Mum pushed to abort conjoined twins says ‘yes’ to life

A mother in the US who repeatedly refused to abort her conjoined twins has shared why she said “yes” to life.

Speaking to the John-Henry Westen Show, Nicole LeBlanc said doctors were surprised she had managed to carry her daughters to 16 weeks, and pushed her to abort them – if she didn’t miscarry – because of their short life expectancy.

But she stated: “My husband and I firmly said, ‘Absolutely not.’ This is just so impossible to even think about. It’s brutal and it’s murder of my own children. Why would I do that?”

‘Yes to life’

Nicole, who reached 23 weeks at the time of the interview, plans to have a caesarean section and has already named her children Maria Therese and Rachel Claire.

It’s brutal and it’s murder of my own children.

Their rare condition means they are joined at the chest and share the same heart, lungs and other vital organs. They are expected to live for “minutes to hours to weeks”, even up to a couple of months after birth.

Nicole explained that “every single time that I would go for an appointment” doctors still asked, “how would you like to continue, even after seeing my little babies jumping off the side of my womb”.

She added: “You can clearly see the organs that they have and what they share, it’s nonsensical, the answer is yes, and yes to life”.

Half a heart

A mother who refused to abort her son when medics discovered he only had half a working heart said earlier this year that the now nearly two-year-old boy is “full of life”.

Kate Parnaby was told she could abort her son or let him die at birth when a 16-week scan showed that he had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition where half the heart does not develop properly.

But she chose to give birth to baby Carter, saying: “I didn’t know whether Carter would make it, but I knew I had to give him a chance to live, however small it was.”

For other stories of families who chose life, visit