{"id":313805,"date":"2024-06-15T09:38:14","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T14:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=313805"},"modified":"2024-06-17T09:52:46","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T14:52:46","slug":"preterm-delivery-isnt-miscarriage-killing-medical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/preterm-delivery-isnt-miscarriage-killing-medical\/","title":{"rendered":"Preterm delivery isn’t ‘miscarriage,’ and killing isn’t a medical treatment for a preborn child"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

In an op-ed for the Des Moines Register<\/a>, a woman named Abby Collins shared her personal story of receiving a prenatal diagnosis and developing preeclampsia during pregnancy. Though her emotional story is meant to provoke anger about pro-life laws, what Collins is essentially advocating for is the elitist and eugenic idea that some children are better off dead than born.<\/p>\n

Collins begins by attacking an unnamed religion that allowed her to grow up “in a culture of women and babies dying” because their “church taught that God would heal us, and people routinely refused life-saving medical care.” She said that through this unnamed religion, she “saw first-hand what happened when pregnant women didn’t get the medical care they needed.” However, she never said that this religion forbade<\/em> medical care, just that members “routinely refused” such care.<\/p>\n

A person refusing medical care for herself has nothing<\/em> to do with pro-life laws \u2014 which only prohibit the intentional killing<\/em> of preborn children, not actual<\/em> medical care. Necessary medical care is never denied to a pregnant woman in any state by reputable medical providers; if necessary and legitimate medical care were denied without good reason, those medical providers could be guilty of negligence.<\/p>\n

Refusing care for children<\/strong><\/p>\n

A parent’s refusal to provide medical care for a child is, however, similar to the abortion Collins is advocating for in cases like hers. She explained that at her 19-week appointment, she found out her preborn child had a “serious growth restriction<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

“[I]f I miscarried in the next few weeks, it would likely have severe developmental delays or die,” she said of her baby. “Meanwhile, I was at high risk for life-threatening preeclampsia.”<\/p>\n

First of all, this phrasing is noticeably odd. It appears she is referring to early or preterm delivery as a ‘miscarriage.’ This is inaccurate; miscarriage is when the child dies<\/em> in the womb before 20 weeks gestation. A miscarried child would not have “severe developmental delays” because a miscarried child has already<\/em> died<\/em>. Considering the fact that the media is currently fixated on the lie that women are being denied “miscarriage care,” Collins’ use of the term “miscarriage” in her story instead of the accurate phrase “preterm delivery” is likely to evoke a more emotional response from readers.<\/p>\n

If Collins were to go into preterm labor at 19 weeks, her child would not likely survive. But if Collins went into labor “in the next few weeks,” as she stated \u2014 especially at or after 21 weeks gestation \u2014 her child actually would have a chance of survival<\/a>. While a child born this early can have developmental delays, Collins implies that this would be a fate worse than death for her baby \u2014\u00a0and that just the chance<\/em> of preterm birth and developmental delays was justification for killing the baby before any of these possible outcomes could even occur<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Second, Collins claimed that “the specialist who confirmed the diagnosis wouldn’t answer our repeat questions about our prognosis.” She added, “Since I was close to 20 weeks, she only responded with, ‘I don’t know what you want me to say. At this point, you’re having this kid.'”<\/p>\n

This implies that Collins may have been asking about abortion specifically, and attempting to learn if her child’s prognosis would allow for an abortion. If she had asked about the prognosis in terms of getting proper care for her child, it is likely the response from a “specialist” would have been different.<\/p>\n