Wednesday, August 20, 2008

May God Have Mercy Upon Our Souls

(HT: Baptist Press) Following is an excerpt from one of their stories today (linked above).

The procedure that normally resulted in a botched abortion is called "induced labor abortion" and requires inducing the woman, with the goal that the baby will die during labor. But sometimes, as Stanek testified before the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee in 2001, the baby survives.

"In the event that a baby is aborted alive at Christ Hospital, he or she is not given any medical care, but is rather given what my hospital calls 'comfort care,'" she testified, according to a transcript. "'Comfort care' is defined as keeping the baby warm in a blanket until the baby dies, although until recently even this was not always done."

Parents were given the opportunity to hold their aborted baby, but most of the time they declined. Stanek then told of how she watched one particular baby die, a moment that helped change her mind about abortion.

"One night, a nursing coworker was taking an aborted Down Syndrome baby who was born alive to our Soiled Utility Room because his parents did not want to hold him, and she did not have time to hold him," Stanek testified. "I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone in a Soiled Utility Room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived. He was 21 to 22 weeks old, weighed about half a pound, and was about 10 inches long. He was too weak to move very much, expending any energy he had -- trying to breath [sic].

"Toward the end, he was so quiet that I couldn't tell if he was still alive, unless I held him up to the light to see if his heart was still beating through his chest wall. After he was pronounced dead, we folded his little arms across his chest, wrapped him in a tiny shroud, and carried him to the hospital morgue where all of our dead patients are taken."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just finished reading it before checking your blog. Gut wrenching. People will call me a one-issue voter, I don't think I am but OK, I'll live with the charge. I'd sure like to stay on the right side of this one issue.

Dave Miller said...

Her testimony is also on YouTube.

I made a personal commitment years ago that I would not vote for a candidate whom I knew to be pro-choice. I look at other issues as well, but for me, abortion is a deal-breaker.

Here's my bottom line: if a man or woman cannot see that killing a baby in its mother's womb is wrong, I cannot entrust my vote to that person.

If McCain picks a pro-choice running mate, that is going to be a tough call. I'll probably just stay home that day.

Robin Foster said...

Bart

This sickens me to the core of my being. How someone can trust in the Grace of God and still be a proponent for this procedure of genocide is beyond me. Thanks for posting this and yes, may God have mercy on our souls.

Pastor Mike said...

I believe that the saddest part of it all is that there are many Christians who "easily" seem to separate their faith and their politics, some even go to my church. I just can't fathom that.

John T. Meche III said...

Excuse my language, but I don't know whether to cry or throw up. My wife is 23 weeks pregnant yesterday. We're so excited to meet our little Amelie in December. This is outright murder. How in the world is birthing a live baby and leaving it to die not considered murder? I know that I am no better than any abortion doctor in the eyes of God's judgment on sin, but I just don't understand why people would do this.

Anonymous said...

My only comfort is knowing that these precious souls wake up in the arms of Christ.

However, we have a long road ahead of us if we elect a president who is in support of allowing this to happen.

...and just when I thought we were making progress.

Jennifer B. (hi, Bart!)