn children subjected to this procedure each year; but instead, a mere 13 weeks have not only granted Baby Phoenix her life, but have also generated the biggest abortion story in years. Lucky 13.
I have asked myself what could possibly have happened in those 13 weeks to make Baby Phoenix's life more worthy of saving than the many other children whose lives were ended on that same day in other clinics across the country. What magical change could possibly transcribe in so short a time? As members of the Dartmouth community, we can all attest that a mere 10 weeks flies by like wildfire -- can we really be so naive as to believe that our identity as humans is defined in such limited terms?
Baby Phoenix's survival was a miracle, and I hope that the impact which she has on our society is no less miraculous. To quote Douglas Johnson, Legislative Director of the National Right to Life Committee, "a baby delivered prematurely at 23-24 weeks -- the original calculated age -- would have a one in three chance of survival if delivered normally in a neonatal unit ..." How can we continue to deny them this chance? Partial birth abortion is the most blatant violation of human rights in America today. It is time that we as a nation stop turning our eyes away and demand that our unborn children are shown both the respect and the right to life which they, as fellow human beings, deserve.
The national Partial Birth Abortion Ban, vetoed by President Clinton early this year, will be presented to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 23, for a vote en route to a possible override. Please show your support by contacting your state representatives informing them that we, the upcoming generation, support the right to human life. We owe such support to the generations to come.
For more information about contacting your Congressmen, check out The Armchair Lobbyist at http://www.prolife.org/tal.
For more information about partial birth abortion and the efforts to ban it, see: www.prolife.org.tal/sub8.html.
Lastly, for more info about how you can get involved on campus, visit Coalition for Life at Dartmouth at: www.dartmouth.edu/~vtl/life or blitz dcfl@dartmouth.edu.
Information for this column was taken from the Pro-Life Infonet's Daily Bulletin for July 11, 1998. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe" to: infonet-list-request@lists.prolife.org.
