Study: Women Having Abortions More Likely to Be Abused by Their Partner
Abortion Linked to Higher Rates of Child Abuse, Study Finds
VA Man Charged With Abortion of His Child
EU Court Demands That Poland Pay
More on Filthy Conditions in NJ Abortion Site
Mobile Pregnancy Center Offers Ultrasound Near NJ Abortion Site
Abortion Practitioner Will Soon Get Trial on Murder, Rape Charges
Reporter Further Exposes Abortion-StemCell-Beauty Treatment Scandal
UN and Female Infanticide
Hospital Refused Early Induction Abortion – Baby Born Healthy…
STUDY: WOMEN HAVING ABORTIONS MORE LIKELY TO BE ABUSED BY PARTNER. Published by researchers at La Trobe University in Australia, the study finds that women who are abused by their partners are more likely to have an abortion of an unexpected pregnancy than to keep the baby. Women having abortions were also more likely to be from lower income families.
The researchers studied 9,683 young Australian women between the ages of 22 and 27. The information came from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health, which contains health data compiled by the government.
Women who had abortions in their teens or early 20s were more likely to have been abused by a partner than those who carried the pregnancy to term, they found.
The scientists published the results of the study in today's edition [3April07] of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
In their article, they wrote, "'Women experiencing violence and abuse can be subject to coercive sex and unprotected intercourse, leading to a higher rate of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies."
Angela Taft and Lyndsey Watson led the study and Taft said that young women appear to have less control over sex or contraception decisions when they're with an abusive partner.
"'You could say that young women don't feel they have the right to say no," she said.
"What can society do about this problem?" Dr. Taft asks. "The take home message is that if we want to reduce the rate of abortion and unwanted pregnancy in Australia, especially among teenagers, we need to reduce violence against women."
"Also healthcare providers and pregnancy counseling services should ask women seeking [abortions] about their experiences of partner abuse and if necessary, refer them to supportive agencies," she added.
The study backs up the contention made by research in the United States that an inordinate number of women who have abortions do so because they feel pressure or coercion from a husband or boyfriend.
Dr. David Reardon of the Elliot Institute says they are a part of a widespread problem.
Reardon is the co-author of a recent 2006 Medical Science Monitor study of American and Russian women that found that 64 percent of American women who had abortions reported that they felt pressured to abort by others.
His organization, which monitors the effects of abortion on women, has also prepared special research previously showing cases of violence against women who refused to have abortions.
Reardon said that cases of women being pressured, threatened, or subjected to violence if they refuse to abort are not unusual.
"In many of the cases documented for our 'Forced Abortion in America' report, police and witnesses reported that acts of violence and murder took place after the woman refused to abort or because the attacker didn't want the pregnancy," he said.
"Even if a woman isn't physically threatened, she often faces intense pressure, abandonment, lack of support, or emotional blackmail if she doesn't abort," Dr. Reardon explained. "While abortion is often described as a 'choice,' women who've been there tell a very different story."
Reardon said the report underscores the need for legislation requiring abortion businesses and health care providers to screen women for evidence of coercion or pressure to abort and to direct them to people and resources that can help them.
A handful of states, including Michigan, have looked at such legislation.
Free copies of the special report, "Forced Abortion in America," and fact sheets on coerced and forced abortions can be downloaded at http://www.unchoice.info/resources.htm.
[3April 2007, Ertelt, LifeNews.com, Canberra, Australia]
ABORTION LINKED TO HIGHER RATES OF CHILD ABUSE STUDY FINDS. Authors concluded no longer can be any doubt that abortion significantly impacts health of women and their families. A history of abortion is associated with more frequent acts of physical aggression toward subsequent children, according to a new study published in the Internet Journal of Pediatrics and Neonatology.
The findings were drawn from an analysis of data on 237 low-income women in Baltimore who had physically mistreated or neglected at least one of their children or allowed someone else to do so. Researchers controlled for a history of miscarriage or stillbirth, as well as fo
r family history, aggression by the woman's partner and other key factors.
