An Accidental Life (55 page)

There are many, many stories like this, and sadly they continued after the Born Alive Infant’s Protection Act became federal law in 2001. As I said, reader, the federal law did not bind the states. As of the date of writing this note to you twenty-six states have laws creating a specific affirmative duty for physicians to provide medical care and treatment to born-alive infants at any stage of development: AL, AZ, CA, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, LA, ME, MI, MS, MO, MT, NE, NY, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, WA, and WI.

Three states have laws creating a specific affirmative duty for physicians to provide medical care and treatment to born-alive infants only after viability: IA, MN, and ND. As the House Judiciary Committee Report noted, however, the limitation requiring a finding of viability presents a conundrum, since true viability can only be determined retrospectively. One state protects born-alive infants at any stage of development from “deliberate acts” undertaken by a physician that result in the death of the infant: VA.

Today, away from the eyes of the world and the media this crime continues. Data is difficult to come by—no surprise there. Facts generally come to light only when a dramatic crime is covered by reporters. For example, the abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was recently found guilty of murder of three infants born alive during induced labor abortions in his Philadelphia clinic. The bodies of other infants in the sixth, seventh, and eighth months were found in the clinic during the investigation. A similar case in 2011 in Maryland was dismissed on a technicality, but over thirty little bodies were found in a freezer at that clinic.

So, this remains an ongoing horror despite a finding in the House Judiciary Committee report over ten years ago that an infant born alive as of 2001 at twenty-three weeks had a 39 percent chance of sustained survival, and at twenty-four weeks, a greater than 50 percent chance of sustained survival, with the odds improving all the time. With medical advances, imagine what the chances of survival for a live-birth infant after medical assessment could be today.

It’s past time to hold this fact up to the light. Turn the page and read Melissa’s story. Melissa Ohden is a voice for the voiceless. Melissa survived a saline infusion abortion in 1977, and has now established The Abortion Survivors Network online, reaching out to survivors and their loved ones to let them know that they are not alone. The network provides current information about live-birth survivors, as well as an opportunity for those who wish to tell their stories to do that privately, or publically. The network offers comfort, companionship, understanding, and plenty of love. Melissa says that based loosely on figures by the Center for Disease Control, as of 2012, there are tens of thousands of failed abortion survivors in the United States alone.

The pain, of course, is not limited to infants born alive in a failed abortion. If you are a woman hurting and confused after an abortion you can find immediate confidential assistance, and compassion and understanding twenty-four hours a day by calling The National Helpline for Abortion Recovery at 1-866-482-5433, or by going to the helpline website at www.nationalhelpline.org. The National Helpline is a nonprofit organization which provides counseling, referrals for medical services, and accurate information.

So turn the page and read Melissa’s story. And following that, check out my website www.pamelaewen.com for some of the source materials—studies, articles, books—which formed the basis of the medical testimony for witnesses in our trial.

Melissa’s Story

Melissa Ohden is the Founder of
The Abortion Survivor’s Network, (www.theabortionsurvivors.com), a nonprofit organization which seeks to provide support to abortion survivors while also educating the public to the reality of abortion and abortion survivors. After experiencing her own struggles with feeling alone as a survivor and journeying through healing over many years, Melissa felt driven to establish this network to be of support to other survivors after witnessing the sheer number of abortion survivors out there and their needs.

Melissa’s biological mother was a nineteen-year-old college student when she had a saline infusion abortion in 1977. Although her biological mother thought that she was less than five months pregnant when she had the abortion, the fact that Melissa survived and weighed almost three pounds indicates that her biological mother was much further along in her pregnancy than she realized. In fact, when Melissa obtained her medical records in 2007 that detail the abortion procedure that she survived, one of the first notations by a doctor after she survived was that she looked like she was approximately thirty-one weeks gestation. Despite the initial concerns that doctors had regarding her ability to survive, and the quality of life she would experience if she did, today Melissa is a healthy wife, mother, speaker and writer.

Although Melissa grew up knowing that she was adopted and loved, she didn’t find out the truth about being an abortion survivor until she was fourteen years old. Needless to say, finding out the truth about her life changed her and now the world forever. Melissa ultimately went searching for answers about her survival and her biological family, and since 2007, has had contact with both sides of her biological family in varying degrees. Through this search and reunion, Melissa has experienced firsthand what she calls the “intergenerational impact of abortion.” The reality is that abortion doesn’t just impact a woman’s life. It ends a child’s life and it forever changes the lives of everyone it touches, including women, men, extended family members, friends, and our communities.

Melissa is a mother, a wife, and a speaker and advocate for survivors of abortions and their loved ones. More information about her story, and about The Abortion Survivor’s Network, can be found on Melissa’s personal website: www.melissaohden.com.

Acknowledgments

This book could not have been
written without the assistance and support of many friends. Profound thanks to each one of you.

Dorinda Chiapetta Bordlee is a wife, a lawyer, the mother of four children, and a founder and Vice President and Senior Counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund, an international legal advocate for human rights at all stages of life. Dorinda was not only instrumental in guiding me through the legal evolution of rights, or the lack thereof, for infants born alive during an abortion, but she was also my role model for Rebecca’s inspired choice at the end of An Accidental Life. She is an example of a woman who made a difficult choice, and through that has found a happy and fulfilling balance between her family and a demanding career. Like many women today, Dorinda illustrates that there are alternatives.

Scott Schlegal, a former Assistant District Attorney of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, led me through the winding corridors of the courthouse in Gretna, introduced me around, and explained the pressing demands of every prosecutor’s life. He answered my numerous questions with good humor and held my feet to the fire on the burden of proof in the trial portion of the book, without judgment, in his cool, collected way.

Julie Gwinn’s editing of
An Accidental Life
was magical, seamless. I am thrilled to be working with her. Thank you, Julie, for believing in this book and for peeling back the onion. Without you the story of these children might not have been told and this book might have been just a (very long) manuscript sitting on my shelf. Special thanks also to Kim Stanford, Managing Editor, B&H Book Production for her patience with my constant revisions and her insight. And, as always, thanks also to the entire B&H team—Diana Lawrence, Matt West and the sales force, and everyone else who worked so hard to help get this book out to readers.

Jill Stanek’s testimony described in my Author’s Note before the Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, and thereafter in various public forums, inspired this book. Thanks, Jill, for the time you spent answering my endless questions, and for your courage. And thanks also to Melissa Ohden for telling her story to the world, and her strength and courage.

Thanks to both Dr. Hal Scholen and Margo Scholen, one of my former law partners who is also a registered nurse, for your friendship, advice, and help. And to Cheryl Schleuss, who walked me through the medical systems and protocols back in 1982, and to Dr. Mike DeFatta, Chief Deputy Coroner and Chief Forensic Pathologist of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Big thanks also to Peg Kenny of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Robert E. Winn, founder of Louisiana Right to Life and a former partner of a major law firm in New Orleans. And thanks to Cindy Collins, Louisiana State Director and member of the National Advisory Board of Operation Outcry, a ministry of The Justice Foundation for her support, advice, and introductions.

Reader, please understand that the opinions and conclusions set forth in this book came from my own research, including case law, articles, and published studies in journals, and are not necessarily the opinions and conclusions that any one of these fine people would have reached.

Finally, I want to thank my husband, James Lott, for his love and patience and understanding. Jimmy is in every sense my true love and my partner, and like Jude, I always know he has my back.