The word ordeal is barely adequate to this horrific story. But stories like this are not justification to abort a fully formed baby. As it turns out, both mother and baby are doing well after 13 years, showing that abortion after 8 months was not medically necessary in this case, but rather a more expedient choice during a period of terrible duress - when life and death decisions are most likely to be flawed.

I think most Americans see the 15-week milestone as a reasonable point to stop abortion at will for any reason. After that, I think most Americans support the mother’s right to survive should a pregnancy be determined to be dangerous to her life. Besides the mother, there is another human life involved here too, and as a moral and ethical species, we should not forget to speak up for that life too. It is true that we have all passed through that stage of development on our journey to our current selves, a perspective we should all bear in mind. In the case where the unborn is not viable or has a debilitating condition, there is again a reasonable case to be made to abort after 15 weeks when that condition is first detected.

The problem with unlimited access at any time being a LAW is that such a law codifies terminating a life for possibly frivolous reasons. We don’t allow anyone to terminate another life for a frivolous reason any other time, so why here? If it is to keep doctors from fearing lawsuits, let’s have the conversation to see how we could mitigate those concerns. We have found a way for self-defense and war. I think consensus could be reached on that. Since so few abortions are done in late term, this shouldn’t impact many mothers to be. And once consensus is reached, it will eventually be accepted by the population and become more uniformly applied in the law.

This story tells of a horrific experience, and it must have been awful. But congratulations on the outcome. And there is no doubt that even with that experience, this mother would never allow anyone to prematurely end her son’s life now. We need more expectant mothers to act this way.