While all the women in the study had some connection with child maltreatment or neglect, the authors found that those who reported a history of abortion reported significantly more frequent acts of physical violence, such as slapping, hitting or beating, directed at their children.
Priscilla Coleman, a professor of human development and family studies at Bowling Green State University and lead author of the study, suggested that the link between abortion and child abuse may be influenced by a number of key factors, including unresolved grief, having felt pressured into an unwanted abortion, and disruption in maternal bonding with subsequently born children.
Unresolved grief issues, Coleman noted, "may negatively impact parental responsiveness to child needs, trigger anger, which is a common component of grief, and/or increase parental anxiety regarding child well-being." Some research indicates that grief may be more difficult to resolve if women undergo an unwanted abortion due to pressure from others. In one study, cited by Coleman, 64 percent of American women with a history of abortion reported feeling pressured to abort by others.
Dr. David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute and a leading researcher who has been involved in more than a dozen studies on the impact of abortion on women, said that this latest study confirms the general findings of previous studies linking abortion with a higher risk of abuse or neglect.
"Previous research has also shown that abortion is linked with a subsequent increased risk of alcoholism, drug use, anxiety, rage, anger and psychiatric hospitalization," Reardon said. "Any of these factors, individually or in combination, can significantly increase the personal and family stresses that can lead to maltreatment or neglect."
A previous study by Coleman found that a maternal history of abortion was linked to less supportive home environments for subsequently born children and that subsequent children exhibited more behavioral problems than the children of women without a history of abortion.
A New Zealand study that tracked young women from birth to 25 years of age found that young women who had abortions were significantly more likely to experience subsequent depression, suicidal behavior and substance abuse, even after the researchers controlled for previous mental health problems.
"Taken all together, these studies show that the mental health effects of abortion don't stop with women," Reardon said. "They will impact their families, too."
Coleman's team suggested that professionals should be aware of the links between abortion and maternal mental health problems and "sensitively inquire about any history of abortion and related, unresolved negative emotions when working with women engaged in or at risk for aberrant parenting."
Finally, the authors concluded that while additional research is always needed, there can no longer be any doubt that abortion significantly impacts the health of women and their families.
"For years, abortion was construed to be a benign medical procedure carrying little if any potential for lasting adverse effects," they wrote. "However … the last several years have brought greater understanding that abortion for many women is an issue with profound physical, psychological, spiritual and lifestyle dimensions that are intimately tied to many aspects of their lives."
Sources:
PK Coleman, VM Rue, CT Coyle, CD Maxey, "Induced Abortion and Child-Directed Aggression Among Mothers of Maltreated Children," Internet Journal of Pediatrics and Neonatology, 6(2), 2007. http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijpn/vol6n2/abortion.xml
VM Rue et. al., "Induced abortion and traumatic stress: A preliminary comparison of American and Russian women," Medical Science Monitor, 10(10): SR5-16 (2004).
PK Coleman et. al., "The Quality of the Caregiving Environment and Child Developmental Outcomes Associated with Maternal History of Abortion Using the NLSY Data," Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43(6): 743-57 (2002).
DM Fergusson et. al., "Abortion in young women and subsequent mental health," Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47(1): 16-24 (2006).
Additional studies linking abortion to child abuse:
PG Ney, T Fung, AR Wickett, "Relationship Between Induced Abortion and Child Abuse and Neglect: Four Studies," Pre- and Perinatal Psychology Journal, 8(1):43-64 (1993).
M Benedict, R White, P Cornely, "Maternal Perinatal Risk Factors and Child Abuse," Child Abuse and Neglect, 9: 217-224 (1985).
