The Supreme Court of India ruled a woman 25-weeks pregnant should end her child’s life in an abortion as soon as possible. NDTV reported that the judges’ ruling followed the disturbing advice of a medical panel, which deemed that the child should be killed instead of given a chance at Life. The woman’s identity and the gender of her six-month-old preborn baby are being kept private.
Reports indicate that the baby suffers from cardiac abnormalities, which would require multiple surgeries at birth, and there is a chance the baby would not live long after birth. In this shocking anti-Life ruling, the court sided with doctors who have decided the baby is better dead in a violent abortion than given the chance to live as long as his or her condition allows. Doctors also expressed concern that the baby’s condition might pose a risk to the mother’s health. The reality is that if the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s health, abortion is still not necessary. Abortion is never required to save the Life of the mother. If needed, the baby can be delivered prematurely, protecting the mother’s health and well-being, while still giving her son or daughter a chance at Life. The baby might die shortly after birth, but this is not certain. Especially as medical science has advanced and children born at just 22 weeks gestation have grown to adolescence and are still alive and well.
In India, as in Texas, abortion is illegal after 20 weeks gestation, the age at which children undeniably feel pain. However, parents can petition the court if there are special circumstances in order to end the child’s Life after this stage. In recent years, an increasing number of cases have resulted in late abortions that take the Life of a preborn baby who feels the unimaginable pain of the abortion.
Primarily, exceptions have been granted to victims of rape. These rulings are disturbing, because they ignore the further trauma to the victim of a violent crime posed by abortion. They also ignore the Right to Life of the innocent child who had no choice in being conceived in a criminal act. Life News noted that one judge defended the Life of the child in a tragic rape case saying, “Whatever be the circumstances in which the child was conceived, whatever the trauma of the young mother, the fact remains that the child is also not to blame for being conceived. It did not ask to be born. The child is innocent, just like the victim, its mother.” Unfortunately, this Pro-Life ruling was overturned by a higher court.
The current case mirrors the discrimination we have seen in Texas. A child’s Life is threatened simply because of a disability. Although the child may only live a short Life, doctors cannot know with certainty what the future holds. The possibility of a disability never justifies taking a human Life. Interestingly, other court rulings have defended the lives of some disabled preborn babies but not others. In February of this year, the court rejected the petition of a woman whose preborn baby was diagnosed with Down syndrome. The judge noted that abortion could not be allowed because “we have a life in our hands.” In every case in which distressed parents petition the court for a late abortion, there is a Life, and abortion ends that Life.
The anti-Life ruling that a six-month-old preborn baby should die because of a disability is tragic. The panel of doctors dangerously misled the distraught family and the judges with their anti-Life views. We hope that India, and Texas, end the deadly discrimination against babies with disabilities and protect all lives.