
Update: A British appeals court has overturned this decision. I’m pleased by that result, however this story is still a chilling reminder of the control a government can try to exercise over citizens.
She’s the smallest newborn to ever survive.
Born from an emergency c-section in December, the little girl, nicknamed Saybie, was born at just 23 weeks. This week, the baby was discharged from the hospital.
When she was born, Saybie weighed just 8.6 ounces.
Not 8 pounds, 6 ounces. That would have been a healthy, above average birth weight.
Saybie weighed 8.6 ounces! About the weight of a juice box. Doctors knew she was going to be small, but when Saybie was born, even they were surprised.
Separated by the Mississippi River, Illinois and Missouri are in two different worlds when it comes to abortion. It’s a microcosm of much of the nation. As several states have passed new, strict laws on abortion, including Missouri, other states have passed legislation to further diminish the rights of the unborn.
Last week, Missouri passed one of the strictest abortion laws in the nation, outlawing abortion after eight weeks. Perhaps of greater significance is that the final abortion clinic standing in Missouri is expected to lose its license at the end of this week. In a statement from Planned Parenthood, they say that the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services is refusing to renew the license of the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis. If that clinic shuts down, it will be the first time since 1974 that a state was without an abortion clinic.
Planned Parenthood has taken the matter to court.
In the abortion debate, cases of rape and incest are often brought up as reasons as to why abortion rights are a necessity. It’s always used as somewhat of a trump card for the pro-choice side.
This week, in the wake of Alabama’s new abortion law, I’ve read different testimonies of people who were conceived in rape. It’s tragic that they’re often the poster children for why other children can be aborted. Their worth and lives are so easily cast aside in this discussion, as if it’s just a given that they didn’t have the right to be born because of the circumstances in which they were conceived.