E. Lewis, "Two Hidden Predisposing Factors in Child Abuse," Child Abuse and Neglect, 3: 327-330 (1979).
P. Ney, "Relationship Between Abortion and Child Abuse," Canadian J. Psychiatry, 24:610-620 (1979). [13March07, SPRINGFIELD, IL, LifeSiteNews.com]
VIRGINIA MAN CHARGED WITH CAUSING GIRLFRIEND'S ABORTION WITH SPIKED DRINK. A Virginia man has been charged with trying to cause his girlfriend to have an abortion. Daniel Riase, 21 years-old, faces two charges of trying to poison his girlfriend and was also charged Tuesday with administering a drug with the intention of causing an abortion or miscarriage.
Hampton Police Cpl. Allison Good told the Daily Press newspaper that Riase was arrested on February 25 when spiked his girlfriend's drink and cause the abortion. Good indicated that Riase allegedly crushed two misoprostol pills, used in the abortion drug RU 486, and put them in the drink of his 19-year-old partner I-Sharii Best. He purchased the drugs online. After consuming the drink, Best began to bleed and drove herself to Sentara Careplex Hospital in Hampton. There, medical officials confirmed she had a miscarriage.
Best told the newspaper that Riase wasn't happy when she told him in January that she was pregnant with his child. He had talked frequently about
not wanting to be a father, she said, and had pressured her to have an abortion but she refused. The dispute over the abortion led to a fight where Riase hit Best and it led to assault charges, but she later dropped them when he pretended to be interested in the baby and appeared supportive of her health and well-being. [16Mar07, Hampton, VA (LifeNews.com]
EUROPEAN COURT ORDERS PRO-LIFE POLAND to Compensate Mom Who Was Denied Abortion
The European Court of Human Rights handed down a 6 – 1 ruling today which demanded that Poland compensate a mother who claims she was refused an abortion based on discrimination due to her sex and her visual disability.
Poland’s current laws only allow for the unborn child to be killed in its mother’s womb in cases of rape, when the child is seriously malformed, and when the health of the mother would be in grave danger were she to carry the child to full term.
Tysiac claims that in 2000 she found out that she was pregnant with her third child. At that time, according to her complaint, she was warned by numerous doctors that her pregnancy and delivery of another child could result in a deterioration of her myopic eye condition.
She further claims that the gynecologist that she saw destroyed her abortion referral saying that her health was not in serious danger and her condition did not warrant an abortion under Polish law.
Tysiac also claims that, after delivering her child, she suffered what was diagnosed as a retinal hemorrhage which rendered her “significantly disabled” and in fear of going blind. Tysiac, who raises her three children on her own, receives a monthly disability pension of 140 euros.
After giving birth to her third child and having her case dismissed in Polish courts, Alicja Tysiac took her case to the European Union court in 2002 with the help of the “human rights” NGO, Interights.
According to the court’s official summary of the judgment, Tysiac also complained that “no procedural and regulatory framework had been put in place to enable a pregnant woman to assert her right to a therapeutic abortion, thus rendering that right ineffective.”
A typical strategy for abortion advocates has long been to use emotion generating hard cases, (often falsified, as in the two Supreme Court cases that legalized abortion on demand in the US) to open a wedge that inevitably leads to full abortion on demand.
In 2004, the United Nations Human Rights Committee reprimanded Poland for its pro-life laws and demanded that the strongly Catholic nation “liberalize” its abortion laws. In January of this year, the UN committee that oversees the ‘Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women’ also took Poland to task over several pro-life issues including “accusations” that the Polish government promoted natural family planning over contraception and allowed pro-life doctors the right to employ a “conscience clause” in abortion matters.
Poland submitted her European Union accession treaty with the caveat that "no EU treaties or annexes to those treaties would hamper the Polish government in regulating moral issues or those concerning the protection of human life."
In recent months, both the Polish president and the deputy prime-minister have publicly voiced their continuing belief in traditional family values.
