Sue Myrick: “babies born alive, babies no longer in the mother's womb, babies that show obvious signs of life should be recognized as…”

“babies born alive, babies no longer in the mother's womb, babies that show obvious signs of life should be recognized as living babies. The testimony from Allison Baker, a registered nurse who worked in a high-risk labor and delivery unit, tells the fate of a baby whose parents requested an abortion at 20 weeks because the baby had spina bifida. "My shift started at 11 o'clock," she said, "and the patient delivered her fetus about 10 minutes before I took her as a patient. During the time the fetus was alive, the patient kept asking me when the fetus would die. For an hour and 45 minutes, the fetus maintained a heartbeat. The parents were frustrated and obviously not prepared for this long period of time. Since I was the nurse of both the mother and fetus, I held the fetus in my arms until it finally expired." Can my colleagues imagine being that nurse or those parents and the pain they felt just waiting for that baby to die? How often does an abortion fail and a living baby struggle to stay alive? No one knows. No one has that information. Mr. Speaker, it does seem that abortions fail much more frequently than anyone cares to know. If an abortion is successful, a dead baby is delivered. But when an abortion fails, that means that there is a live baby, a baby is delivered alive. Mr. Speaker, does a woman still have a right to a dead baby even if the abortion fails? These innocent babies have the same God-given rights as my colleagues and I do.…”