Abortion: Murder or Convenience?

Abortion: Murder or Convenience?

The woman was 22 weeks pregnant when she sought the assistance of Dr. Martin Haskell, the originator of the partial-birth abortion procedure, to rid herself of her already-kicking child. Haskell performed the first stage of the partial-birth abortion. He inserted a seaweed-based substance into the woman's cervix and instructed her to return the following day. But in this case, things did not go according to plan. The woman complained of severe abdominal pain on the first night and, being far from Haskell's clinic, reported to the emergency room of her local hospital, Bethesda North, in Cincinnati. As she was being examined (she did not say she was pregnant), the baby was born - alive. Pediatricians and neonatologists came running. The baby girl weighed in at 1 pound.

The doctors decided that the child was very unlikely to survive and instructed that nothing be done. Connie Boyles, a nurse, and Shelly Lowe, a medical technician, saw the baby girl gasp for air and were stunned. Lowe, knowing that the nurses were busy caring for other patients in the emergency room, asked if she could hold the child she dubbed "Baby Hope" until she died. The request was granted. Lowe wrapped Baby Hope in a blanket and settled into a rocking chair for what she imagined would be just a few minutes. She sang to her and stroked her cheeks. "I wanted her to feel that she was wanted," Lowe explained later. "She was a perfectly formed newborn, entering the world too soon, through no choice of her own."

The baby sucked on her lower lip, opened and closed her hands, and moved a bit as Lowe