Read the Court’s press release & full ruling:
http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?item=1&portal=hbkm&action=html&highlight=&sessionid=11841614&skin=hudoc-pr-en
Read Previous LifeSite Coverage:
Polish Woman takes Case to European Court of Human Rights for being Refused Abortion
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jun/05061702.html
Abortion Warning by Polish Deputy PM: "A nation which kills its children is a nation without a future”
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07030202.html
[20March07, Meg Jalsevac, Poland, LifeSiteNews.com]
Report Reveals Filthy Conditions, Health Violations at NJ Abortion Center; But Will Reopen 23March07. Metropolitan Medical Associates, where a botched abortion went so badly that a young woman nearly died as a result, is set to reopen. State health officials have confirmed that the abortion business corrected all of the deficiencies it found after recent inspections.
The health department announced 21Mar07 that it is satisfied with the corrective actions the abortion center has taken to clean up and they say it can reopen. Health officials plan to attend the opening in order to monitor compliance with health and safety codes and will likely conduct several unannounced inspections in the future.
The facility told authorities it had complied with correction orders last week, but the state was not satisfied and the center remained closed until further corrections could be made. The state also found the facility had failed to notify the department “of an event occurring within the facility that jeopardized the health and safety of a patient,” and found that the patient’s medical and operative records had not been completed.
"The operative report was not immediately completed following the procedure because Staff Member #1 reported being 'superstitious' and was aware that Patient #1 had emergency surgery performed and was waiting for the results," investigators wrote.
A Newark hospital complained to the health department after a 20-year old woman nearly died following an abortion at the center. Two women have since filed separate lawsuits against the facility for alleged malpractice causing life-threatening complications during abortions they underwent at the center.
New Jersey Right to Life has called on Governor Corzine and state health officials to provide outreach assistance to women who may have experienced complications or suffered infection after undergoing abortions at Metropolitan Medical Associates.
“Many of the women who frequent this clinic are Medicaid patients, which means Metropolitan Medical Clinic is receiving a large percentage of state money which comes from taxpayer dollars,” said Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life.
“The State of New Jersey has an obligation to reach out to women who have gone to this clinic to find out whether any of them have experienced any complications or if any may have developed a sexually transmitted disease through the use of unsterilized instruments.”
“It appears that veterinarian clin
ics possess better infection control standards than this clinic,” said Tasy.
However, pro-life groups are disappointed by the decision and say that it puts women at risk. Marie Tasy of New Jersey Right to Life, told LifeNews.com she was disappointed to see health department officials admit that "they failed to inspect New Jersey's largest licensed abortion clinic for five years, despite the department's own rules that require visits every other year." Operation Rescue is urging the public to contact the New Jersey Department of Health, Division of Health Care Quality and Oversight at [email protected] and ask them to close Metropolitan Medical Associates permanently.
Previous coverage:
New Jersey Woman Suffers Coma after ‘Safe, Legal’ Abortion
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07030201.html
After Comatose Victim, Two More Women Injured At New Jersey Abortion Mill Come Forward
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07030601.html
[20March07, Gudrun Schultz, LifeSiteNews.com; 21Marcho7, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/europe/21poland.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
23March07, Englewood, NJ, LifeNews.com]
FOR PRO-LIFERS, IMAGES ARE EVERYTHING The Metropolitan Medical Associates (MMA), the New Jersey abortion mill that was closed for violating state health standards, may have some competition when it reopens. The pro-life group Expectant Mother Care is bringing a mobile ultrasound center to MMA's vicinity. Chris Slattery, who runs 15 pregnancy care centers in New York and New Jersey, says he plans to staff the motor home with a counselor, an ultrasound technician, and a malpractice attorney for women who were injured by an abortion.
Slattery has seen the power of the ultrasound images firsthand. In 22 years, he has convinced over 17,000 women to reconsider their abortions–more than half of them with the use of ultrasounds showing their own son or daughter in the womb. His success is astounding, but it's in keeping with CPC reports that more than 80 percent of women decide to keep their unborn babies after seeing their ultrasound images.
