Australian football player Gary Rohan and his wife Amie announced last month that one of their preborn twins suffers from a life-limiting condition. In a beautiful Pro-Life witness, the Rohans have chosen to share the news with their fans and joyfully choose Life for both their babies, however brief the Life of one twin will be.
Gary Rohan announced the pregnancy on Instagram saying that he and wife Amie were “over the moon” to be expecting twins. Along with the happy news, the Rohans shared that their 11-week ultrasound showed that one twin has anencephaly, a condition which prevents parts of the brain or skull from forming. As the Rohans explain: “Our brain is very sensitive, so to live our brain must have cushion and protection. Since our brain tells our heart to beat, our lungs to breathe, our legs to move and so on, these babies live from a few moments to a few hours after birth.” Because of this life-limiting disability, sadly many parents are told to end their babies’ lives in abortion.
The Rohans ultimately decided to choose Life for the twins, who are identical, and carry them both to term. Gary wrote, “We come to the decision that either way, BOTH our babies are beautiful, precious human beings, with the only thing being that sadly one’s life is destined to be cut short…And at the end of the day, we will always be parents to twins, our journey has just been written a little differently to others.” Amie explained the decision in an interview, describing the days after the diagnosis as “the hardest I’ve ever had.” While many parents tragically choose to end their babies’ lives, the Rohans chose to let both twins live as long as they can.
Amie said, “People keep saying to me ‘I’m sorry’ and I say ‘What are you sorry for? I’m having twins, I’m going to be a mother to twins for my whole life, whether they are here for one second or one week.’” After the Rohans shared their story and were inundated with responses from families who suffered a similar diagnosis, Amie was affirmed in her joyful Pro-Life choice. She explained to news.com.au that many parents who lost one twin to anencephaly made sure that the child remained a part of their lives, constantly telling the surviving twin the story and celebrating the short Life the other twin had. Although the Rohans acknowledge there will be “some really difficult days ahead” leading up to the twins’ May due date, they are grateful for the decision to share their experience so openly and for all the support they have received.
In Texas, Pro-Life laws do not protect babies like the Rohans’ twin from discriminatory and gruesome late abortion. Although Texas law has protected preborn babies from abortion after 20 weeks’ gestation since the passage of the Pro-Life Omnibus Bill in 2013, political manipulations created a deadly loophole. Babies who have a disability diagnosed before birth, such as anencephaly, are not protected and can be killed through abortion at any time during pregnancy, even after the point they undeniably feel the excruciating pain of the abortion procedure.
The discrimination in Texas law against babies with Down syndrome or another disability has remained despite the continued efforts of Pro-Life stalwarts to pass legislation that would protect all preborn babies. Notably, Representative Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) proposed an amendment in the most recent legislative session that would have closed the loophole, protecting preborn babies with Down syndrome from discriminatory late-term abortions. As usual, Byron Cook (R-Corsicana), thwarted the passage of Schaefer’s life-saving amendment. Cook is the House leadership lackey who orchestrated the first deadly loophole that excluded disabled preborn babies from protections given to all other preborn babies with the Sonogram Law in 2011. Because of the long overdue resignation of Cook and Joe Straus this year, Pro-Life Texans are hopeful that the next legislative session will include protections for all babies, so that families like the Rohans have the support to choose Life in our state.