Evidence indicates more than eight in 10 prenatal test diagnoses are wrong, and yet up to nine in 10 of the babies diagnosed with serious conditions are subsequently killed in abortion. Texas is looking to correct this horrible situation.
The Texas legislature has passed the Perinatal Palliative Care Act or Senate Bill 1233 to help ensure options for care for mothers whose unborn children might potentially have serious conditions. Even The New York Times has admitted the extreme unreliability of prenatal tests in diagnosing serious and rare diseases and conditions in unborn babies, and yet many doctors don’t provide any options to pregnant mothers but abortion.
Crisis pregnancy centers, religious organizations, and other entities are available across the country to help mothers, both before and after the baby is born. Now in Texas, doctors would be required to provide more information and resources to mothers than simply the offer of abortion based on a highly unreliable test.
LifeNews explained:
Prenatal tests indicate possible health issues in 2–3% of pregnancies, but up to 85% of those results are false. Most parents aren’t told that—and tragically, up to 90% of these babies are aborted. Only 19% of women are informed about specialized care options. Every baby deserves dignity, no matter the diagnosis…
Care begins at diagnosis and continues until the baby’s first birthday, even if the little one does not make it that long. It includes medical, emotional, spiritual, and practical support from a team of specialists, religious counselors, and community support providers. SB 1233 clarifies that this never includes acts done to cause or hasten the baby’s death.
Every life is infinitely valuable. The pro-life Founding Fathers believed it, and it was enshrined in the 14th Amendment. This country was built on the idea that each individual is endowed with certain unalienable rights by God, including life. And if we once admit any subjective measures on what makes life valuable — whether it is inside or outside the womb, sex, race, wealth, or anything else — then we have undermined one of the primary ideas that underpin the entirety of our American philosophy and form of government.
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Young mother Ava Trammell understood that. Her daughter did have fatal complications, but Ava wouldn’t abort her. “This might be crazy because I know she’s not going to survive anyway, but I only have so much time left with her. Why should I cut it any shorter?” she told her parents, according to LifeNews. “She’s safe in my womb… I’ve seen what an abortion looks like… I don’t think I could bear to have her ripped piece by piece out of my womb and shorten the life that is already so short, take her away from a spot where God has placed her in my hands, in my womb, where she’s safe and she’s warm. Where she only knows love and she doesn’t know pain. Why would I give her such a painful death, when she’s perfectly fine with me?” Baby Sophie died the same day she was born, but her mother will always treasure the precious minutes she spent holding and loving her.
I have personally known a number of women who were told their children would have serious complications. In some cases, the diagnoses were completely wrong, and the children turned out to be thoroughly healthy. In other cases, the children had to go through numerous surgeries, and in one case, the baby died. But in all those cases, the children were loved, and the parents felt themselves blessed by the children.
Life is too precious a gift to treat cheaply. One hopes that more states will follow Texas’s example in protecting it.
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