A rare side-by-side look at different sides of the late-term abortion issue
Two abortion-related headlines made the local news this week. The first, from ABC-7: “Parents speak out after baby undergoes groundbreaking in-utero surgery” and the second, from the Chicago Sun-Times: “Many women with high-risk pregnancies can’t get abortions in their home states. Illinois welcomes them.”
Both stories dealt with medically complicated pregnancies and how to best address them.
The Sun-Times feature details the “people” with pregnancy complications who come to Illinois for abortions, due to gestational restrictions in their home states, or comorbidities that make providers at free-standing abortion clinics hesitant to perform the procedure. Many of these out-of-state abortions are funded for the recipient, which also incentivizes their decision to travel to Illinois. Few elected bodies have gone as far as the Illinois General Assembly, with the support of Governor JB Pritzker, to expand abortion’s availability, with taxpayers funding a portion of it.
The Chicago Tribune, meanwhile, has previously given supportive coverage to a new “all-trimester” abortion clinic on the North Side, along with an embarrassingly gushing profile of abortionist Keith Resinger-Kindle who moved to Illinois from Ohio to open his “Equity Clinic,” where he specializes in later abortions. Kindle was recently named in a lawsuit by an Indiana woman who claimed that following her procedure at 22 weeks’ gestation; Kindle reportedly perforated her uterus and left 2/3 of her unborn child’s remains in her abdomen. The Indiana resident claimed that when she called the Equity Clinic the next day to complain of severe pain, Kindle instructed her to take a laxative. The woman was required to undergo extensive emergency surgery at a hospital in Indianapolis due to Kindle’s negligence, the suit alleges.
Illinois has the most extreme abortion laws in the Midwest, if not the nation. There are no legal gestational limits, no parental consent or even notification for minor girls, and even taxpayer funding. This despite the fact that the majority of Americans do not support post-viability abortions and more than 70 percent of Illinois voters said parents had a right to know if their minor daughter was undergoing an abortion. A majority of Americans also object to taxpayer dollars being used to fund elective healthcare procedures (and thanks to the efforts of Illinois’ very own Representative Henry Hyde, federal monies for abortion have been largely restricted. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortions, except in the case of incest, rape or life of the mother).
And so ABC-7’s coverage of Theo French, an English baby who was saved by in utero surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital, was a welcome, if not ironic, antidote.
There are situational similarities. Theo’s parents – his mother, Maisie and father, Josh - were also required to travel for their “reproductive healthcare” to a state where it was provided – in this case, Texas. Like the “people” referenced in the Sun-Times story, the medical condition that required their trip far from home was serious – baby Theo had been diagnosed with “complex gastroschisis" during his 20-week ultrasound. The condition occurs when a baby's intestines develop outside the body through an opening in the abdominal wall,” Theo and Maisie’s physician told ABC.
Surgeons – using separate anesthesia teams for both the mother and baby - -operated when Theo was only 26 weeks’ gestation (Illinois permits abortion up to 34 weeks, and sometimes beyond). Surgery was successful, Theo was carried to term, delivered by his mother vaginally, and is now a happy and healthy 5-month-old.
Fetal surgery has become more and more routine, correcting genetic and other medical conditions that at one time were fatal. And it is being done at earlier and earlier ages – the Cleveland Clinic makes surgical intervention for unborn children available as early as 16 weeks – only four months – into pregnancy.
It’s not as if Illinois does not have hospitals with the expertise to care for women facing high-risk pregnancies. My own nephew was born at Loyola University’s Medical Center after my sister-in-law experienced PPROM (preterm premature rupture of membranes) only 21 weeks into her pregnancy. Thomas was born at 22 weeks, 0 days gestation and is now a happy and perfectly healthy 8-year-old. In fact, Loyola’s NICU is world-renowned: According to the hospital, “Loyola’s NICU has been included in the Guinness World Records 2015 for caring for the world’s smallest surviving baby and the world’s second-smallest baby. Loyola has also cared for more than 3,000 newborns who have weighed less than two pounds; and our NICU has one of the state’s highest survival rates for infants with low birth weight.” Long-term health outcomes for many preterm, low birth weight children are excellent – in fact, one of the Loyola NICU’s former patients went on to work there as a labor and delivery nurse.
Additionally, many Illinois hospitals also provide support for women given an adverse prenatal diagnosis that cannot be resolved with fetal surgery. Perinatal hospice and palliative care are available throughout the state for families who choose not to terminate a sick or disabled child. Studies show that women who choose perinatal hospice fare better on every measurable scale when compared to those who opted for pregnancy termination. As an Oak Park mother whose daughter passed away shortly after birth put it:
“Some children are born dying. Providing late-term abortion does not save them. A dying child deserves love and comfort from her family, and parents deserve the peace that comes from providing that love and care. We do not have to kill a dying child.”
Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade four years ago, Illinoisans have been subjected to a steady stream of news stories meant to convince us that abortion is compassionate, necessary healthcare, worthy of public funding and support.
This past week, we were treated to a rare side-by-side look at different sides of the late-term abortion issue. It will be interesting to see if those stories presenting different outcomes continue.
Mary FioRito is the Cardinal Francis George Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. She is an attorney, the mother of three girls, and a life-long Chicagoan.