The strategy could have a serious impact on the clientele for MMA, which performs 10,000 abortions a year. In South Carolina, legislators are considering whether they should take the ultrasound debate a step further and require it for all women considering abortions. If the bill passes, it would be the first of its kind in the nation.
Mobile Crisis Pregnancy RV Heads to Embattled New Jersey Abortion Center [frc, 19Mar07]
ABORTIONIST WILL SOON GET TRIAL ON MURDER, RAPE CHARGES
A Mississippi abortion practitioner who has pleaded not guilty to charges that he killed his wife 10 years ago and raped a patient five years before that will eventually be put on trial. Prosecutors say they are trying to get a trial date for Malachy DeHenre, the 56 year-old man who lost his medical license over botched abortions.
Assistant District Attorney Ronald Parrish told AP on Wednesday that he hoped to get a trial date set for the next couple of weeks.
Six years ago a jury failed to convict DeHenre in the shooting death of his wife Dr. Nyasha DeHenre. A gunshot to the head while she was in the couple's home resulted in her death. DeHenre was re-indicted on the charges, arrested last month and ordered held without bond.
Local authorities have filed new indictments in the case saying they have more evidence to prove DeHenre's guilt. They also filed a second charge accusing the abortion practitioner of raping a patient in March 1992.
Last month, DeHenre attorney David Ratcliff said the former abortion practitioner is not a flight risk but Parrish opposed bond because both charges carry life sentences and because he is not a citizen of the United States. He is from Nigeria but has applied for citizenship.
DeHenre's New Woman Medical Center abortion facility in Jackson closed last year and he was required, in December 2005 to pay substantial damages to a woman who was injured in a failed abortion in 2003.
Circuit Judge Winston Kidd awarded Latosha Travis $500,000 in damages after the abortion center failed to respond to her lawsuit. DeHenre and the abortion business were defendants in the suit.
In March 2005, the Mississippi state medial board suspended his medical license over botched abortions.
The suspension came after he testified that he did not like performing some 35,000 abortions but did so because he needed the work.
During his testimony, Dehenre stated, "I found work in Jackson, and it happened to be an abortion clinic in which an obstetrician was needed. I needed money to pay expenses and education for my children. It was supposed to be temporary, but it turned out to be longer. I was in a position I didn't want to be in, but I needed work."
“I ask your forgiveness,” he said at the time. "I don't want to be an outcast. I want to be among the medical community."
Medical boards in Alabama and New York have also suspended his medical licenses in those states.
In one Alabama case, a woman died 18 hours after having an abortion. The women involved in three other cases had to have hysterectomies to stop massive hemorrhaging from uterine perforations, including Travis.
Travis, who was 20 years old at the time and living in Jackson, paid DeHenre $680 for the abortion, the lawsuit said. She had at least one child already and though she planned to have more children in the future, she was devastated to have the hysterectomy because of the failed abortion.
In the case involving a death, DeHenre admitted he should have met the patient at the hospital or relayed medical information to the doctor who treated her.
Related web sites:
Pro-Life Mississippi – http://www.prolifemississippi.org
[10Jan07, Ertelt, LifeNews.com, Laurel, MS]
REPORTER FURTHER EXPOSES ABORTION-STEM CELL-BEAUTY TREATMENT SCANDAL
British reporter Matthew Hill has uncovered a grisly practice where babies from Ukraine are killed via infanticide or become victims of abortions for their stem cells for dubious beauty treatments. The practice involves ravaging the babies' bodies for organs and stem cells.
As LifeNews.com previously reported, Hill produced a documentary for the BBC showing how a hospital is snatching newborns and aborted babies and giving their parts and cells to stem cell firms around the world for controversial beauty injections.
Hill writes in a Monday article in the London Daily Mail newspaper about how he uncovered the scandal, including a videotape of post-mortem examinations.
He says a charity worker at a hospital in the eastern Ukrainian city Kharkiv showed him the videotape.
"Officially, the cells are taken from aborted fetuses with the mothers' consent," Hill writes, but "there could also be hundreds of babies stolen to order, to feed demand for stem cells from around the world."
Hill says the first hint he found of the bizarre trade came from stem cell researcher Stephen Minger, from Kings College.
Minger told Hill that a Barbados clinic called the Institute For Regenerative Medicine, had contacted him to get his endorsement of the IRM beauty treatments involving the injection of stem cells from the dead babies.
Minger said he refused, saying there were no studies backing up IRM's claims the injections would have the desired effect. He also was upset at how the babies were harvested for their stem cells, saying some of the babies could have been "liquidized" to obtain the cells.
"I find it very distasteful that they are used for beauty treatments," Minger told Hill. "As far as I can tell from what's been published, a lot of people go to this clinic in Barbados feeling a bit run down, or that their skin has just lost some elasticity, and they are getting 'smoothies' or perk-me-ups."
The Daily Mail report says IRM buys the stem cells from the Ukraine hospital.
Hill went to Barbados to get more information and he eventually met with one of IRM's senior doctors, Shami Ramesh.
Ramesh said he would show Hill proof of how the beauty injections work or how they help patients with various diseases.
"This 'proof' turned out to be one study of a single patient with motor neurone disease and another of eight cardiac patients. The numbers were too small for proper analysis and the data had not been published in any reputable peer-reviewed journal," Hill wrote.
Ramesh said the best proof was in how many patients kept coming back for more injections.
Hill said Ramesh denied allegations that the stem cells his firm uses come from newborn babies snatched form their mothers and killed for their cells and body parts.
"He said he had faith in the Institute of Cryobiology in Kharkiv, the source of the stem cells used by the Barbados clinic, but added that 'maybe in the future we will go and check it out,'" Hill wrote in the newspaper report.
Hill then traveled to Ukraine and said Dr. Valentin Greshenko, head of the Institute of Cryobiology refused to be interviewed.
Searching for details, he went to the Maternity Hospital Number Six, located in a high-crime section of Kharkiv.
There, he interviewed a 26 year-old woman, Svetlana Plusikova, who had a normal pregnancy but was told after birth that her baby was stillborn. Doctors refused to let her see the baby.
"I think she was stolen. If she was dead I should have been allowed to see her. I think a lot of young mothers like me lost their children, but right now nobody turns to the police," she told HIll.
Dimitry and Olena Stulnev shared with Hill their own story of how their baby was shown to them and then doctors claimed the baby died the next day. Hospital officials refused to provide them more information or allow them to see their baby.
Hill said he eventually obtained videotaped evidence of the infanticides and abortions from Tatyana Zhakarova, from the Federation Of Families With Many Children.
"Tatyana discovered many more infants had died at the hospital in similarly odd circumstances. And after intensive lobbying, the authorities eventually agreed to have the tiny bodies of around 30 babies exhumed and examined," Hill wrote in the Daily Mail.
"Tatyana showed me the video she had been allowed to record of the post-mortem examinations that followed. The gruesome film shows the carcasses of babies, some of whom were full-term, with their organs and brains missing," Hill added.
In an attempt to prevent exposing the truth, officials have apparently apprehended Tatyana's 20 year-old son. He has been missing since October and she fears he's been killed.
Ultimately, Hill was granted five minutes to talk with Maternity Hospital Number Six's chief doctor Larysa Nazarenko.
"The children are not lost," she told Hill. "They are not stolen — that's just somebody else's illusion."
"There is no such therapy," she said, according to the London newspaper. "No work in this hospital is connected with the use of cells. This is the wrong address. I deny everything."
Hill reports that the Council Of Europe has started its own investigation of the barbaric stem cell trade and it's first report talks of a "culture of trafficking of children snatched at birth and a wall of silence from ho
spital staff upwards over their fate."
