{"id":218659,"date":"2020-02-20T14:27:42","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T20:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=218659"},"modified":"2020-02-19T15:57:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T21:57:51","slug":"different-beautiful-azariah-thriving-parents-no-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/different-beautiful-azariah-thriving-parents-no-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Different is beautiful’: Azariah is thriving today because his parents said no to abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Angela Smilovici and her husband felt their world shatter when a doctor “encouraged” them to abort their son. During a pregnancy anatomy scan, doctors had discovered abnormalities that pointed to either Trisomy 18 or a different chromosomal condition. Doctors weren’t sure the baby would even survive his birth and felt that abortion would save the family from suffering. They were wrong.<\/p>\n

“I was angry this doctor would suggest such a thing as ‘terminate,’ but I knew that was her job,” Smilovici wrote in an essay for Love What Matters<\/a>. “She was trying to spare me and my child from a life of suffering if he did live, but who are we to determine who will suffer? My son’s life was never an option. It had a purpose. I would protect my baby and fight to keep him safe. Little did I know how much he would fight to live also.”<\/p>\n

Smilovici and her baby were monitored throughout the pregnancy and at 35 weeks, her son was born weighing four pounds five ounces.<\/p>\n

“He was alive! We named him Azariah, which means ‘Our God has helped.’ His name would go on to show how God helped him,” wrote Smilovici.<\/p>\n

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