The Senate is hours away from voting on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, significant pro-life legislation that would save as many as 18,000 babies each and every year from painful late-term abortions.
When the Senate votes today, pro-life leaders hope they will keep little Micah Pickering in mind.
“The United States, proud of our history of defending human rights guaranteed by our constitution, ranks among the last in the world when it comes to some of our most vulnerable children,” says Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser.
Dannenfelser says one little baby is the kind of baby who is legally aborted today in America.
“Today, we have Micah Pickering and his family here. Micah, who was born at 22 weeks, is the face of the 18,000 lives who could be saved by the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Micah is here to show us that he was the same boy at 22 weeks that he is now, just older,” she said. “Along with neonatologists, his parents Danielle and Clayton fought for his life. We fight for the lives of his peers.”
On May 6, a study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine that reveals that more “micro preemies” are living outside the womb than doctors thought possible. Currently, a micro preemie is considered to be a baby born weighing less than 1 pound, 12 ounces or before 26-weeks.
According to the New York Times, the study found that some babies born at 22-weeks who receive advanced medical care have survived with few health problems. Additionally, researchers said that of the 755 born at 23 weeks, treatment was given to 542. Of those, about a third of those survived, and about half of the babies had no significant health problems.
For example, 22-week-old Micah Pickering (shown above) was born in 2012 and is now a fairly healthy toddler. His parents, Danielle and Clayton Pickering, chose to pursue treatment for their baby even though his health appeared grim. Danielle said, “We figured he was our baby, and he was what the Lord had given us, and we would just do everything we could.”
In total, Danielle said Micah spent more than four months in intensive care, had heart surgery, and was “one of the sickest babies” at the hospital. She added that “he’s is a spunky almost 3-year-old,” who has chronic lung disease and a slight speech delay.
Dannenfelser said members of the Senate need to keep little Micah in mind when they vote.
“We thank Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the new pro-life Senate majority for bringing this historic legislation up for a vote. This law would, for the first time, protect an entire class of unborn children. It would literally take some children off of the table for destruction and dissection at Planned Parenthood, which has been exposed by the Center for Medical Progress as illegally harvesting and selling the body parts of aborted children,” she said.
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“As we celebrate Micah’s life and all that prenatal medicine gives us the tools to do, we must acknowledge that other children, the same age, die an untimely brutal death,” she added.
Dannenfelser concluded: “Planned Parenthood officials make it clear in the videos that abortions can be manipulated by strategically ‘crushing’ or using a ‘less crunchy’ procedure, to yield a better organ harvest. Lungs, hearts and livers are not blobs of tissue – they are the vital core of a human being. “Crushing” the human body to extract these organs is excruciatingly painful. Recognizing this pain, fetal surgeons operating on “wanted” children, routinely administer anesthesia to their small patients in the womb.”
Here is Micah now:
