Pro-Life News in Brief

By Liz Townsend

World's Tiniest Premature Baby Born in England

The world's smallest surviving premature baby, born in London 16 weeks early and weighing only 21.14 ounces, is now six months old and is a healthy nine pounds. Christopher Williams was born November 21 at Whipps Cross Hospital, and is expected to be included in the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

"When I first saw Christopher I just burst out crying," his mother Leona told the Guardian. "He was so tiny that I didn't know how long I would have him for. Every day was a milestone, and every night I prayed that he would make it through the night."

The previous record-holder was James Elgin Gill of Canada, who was born 128 days premature and weighing 21.84 ounces.

Christopher underwent weeks of oxygen therapy and had two hernia operations, spending the first five months of his life in the hospital. But his mother said he is doing very well. "I look at him now and I can't believe he's the same Christopher," Leona Williams told the Guardian. "He's just a bouncing baby boy with the sweetest nature.

"I just want to do everything I can to make sure the rest of his life is easy now."

Abortion Ship to Launch in June

The first voyage of the abortion ship is scheduled to begin at the end of June, with Dublin, Ireland, as its first port of call, according to the London Times. The ship will moor 12 miles off the Irish coast and abortionists on board will kill unborn babies in violation of Ireland's pro-life laws.

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician, leads the Women on Waves Foundation, which funds the abortion ship. The ship is registered in the Netherlands, whose liberal pro-abortion laws will be followed as the ship will be moored in international waters. In addition to abortion, the ship will provide abortion information and training for doctors, according to the Times.

"If [Gomperts] breaks the law, she will have to be dealt with," pro-life Irish politician Mildred Fox told the Times. "If she is providing information, she's not providing any service that isn't already there.

"But if she is actually carrying out abortions, you have to ask - - what's next? Can we have a ship from the Netherlands selling drugs 12 miles offshore or carrying out euthanasia?"

Pro-abortion groups in Ireland invited Gomperts to bring the ship to their country, and "are planning an extensive publicity campaign around its appearance, including celebrity, legal, and medical endorsement," the Times reported. But pro-lifers are equally determined to prevent the abortion ship from spreading its message of death to Ireland.

"We are not going to allow Women on Waves to achieve the publicity they are looking for," pro-life leader John Smyth told the Times. "What we will do is draw attention to how we feel crisis pregnancy can be best addressed. Of course, we will look at the legal situation as well."

In addition to its stop in Dublin, the abortion ship may also sail to Cork and Northern Ireland, the Times reported.

Biskind Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

Arizona abortionist John Biskind received a five-year jail sentence and $12,841.40 fine May 4 for his role in the 1998 botched-abortion death of patient LouAnne Herron. A Maricopa County jury convicted Biskind, 75, of manslaughter in February.

According to the Arizona Republic, Judge Michael Wilkinson told Biskind during the sentencing hearing that the conviction was not "a political statement about abortion," but rather "about your indifference to whether LouAnne Herron lived or died."

Biskind punctured Herron's uterus while aborting her 23- to 26-week-old unborn baby on April 17, 1998, the Republic reported. He left the A-Z Women's Center without getting Herron emergency care even though she was bleeding profusely and complaining of pain. An autopsy revealed that Herron's uterus had a two-inch by 3/4-inch tear, and that she lost two to three liters of blood.

Michael Gibbs, Herron's father, addressed Biskind at the sentencing hearing, saying, "You could walk out of the clinic and leave my daughter bleeding and go to the tailor. Way to go."

Speaking just before he was sentenced, Biskind told Herron's family he was sorry for her death, the Republic reported. "My heart went into my shoes when I was told she had no pulse and no heartbeat," Biskind said. "I really ran away, and for what reason, I don't know."

Also convicted for her involvement in Herron's death was clinic administrator Carol Stuart-Schadoff. Convicted of a lesser charge of negligent homicide in a joint trial with Biskind, Stuart-Schadoff received a sentence of four years' probation, a monetary fine, 500 hours of community service, and a ban on working in the medical field.

Michigan Abortionist Agrees to Plea Bargain for Late-Term Abortion

Avoiding a trial for performing an illegal late-term abortion, abortionist Jose Higuera pled guilty May 7 to a lesser charge of falsifying medical records. He is expected to receive a sentence of probation.

Denying that politics played a part in the plea-bargain agreement, Chris DeWitt, spokesman for state Attorney General Jennifer Granholm, told the Detroit News, "The penalties are the same for both charges, and by pleading guilty to altering records, his medical license is automatically revoked. Any time you take a case to trial, there are risks of not getting a conviction."

"The only good that comes out of this is that he will no longer be practicing in Michigan," said Pam Sherstad, spokeswoman for Right to Life of Michigan.

Higuera, who no longer lives in Michigan or practices medicine, performed a two-day abortion procedure on an unidentified woman in his Highland Park clinic on October 14-15, 1994, the Detroit Free Press reported. Despite ultrasounds that determined the unborn baby's gestational age was 28 weeks, prosecutors charged that Higuera changed the woman's medical file to falsely show the baby's age to be 24 weeks, according to the Free Press.

Michigan law bans abortions after viability except if the mother's health is endangered. The legal definition of viability--when the unborn baby can survive outside the womb--is usually considered to begin after 24 weeks' gestation.

According to court documents, the woman told prosecutors that she wanted the abortion for "purely personal reasons and she was aware of no medical need supporting an abortion."