The baby at the center of 2012’s shocking forced abortion case in Nevada has been legally adopted by her grandparents, who fought to save her life after a county judge considered ordering their mentally handicapped daughter to have an abortion.
Cierramaria Cecilia Bauer, now 15 months old, was conceived when her mother, Elisa Bauer, wandered away from an assisted living facility for mentally handicapped adults and was impregnated by an unknown sexual predator. Elisa has the mental capacity of a third grader, and when workers at the facility discovered she was pregnant, they called social services, which led to a 40-day court battle over whether she would be allowed to have the baby, or forced to undergo an abortion and sterilization against her family’s will.
Elisa’s parents, Bill and Amy Bauer, told the court they wanted to help their daughter carry the baby to term, and place the child with loving and capable adoptive parents. Their Christian faith told them that life begins at conception regardless of how the baby was conceived, and that to abort the child would be murder.
But the judge presiding over the case told the Bauers their faith was “irrelevant” in his courtroom and said he would defer to doctors and social workers in deciding what was best for Elisa. One doctor summoned by the court said that an abortion and forced sterilization would be the only compassionate thing to do. “End this pregnancy and tie her tubes,” he said in a court hearing.
But after a passionate defense by Attorney Jason Guinasso on behalf of the Bauer family, along with a deluge of phone calls and e-mails from LifeSiteNews readers around the world begging the judge to reconsider, the court took the forced abortion option off the table.
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Little Cierramaria was born May 2, 2013. At the time, Mr. Guinasso told LifeSiteNews, “She is sweet and good natured. By all measures, she is perfectly healthy and sublimely beautiful. You and your readers were a big part of God’s plan to save this baby. She is a beautiful little baby. I can't adequately express how seeing her face makes my heart full.”
In an email to LifeSiteNews Saturday, Guinasso joyfully reported that Cierramaria’s adoption had been finalized, in the very same court where her grandparents fought so hard to save her life.
“Today … we witnessed the completion of the miracle of God changing hearts and minds about the value of a life which culminated in the celebration of the adoption of Cierramaria Cecilia Bauer … by Bill and Amy!” Guinasso wrote. “[My wife] Kim and I are so grateful to be a part of this family's life. We are also blessed beyond expression by the opportunity to watch this baby overcome adversity and grow into the woman God has predestined her to be.”
To LifeSiteNews and its readers, Guinasso added: “I would like to thank you all again for your amazing work in this matter.”