Planned Parenthood of Maryland tweeted out a New York Times story Wednesday that followed the incredible story of a baby who successfully underwent an experimental surgery in the womb at 24 weeks for spina bifida and was able to move his legs at birth.
After Surgery in the Womb, a Baby Kicks Up Hope https://t.co/iH0VWWvCVS
— PPMaryland (@PPMaryland) January 16, 2018
Surprisingly, another affiliate of the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood of New York, offers late-term abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, just two days before unborn "Baby Royer" underwent the surgery.
Planned Parenthood is, at best, sending some mixed messages with this tweet, given that one of their blogs featuring abortion stories cited a story of a woman deciding to have a late-term abortion at 22 weeks due to a diagnosis of spina bifida.
The New York Times story on the initial surgery refers to “Baby Royer” as a “fetus, 24 weeks and two days old, less than two pounds,” but also describes the baby as a “he” not an “it.”
“He had a severe form of spina bifida, in which the backbone and spinal cord do not develop properly,” they explain. “Children born with this condition usually cannot walk, and suffer from fluid buildup in the brain, lack of bladder control and other complications.”
The article even mentions the doctors questioning the operation’s “long-term safety for the fetus.”
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Planned Parenthood did not opine on “the long term safety of the fetus” in their tweet of the subsequent Times article praising the surgery’s success.
Dr. Larry Hollier, the surgeon-in-chief and chief of plastic surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital, was thrilled with the results.
“I’ve never seen a such a big defect successfully repaired, with the child moving his feet at birth,” he told the Times. “It’s unbelievable. If this is the cost of getting that closed — just having to do a little skin operation — it’s fantastic.”
As for new parents Lexi and Joshuwa Royer, they were happy that the risk of the procedure had paid off.
“We faced a lot of doom and gloom in San Diego, but we had a lot of hope and optimism,” Mr. Royer said. “We want to get awareness out to other people that there are options. It’s definitely worth doing the research.”
“It was so worth it,” Mrs. Royer told the Times, with tears in her eyes. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. That’s for sure.”
Many on Twitter were confused by Planned Parenthood’s promotion of the article given their stance supporting late-term abortion and their silence on when life begins.
Why are we performing surgeries on bundles of cells? https://t.co/dyR8tCen0A
— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) January 17, 2018
Holy mackerel. @PPact, you on board with this? https://t.co/nJtyyYY1KZ
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) January 17, 2018
This is what real doctors do, help babies in the womb. You just kill them. https://t.co/FqPNW9hRRR
— Students for Life (@Students4LifeHQ) January 17, 2018
Wait, so it was a clump of cells before surgery, a baby during surgery, back to a clump after the surgery and before birth, then finally a baby again once it was born?
— bufflax19 (@bufflax191721) January 17, 2018
Current Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards said once in an interview that, for her, her children’s lives began “when I delivered them.”
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