An illegal abortion?
This report in The Sydney Morning Herald includes the following devastating account of the result of a (probably) illegal abortion of a 23-week old foetus here in New South Wales:
...the jury had to decide if the baby was alive—an issue the medical expert witnesses in the trial could not agree on.
The ambulance officer, John Hando, who pulled the blue-coloured baby out of the toilet bowl initially thought it was dead, but later described seeing the boy take some gasping breaths in hospital and hearing the midwife say “It's alive”.
But some medical experts said it was possible the gasping was a mere reflex—not enough to qualify as a sign of life.
Pediatrician Dr Vanessa Sarkozy also noted an apex beat of the baby's heart. Experts disputed whether this was a muscle reflex or a sign of life.
The baby, which had turned pink in colour by then, was not given resuscitation because doctors believed he had no chance to survive. He did not move.
The story is all the more horrifying when you realize that there is now sufficiently good medical technology available that babies born prematurely at this 23-week stage have some possibility of surviving to live normal and happy lives.
Perhaps surprisingly for some, abortion is still technically illegal in New South Wales. “Technically”, because most people assume that abortion is legal—and under certain vaguely defined loopholes it probably is.
This case, however, is testing the limits of the law in this state, while revealing some of the shocking realities of the abortion industry. CHN readers might pray that people are reminded of the illegality and the immorality of killing little children.