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Baby Elizabeth and the
Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act By Dave Andrusko There are no villains in this story, outside of an abortion chain which is dropping broad hints it might be eager to exploit a tragedy for its own purposes. I am referring to Danielle and Robb Deaver, a Nebraska couple, whose story first broke over the weekend in the Des Moines Register, Iowa’s largest and most influential newspaper. Iowa is one of several states promoting legislation that is essentially identical to Nebraska’s historic Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. That first-of-its-kind measure, which passed by huge margins and which the usual pro-abortion suspects have yet to challenge, prevents abortions after 20 weeks, the point at which when substantial medical evidence clearly indicates unborn children feel pain. Mrs. Deaver told the Register’s Jason Claymore that she was eagerly anticipating the birth of her second child last November (she’d suffered three miscarriages) when her water broke. At the time she was 22-weeks pregnant. The next day an ultrasound showed there was barely any amniotic fluid surrounding their baby girl. According to the Register, Danielle was told she had suffered anhydramnios, a premature rupture of the membranes. Without amniotic fluid, the couple was told the infant would be born with facial and skull deformities (because the baby’s skull was still soft), a shortening of muscle tissue that causes an inability to move limbs, and the likelihood the baby’s lungs would not develop further. The couple said the first they learned of Nebraska’s law was when they told the perinatologist they want to “put an end to this nightmare”—induce a delivery. The perinatologist explained Nebraska’s law to them. Danielle went into contractions eight days later. Elizabeth, whom she described as “perfect,” lived for 15 minutes. That appears to be the medical basics of this very, very sad situation. It gets more complicated from there. “The Deavers have contacted Planned Parenthood of the Heartland but have not determined whether they will pursue a case to challenge the constitutionality of the Nebraska law,” according to the Register’s Claymore. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH) is a major force in the Midwest. PPH is one of Planned Parenthood's premier affiliates, with 23 clinics and three "education and resources centers" in Iowa, and Nebraska. Sixteen of its 19 clinics in Iowa offer abortion, and two of the three which do not are in Des Moines, where PPH already has two abortion performing centers. One of the group's four clinics in Nebraska, the one in Lincoln, currently performs abortions, but these are a relatively new acquisitions for PPH. PPH has already announced plans for a new large facility in Omaha which will be offering abortions. These days, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is known for its "innovation" of the web-cam abortion, which is has put in place at many of its smaller clinics. It’s not being overly cynical, I think, to wonder whether PP of the Heartland is contemplating using the Deavers as a test case Abortion techniques typically used in the second trimester are exceedingly gruesome, ranging from dismemberment to injecting poison into the baby’s heart. To be clear there is nothing in the story that suggests that the Deavers would have used either of these abortion techniques. But had the baby’s delivery been induced, Elizabeth still would have gone through the same struggle to breathe that she did when she was born spontaneously eight days later. Elizabeth was born at 3:00 p.m. December 8, weighing 1-pound, 10-ounce . She was 23 weeks, five days. “What [Mrs.] Deaver saw was perfection: A tiny but beautiful child. Ten toes. Ten fingers. Long eyelashes,” Claymore wrote. Granted, I am a pro-lifer. But I honestly think that even if you weren’t, were you to watch the video you might come to the same conclusion that I did. And that is while the Deavers are both sad and angry now, in years to come they will come to believe that having the chance to hold their baby even for those few minutes was the right thing to do. “For now, the Devers say speaking out is a form of therapy,” Claymore wrote. Julie Schmit-Albin is Nebraska Right to Life’s executive director and a major force behind the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Action. “What a tragedy it is when there is a poor prenatal diagnosis for the baby,” she said. “But isn't it more humane for that same baby to die in a loving manner with comfort care and in the arms of her parents than by the intentional painful death through abortion?” “It is a sad reality that some unborn babies are so injured that they do not survive,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, NRLC Director of State Legislation, who worked closely with Schmit-Albin. “Abortion falsely promises to give us ‘control ,’ but abortion would not have changed the outcome for baby Elizabeth.” Balch ended by observing that it is the very same Nebraska law that the Deavers are so passionately criticizing “ensured that Danielle Deaver would be able to hold her precious Elizabeth in her arms.” Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. 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