This is a pro-choice columnist’s comments on a letter she received in response to her stand on late term abortion. The letter was written by a nurse who works in the abortion field:
“Every so often, a letter arrives in a columnist’s mailbag that throws a hand grenade right into the middle of a long-held view. That happened to me last week following my article in which I urged caution before lowering the time limit on abortion from 24 to 20 weeks. The letter came from a Registered General Nurse named Kay who works on a gynecological ward that regularly deals with late abortions. She apologized for the “unpleasant and upsetting aspects of her letter” but felt her points needed to be said. I agree, and felt it also warranted a wider audience. Apparently, at 20 weeks, tablets can be given to kill the fetus prior to expulsion. But at 24 weeks it is sufficiently strong to survive the treatment and many are born with signs of life. “It is all too easy for people to picture a clump of cells or mush. People don’t want to picture perfectly-formed miniature babies and I don’t blame them. I was once the same. But having cut the umbilical cord on one who survived, then had to watch him gasp for breath for ten minutes on the side of a sink before he died, the sight will haunt me forever.
The reason given in this particular termination was that the mother’s current boyfriend had a toddler son who might get jealous of a new baby. It took them 21 weeks to come to that conclusion.”
Quoted by Christina Dunigan. RealChoice blog. “Even Abortionists Get Queasy” Sunday, May 18, 2008. http://realchoice.blogspot.com/2008/05/even-abortionists-get-queasy.html
To read more about babies born alive after abortions, go here.