BRISBANE, Australia (LifeSiteNews) — The mother of a thriving 11-month-old girl says she’s “a million percent grateful that [she] didn’t listen to the doctors” who encouraged her to abort her preborn baby.
In an interview with Australian parenting website Kidspot, a 39-year-old mom identified only as “Jodie” said she viewed her latest pregnancy as her last chance to have a child after multiple miscarriages and a recently broken relationship.
However, she said her doctors began to encourage her to abort her baby due to alleged disabilities.
“They said because of my age, my past history as a smoker and other statistics that there was a high risk of Down syndrome,” the new mom said, adding that she was “infuriated” when the doctors urged her “to look at abortion.”
Pregnant moms are often encouraged to abort babies based upon diagnosis of Down syndrome. An estimated 60%-90% of babies diagnosed with the disability in the U.S. are killed in the womb, and the practice is common around the world. That’s in spite of the fact that people with Down syndrome overwhelmingly describe themselves as happy, and medical advancements have led to striking increases in the life expectancy of people with the condition.
Donald Trump has suggested a 6-week abortion ban is ''too harsh'', attacking Gov. Ron DeSantis for his bill protecting innocent human life after 6 weeks.
Obviously pro-lifers wish to protect all human life from conception with outright abortion bans.
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The former president said he is ''looking at all alternatives'' when asked if he would support such a 6-week ban, making this a crucial opportunity for pro-life voters to make their views known to him in no uncertain terms.
"He has to do what he has to do," Trump said about Gov. DeSantis' abortion bill. "If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don't even know if he knew what he was doing. But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh."
Anyone truly in the pro-life movement thinking the ban is too harsh must mean it's too harsh on those babies less than 6-weeks who can still be murdered.
Mr. Trump's outlandish claim about anyone in the pro-life movement opposing the ban is doubtful to say the least, but there was more to follow in the interview.
When pressed on whether he thought the bill was ''too harsh'', Trump would not answer directly, instead saying: ''I'm looking at all alternatives. I'm looking at many alternatives. But I was able to get us to the table by terminating Roe v. Wade. That's the most important thing that's ever happened for the pro-life movement.''
The former president is correct in saying the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a monumental step for the pro-life movement, but it should only be the beginning of banning the killing of babies in the womb entirely.
Donald Trump's belief that even a 6-week abortion ban is extreme spells trouble for every citizen concerned about ending abortion, which is why we need you to take part in this urgent petition to him.
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Our true loyalty is to innocent human beings facing death, none more so than those in the womb, and any candidate who prevaricates about something so important to building a civilized society has to be corrected.
We urge all Republican candidates to advocate for a total ban on abortion, without any exceptions - not just at 6-week's gestation as an incremental measure.
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Trump distances himself from 6-week abortion ban by DeSantis: 'Too harsh' - LifeSiteNews
RELATED: In Iceland 100% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. Think about that.
But a possible Down syndrome diagnosis wasn’t the only issue flagged by doctors who encouraged Jodie to abort her baby.
After an ultrasound at 30 weeks’ gestation, Jodie said doctors told her they “couldn’t see” some of the baby’s body parts, suggesting the little girl could be born with life-altering conditions.
“Among those were a missing septum pellucidum (membrane in the brain), which would cause learning difficulties and seizures, as well as missing optic nerves and no pituitary gland,” Kidspot reported.
“That’s when they said, ‘We think you need to terminate,’” Jodie recounted.
“It was horrendous. I was spiralling. I lost it. I burst into tears. I couldn’t hear anything after that,” she said. She told the outlet she researched what aborting a 30-week-old baby would be like and “just couldn’t do it.”
“I looked up the reality of terminating a child at that gestation, and it destroyed me. I would be induced and give birth to a dead child,” Jodie said.
That realization sparked a decision and she resolved not to follow the advice of the doctors.
“Everything in me said, ‘No, this doesn’t make sense,’” she said. “What they were telling me didn’t feel right.”
Fetal diagnoses are by no means certain, studies show.
Writing for USA Today, board-certified Ob/Gyn Christina Francis pointed out that “about 9% of adverse fetal diagnoses on ultrasounds turn out to be wrong, and that is only among the babies who are given the opportunity to continue living.”
“In some cases, depending on the method, false positives for fetal abnormalities are as high as 50%,” Francis added.
RELATED: ‘Everything they said turned out wrong’: mother of 8 recounts pressure to abort disabled daughter
For Jodie, doctors’ predictions about her baby’s health weren’t acceptable.
“I was adamant they were wrong,” she said.
Devoting herself to being as healthy as possible for the duration of the pregnancy, Jodie gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Jasmine, at about 40 weeks’ gestation after 30 hours of labor.
Though jaundiced at birth, Jasmine doesn’t have Down syndrome, isn’t missing any membranes, nerves, or glands, and is now a thriving, happy, and precociously intelligent 11-month-old.
According to Jodie, Jasmine has already begun crawling, is started to toddle, and has even begun reciting “bits of the ABC song.” Her only medical difficulty is an apparent tendency toward spontaneous reflux, which could trigger choking. As a consequence, Jodie keeps her baby close to her at all times.
Despite the challenges, Jodie told Kidspot she’s immensely grateful she chose life for Jasmine — and for herself.
“Before I became pregnant, I was seeing a suicide counsellor, but now I can’t imagine not being here,” she said.
“She’s completely changed my world. I’m a different person and a better version of myself because of her,” Jodie continued. “She’s everything that I’ve ever wanted in life in a tiny little package of perfection.”