A baby born weighing just 600g has been discharged from hospital in India after a hundred-day battle with serious respiratory difficulties and infections.
According to the Times of India, the baby’s mother was diagnosed with severely high blood pressure during pregnancy that led to an emergency Caesarean section. Her baby was born at just 23-24 weeks gestation and had to receive immediate medical attention, including an endotracheal tube and a type of non-invasive ventilation known as ‘continuous positive airway pressure’ to help the baby’s breathing.
In the neonatal intensive care unit, the baby was diagnosed with respiratory distress syndrome due to being born too early and appeared to have a collapsed lung. He was placed on a ventilator but this was removed after only one week.
Fortunately, the baby responded well to treatment and was finally discharged after a hundred days weighing 1.5kg.
Babies born at this early stage highlight a contradiction at the heart of our abortion law
This baby was born before the abortion limit in England and Wales, and highlights the contradiction at the heart of our abortion law. On the one hand, the law permits ending the lives of babies at 22 and 23 weeks, and, on the other hand, current medical practice strives to save the lives of many babies born prematurely at 22 or 23 weeks gestation.
The annual abortion statistics for England and Wales in 2021 (the most recent year for which a full year of data is available) reveal that 755 “ground C” abortions were performed when the baby was at 22 or 23 weeks gestation (ground C is the statutory ground under which the vast majority of abortions are permitted and there is currently a 24-week time limit for abortions performed under this statutory ground).
At the same time, according to a recent study, there were a total of 261 babies born alive at 22 and 23 weeks, before the abortion limit, who survived to discharge from hospital in 2020 and 2021.
This means in the same hospital, on the same day, two babies at the same gestational age (22 or 23 weeks gestation) could have very different fates – one could have his or her life deliberately ended by abortion, and the other could be born prematurely and have a dedicated medical team provide the best care they can to try to save his or her life.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Advances in medical care are continuing to improve prospects for prematurely born babies like the baby in this story. These stories highlight the contradiction in our abortion law, which allows abortion up to 24 weeks even while babies are born and survive below this limit”.
