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Mom Shares Heartbreaking Experience with Late-Term Abortion to Highlight Consequences of Banning Them

It’s something no parent wants to ever hear: that their child has a life-threatening illness for which there is no help or cure. But it’s something Robin Colleen had to face when she learned at her 21-week ultrasound appointment that her unborn daughter, Grace, had a terminal disease that offered her no chance of life outside the womb — a disease that three separate doctors confirmed.

What’s more, the couple learned that carrying Grace to term would increase Robin’s likelihood of suffering adverse heath effects as well. Ultimately, though they wanted Grace to live and thrive more than anything in the world, they had to make the excruciating decision to end Grace’s life in a late-term abortion in order to provide her with the most peaceful passing they could.

In a plea to her Facebook friends and the public, Robin implored readers to consider the consequences of banning late-term abortions and defunding Planned Parenthood, highlighting that many women and couples who opt for such measures do not do so out of convenience, but rather necessity:

Please know that our decision to terminate the pregnancy at 21 weeks, 5 days (nearly 6 months pregnant) was one that we made out of love, and was terribly difficult. We wanted Grace to experience no pain or suffering, and this was the least painful thing we could do for her. We have taken the physical and emotional suffering on ourselves instead of allowing her to feel it.

This isn’t an issue I’m passionate about, I AM the issue. Jim IS the issue. I can’t imagine a person getting to 22 weeks of pregnancy and deciding to terminate for convenience. This needs to be available for people like us – people that very much want their child, but learn their child will die a horrible, suffering death if they continue to carry her. That their own health will suffer.

Robin also drove home the point that the process for obtaining an abortion was painful, recounting how the couple was required to wait 72 hours to proceed, sign something stating they had heard the heartbeat and seen the ultrasound, and read a packet stating that they were “essentially murdering our child,” all measures Robin characterizes as “one of the most insulting, callous things I have ever experienced.”

And as if learning her child would not have a future and suffering through the torture required to ensure her daughter’s life ended as humanely as possible wasn’t bad enough, Robin shared that it was only because of the couple’s privilege that she did not have to rely on Planned Parenthood to pursue this merciful path for Grace, yet even with that privilege, the process could have been worse and likely is for others:

The only reason we didn’t do it at Planned Parenthood was because at the last second, my job covered it with insurance, I believe because I work for a company out of state. Missouri companies do not. Even with insurance coverage, it still cost us thousands of dollars. If we had done it TWO days later, we would have had to leave the state to do it. What if we had had to leave the country to give Grace a peaceful passing? What about someone that was a single parent and couldn’t get off work in time/save up the money/find someone to watch their other children/live in a metropolitan area that has such amazing doctors/have insurance coverage (not that it’d likely help them with this – we were an exception)? Our privilege helped us immensely, and it still has been the hardest experience of my life. I will never be the same.

In the end, Robin begged readers to consider the consequences of banning abortion or defunding necessary resources such as Planned Parenthood, asking people to put themselves in her shoes and really consider the implications of such political action:

If you believe you wouldn’t make this choice if you were in our shoes, please be grateful you likely haven’t had to, and know that I’ve surprised myself many times over in this entire journey at what I’d do once I was in a position I never though I’d be in…. I don’t believe the government (aka other people) should have a say in this…. It has felt utterly terrible to feel like politicians that know nothing about our circumstances, or worse, wouldn’t care if they did (because the people donating to them are so blindly pro-life) and they won’t change their policies anyway, have such control over our options.

We are people that have chased this dream harder than anything else in our lives, and were put in a terrible position and thankfully, had the right to do what was best for our very, very loved baby girl. Please don’t make it so we and others like us can’t continue to in the future.

To read Robin’s full plea, see her Facebook post below, and consider donating to Planned Parenthood and taking action to ensure other couples will have the same options Robin did should they tragically need them in the future.