Republican senators, seeking to pass a bill that will ban a practice that involves the killing of a child in the very act of birth, received some unexpected help from a perky 11-year-old, who once was a target of this brutal procedure.
Donna Joy Watts, accompanied by her parents, Donald and Lori Watts, made a return trip to Capitol Hill this week to urge the Senate to pass the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, S.3, which was introduced by their senator, Rick Santorum, R-Pa.
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Six years ago, during a debate on a similar measure, the Wattses and their daughter were unceremoniously ushered out of the Senate gallery at the insistence of Barbara Boxer, who is the proud defender of this horrific practice. The excuse given was that Donna Joy was only 5 years of age, and the rules say you need to be 6-years-old to sit in on these debates.
What really had the "Queen of Infanticide" in such a dither?
The very presence of this beautiful child with sparkling eyes and shoulder-length brown curls that encircle her angelic face, undercuts Boxer's argument that this procedure is entirely elective and necessary to save the life of a mother carrying a doomed fetus – a medical term Boxer likes to throw around to make a child in the womb, or one in the process of being born, seem nonhuman.
When Lori was pregnant with Donna Joy, doctors and the Wattses' insurance carrier tried to bully her into having a partial-birth abortion after a sonogram revealed that parts of Donna Joy's brain were missing. Another part was outside the skull, the brain stem was deformed and she had severe hydrocephalus. The Wattses were told that their child had "no chance" for survival and this procedure was "necessary" to protect Lori's health because their baby's head was so enlarged.
Lori, now a practical nurse, knew this didn't ring true. How could killing a helpless baby, delivered feet first with only the head remaining in the birth canal, help a mother? If a vaginal delivery was impractical, why not deliver this child by Caesarean section? After all, one of Lori's older children had been delivered in this manner.
Soon, Lori and Donald would understand their motive. It was cheaper for the insurance company and it guaranteed a dead baby – not one who would require surgery and expensive medical care.
The Wattses were told that if their child survived, she would be a burden – a heartache and sorrow. "Not so!" was the reply from these defiant parents. "She will be nothing but a joy," Lori assured her doctors.
Lori and Donald were willing to accept a disabled child, but they were not willing to be part of her brutal demise in this dreadful manner.
They fought the system. They offered the hospital a choice: It could plan for the safe delivery of their child or Lori would show up in labor in the emergency room. If the hospital boggled the delivery, they could sue.
Lori doesn't want other women pressured into signing their children's execution orders. So much for a woman's choice!
That's why Lori was willing to pack up her family and head to Washington in order to call on senators who are on the fence on this bill. Lori knows it is urgently needed.
The American Medical Association seems to agree with her. The AMA says, "There is no identified situation where intact dilation and extraction – that's the sanitized medical term manufactured for this inhumane form of killing – is the 'only appropriate procedure' to induce abortion." Furthermore, this blind procedure is extremely dangerous to the mother.
Donna Joy's life has not been easy, but she took her eight operations in stride. Today, this little girl – who had so much to overcome and was not supposed to be able to walk or talk – now runs and has an impressive vocabulary. In fact, Donna Joy's ambition has no limits. She says that she wants to become a pilot, a TV star and a senator when she is an adult.
She's well on her way.
If you watched the debate on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act on C-SPAN this week, you may have seen Donna Joy in the Senate gallery. She was sitting there proudly as a reminder to all those in attendance that every child deserves a fighting chance and every mother deserves the best possible care.
Funny thing … as Donna Joy grows, Barbara Boxer's arguments shrink. They were pretty thin right from the start.