{"id":206379,"date":"2019-07-13T08:09:07","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T13:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=206379"},"modified":"2019-07-12T02:08:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T07:08:29","slug":"parents-life-riley-beautiful-angel-spina-bifida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/parents-life-riley-beautiful-angel-spina-bifida\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents choose life for Riley, their ‘beautiful angel’ daughter with spina bifida"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Crystal Ortiz and her husband Bryan were told that their preborn baby would have spina bifida<\/a>, a condition where the baby’s spine does not develop normally. Babies with spina bifida are born disabled, but can lead happy and successful lives. Often, they can even be helped with prenatal surgery<\/a>. However, Crystal and Bryan were encouraged to abort their daughter.<\/p>\n

When the doctor looked at the baby\u2019s 20-week ultrasound scan, he suggested abortion. Crystal recalls the conversation. The doctor said:<\/p>\n

Congratulations, you are having a girl, but she will be coming out either severely delayed or brain dead. Her lesion tells me that she also will be fully paralysed or paralyzed from hips down. You guys are young and can try again. I advise you abort.<\/em><\/p>\n

Crystal describes the rest of the conversation:<\/p>\n

The list went on and on about the negative things our sweet girl was going to be born with. He then proceeded to say, “if you would like to keep ‘it’ then we need to immediately do an amniocentesis test right now to see what other defects your child will be born with.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Crystal yelled at the doctor and told him to leave the room. The couple kept their baby, who they named Riley. Crystal documented her experiences with Riley on social media and was called \u201cselfish\u201d for not aborting Riley. But many other people were moved and encouraged by Riley’s story.<\/p>\n