from LifeSiteNews.com
Abortion survivor: Had I been born in Gov. Northam’s world, I could be dead now
RICHMOND, Virginia, February 5, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A woman who was born alive after a failed abortion 41 years ago indicated that had she been born under Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s proposed abortion regime, she might not have survived.
“There was an argument as to whether medical care would be provided to me,” said Melissa Ohden in an exclusive video interview with LifeSiteNews.
“I’m that child, that baby that everybody’s talking about,” Ohden said in reference to the national uproar that ensued after Democrat Gov. Northam made comments during a radio interview in support of infanticide last week.
Northam told a radio show host: "So in this particular example, if the mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen: The infant would be delivered; the infant would be kept comfortable; the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desire, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” Northam was speaking about a bill introduced by state Delegate Kathy Tran (D), who admitted in a hearing that her bill would allow abortion even at the moment of birth.
Commented Ohden: “I take Gov. Northam’s words really really seriously.”
Ohden related how when a saline abortion failed to kill her in 1977, she was “accidentally born alive.” A nurse took pity on her after seeing the 2 lbs. 14 oz baby gasping for breath and brought her to a neonatal ICU where she recovered and survived.
“There are many stories like mine,” Ohden said. “We’re not talking about hypothetical cases. We’re not talking about ambiguous circumstances. We’re talking about human beings.”
“So as frightening and disgusting as it is to hear these things, I do take hope in the fact that it's not hidden from plain sight anymore. We know what we're dealing with here – and now we can fight," she said.
Responding to radical abortion laws approved or proposed throughout the country, Ohden said that “it almost feels like we're living in the Twilight Zone. I know I'm not the only one that feels that way.”
“We live in what I would call a throw-away culture, a throw-away society where the value of life is very subjective,” said Ohden, who added that in such a culture “no one is ever safe.” The standards for the value of life thereby varies. If some people are deemed less valuable than others, Ohden said, “we need to be concerned about that.”
Speaking about the approval of New York’s radical pro-abortion Reproductive Health Act, which repealed requirements for doctors to provide life-saving care to babies born alive, Ohden said that pro-abortion forces have always sought to start momentum for late-term abortion in one state to affect other states. “The fact that it is not being hidden,” she said, “is what’s most surprising.”
Ohden survived a late-term saline infusion abortion at St. Luke’s Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa in 1977. She has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and the Australian Parliament about abortion and life issues. Formerly an outreach activist with Feminists for Life, she founded the Abortion Survivors Network in 2012. Ohden is also the author of You Carried Me, A Daughter’s Memoir.
