A US mother whose baby was only helped to survive by doctors because she reached 23 weeks of pregnancy, has spoken out in favour of plans to ban abortion after 20 weeks across America.
Legislation for such a ban, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, was blocked by the Senate last week, falling six votes short of the threshold needed for it to be taken forward.
When Alexa Jones went into premature labour at a Texas hospital, she and her husband Jake were initially told that medics would need to ’empty her uterus’ as they thought Alexa was only 22 weeks pregnant.
Amazed
But the specialist was mistaken. On that day she was 23 weeks into the pregnancy, meaning doctors were then legally obliged to do everything they could to keep her baby alive.
Ava Joy was born weighing just one pound six ounces, and was kept in a specialist baby care unit for four months before being allowed to go home.
Writing for the pro-life website Bound4LIFE, Alexa said: “Though tiny and frail to look at, our baby girl amazed us and the doctors daily. She wanted to live, and she fought with every ounce of strength in her being.”
Fight for life
She said that when she thinks about the debate surrounding whether to ban abortion after 20 weeks in every state in America, all she can picture is “Ava Joy at 23 weeks, or even younger, being forcefully removed from the safety and protection of my womb.
“I know she would be fighting for her life, just like I saw her do every day in that incubator.
“The thing is, Ava Joy didn’t become a human being overnight when she became 23 weeks gestational age.”
