Danielle Deaver, who lives in Nebraska with her husband, was told by the doctor at 22 weeks that she would not be able to carry her baby to term and that the baby would die as soon as it was born. Deaver, who wanted more than anything to have the baby told her doctor that it was only humane to terminate the pregnancy. Deaver was informed of the most horrible news any expectant mother should have to face. She could not terminate the pregnancy and she would have to watch her baby die.
Nebraska is one of the States in the U.S. that passed a law banning all abortions after 20 weeks on the basis that a baby can feel pain at that point. Deaver was told that the law forbade the doctors from inducing labor and that she would have to continue to carry the baby until it was naturally birthed. Well the doctors were right and ten days later, after a natural birth to a baby girl named Elizabeth Danielle Deaver was forced to hold the baby for fifteen minutes until she died.
Deaver said in an interview,
“It wasn’t an abortion. We wanted this baby.”
Nebraska Right to Life executive director Julie Schmit-Albin said that her group pushed for this law to be instituted to protect all unborn babies regardless of circumstance. She said the outcome in this case was the desired outcome!
Schmit-Albin said,
“We acknowledge the tragedy that occurs with a poor prenatal diagnosis for the baby. But isn’t it more humane for the baby to die in a loving manner with comfort care and in the arms of her parents than by the intentional painful death through abortion?”
State Senator Mike Flood was responsible for introducing this legislation to the Nebraska Legislature.
Flood’s office said in a statement,
“Even in these situations where the baby has a terminal condition or there’s not much chance of surviving outside the womb, my point has been and remains that is still a life,”
There are no further comments by those involved but it is exactly cases like these that continue to inject abortion into the national debate and will plague this issue for many years to come.