Related news stories:
Clinics Use Tissue From Babies Killed in Abortions for Cosmetic Injections
http://www.lifenews.com/nat2486.html
Abortion, Infanticide of Ukraine Babies Fuels Stem Cell Research Industry
http://www.lifenews.com/bio1910.html
[18Dec06, Ertelt, LifeNews.com London, England]
UN-APOLOGETIC ABOUT FEMALE INFANTICIDE. World leaders have been meeting at the United Nations in New York for the 51st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. FRC's Michael Fragoso attended the conference, which focused on what the U.N. calls "the girl-child." One of the greatest scandals against the girl-child today is that she is being aborted out of existence. In countries like China, due to draconian population control policies, couples are aborting girls in favor of boys. Talia Carner, a U.S. human rights advocate, reports that between 50 and 100 million girls have been killed by sex-selective abortion and female infanticide. In recent years, she notes, some of the most prominent human rights groups have simply stopped reporting on these "missing girls." Unfortunately, our efforts to put this tragedy at the center of U.N. deliberations failed due to objections from countries like China. This issue deserves the attention of Congress. [8Mar07 Family Research Council]
HOSPITAL REFUSED EARLY INDUCTION ABORTION – BABY BORN HEALTHY! Jennifer and Taylor White had been married for several years when they decided to add children to their family. A first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Then last March, Jennifer became pregnant again. Just as the critical first six weeks approached a blood sample tested positive for spinal bifida. They headed straight to Dallas to a specialist who said that test was negative…but there was no amniotic fluid, no apparent kidneys. "He told us then," says Jennifer White, "if I were you I would go home and pray, because it really doesn't look good. We didn't know what to do, we didn't know what to think." The Whites had another two weeks for final confirmation; 14 days later the news wasn't any better. "I'm almost certain your baby has no chance of living," Taylor remembering what the specialist said. "In fact he used the word zilch, zilch chance. There is no amniotic fluid, there is not a genetic reason to explain this, it just happens. You can either terminate the pregnancy now or you can go through the pregnancy…and the baby will probably be still born or be born alive and die a couple of hours after being born." "We decided," said Jennifer, "what we thought was the best option, to go ahead and induce early. I mean I would have a normal delivery you know and what understood the outcome would be the same, the baby was not going to make it either way. For me I could not imagine carrying this baby to full term."
That early delivery would have happened at Tyler's Trinity Mother Frances Hospital. But because it was so early in the pregnancy, the hospital's ethics committee said no…
Regular sonograms for the next six months still showed no amniotic fluid. An inducement was scheduled six weeks before the due date. One last sonogram indicated something had changed. The Whites headed straight to their specialist in Dallas. "His face just dropped," remembers Taylor, "just with amazement said I can't explain it. There is no other explanation than God just performed a miracle. There is a normal amount of amniotic fluid at this point; he saw possibly one kidney. He said this is a perfectly healthy baby. There should be…deformities, there should not be developed lungs and none of that was an issue at this point. When God performs a miracle he doesn't do it half way…we hadn't planned for a baby. We didn't have any furniture, anything. We didn't think we were going to have a baby. So just getting to…I mean we went that day and found a crib. It was amazing," says Jennifer.
Almost nine months after their ordeal began, little Amelia Faith White was born.
"We started this prayer and our local group started praying for us and they told people and they told people and they told people. To this day we still talk to people, churches we have never even heard of in Oklahoma or across the U.S. We get emails from people we have never heard of…say hey listen we just heard the news about your baby I can't believe she is healthy," says Taylor. "The people have seen a miracle," believes Taylor. "And in today's world people need to know that God exists. And this is just one proof that there is a God. We are not in control of our lives.” [4Febr07, http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6038742&nav=menu117_3_10, Clint Yeatts, KLTV 7 News]