At last week’s GOP presidential debate, GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis told a story about a woman who survived multiple abortion attempts in 1955. While the story was immediately brushed off by abortion supporters as likely false, it’s a reminder of one indisputable truth: abortion survivors are real.
During the debate, DeSantis spoke of a woman named Penny. “She survived multiple abortion attempts,” he said. “She was left discarded in a pan. Fortunately, her grandmother saved her and brought her to a different hospital.” Numerous people quickly denounced the story as “obviously” false.
“I understand that politicians lie, but DeSantis’s story about ‘Penny,’ a woman he says survived multiple abortion attempts and was rescued from a pan by her grandmother(????), is just such a bizarre and impossible story, it’s stunning that any human is that gullible,” pro-abortion writer Jill Filipovic tweeted.
However, later, ‘Penny’ herself came forward saying that it was indeed her story that DeSantis was recounting.
At Jezebel, writer Kylie Cheung wrote, “So, to be extremely clear: Abortion all the way up to birth isn’t a thing. And DeSantis’ desperate ‘abortion survivor’ bull**** — an obvious gag for attention at a debate that saw Vivek Ramaswamy talk all over him — draws from the usual Republican nonsense about imagined ‘late-term’ abortions targeting born, living infants. DeSantis and Republicans rely on these baseless talking points because they know abortion rights are popular, and all they can do is obfuscate, confuse, and lie.”
The New York Times described the story as “jarring, highly unusual and unverifiable.” KFF Health news admitted that Penny exists, but added, “We were unable to gauge the accuracy of [Miriam “Penny”] Hopper’s account. We couldn’t find records, such as news reports, dating to the 1950s, and people who could corroborate the story, such as her grandmother, are no longer living… Medically speaking, the scenario is dubious.”
Of course, Penny is a real person — and she is not alone. It doesn’t matter at what gestational age the abortion takes place or who is committing it. The fact of the matter is the reality that people survive abortions at all proves that they were living human beings inside the womb when someone tried to kill them. And, despite the Jezebel writer’s assumption, these abortions don’t have to even be committed on full-term preborn babies for them to have the potential to survive.
READ: Surviving Abortion: Lauren’s mother tried six times to abort her… and failed
Abortion survivors are frequently derided as a myth, but infants do survive attempted abortions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged that over 100 babies survived attempted abortions, at least for a short time, over the course of 12 years. In Minnesota, over 20 infants survived abortions between 2015 and 2021, though the state will now no longer report on abortion survivors, and revoked protections requiring that they receive lifesaving care. Still another report found 100 abortion survivors across just five states in 10 years.
Adult abortion survivors including Melissa Ohden, Gianna Jessen, Claire Culwell, and Josiah Presley have also spoken out about their experiences.
A woman named Angele explained that after her divorce, as a mother of two, she didn’t want a third baby when she became pregnant. She went to an abortion facility in April of 2005 for an induction abortion in which her 22-week preborn baby was supposed to receive an injection of digoxin (a procedure used to abort children late in pregnancy) in the heart to kill him. Angele’s cervix was dilated and the next morning, she took pills given to her to expel her baby’s body. She returned to the abortion facility, where the contractions began.
She gave birth to her son, Rowan, in the bathroom of the facility.
She explained that Rowan was moving and she screamed for help. The nurse came in and said she would get the supervisor, but neither returned. Angele called a friend and asked her to call 911. Listen to the call here. Paramedics arrived at the facility, but the staff turned them away, telling them that no child had been born alive. Angele continued:
I stayed beside Rowan talking to him, telling him how strong he was being and how proud I was of him. I told him God must really want us to be together for him to make it through everything he had just been through and that Mommy was so sorry but so happy to have a chance to love him. I told him he was a strong little miracle and that I couldn’t wait for him to meet his brother and sister.
I just kept touching him, trying to warm him with my hands and talking to him so he would not feel any more afraid than he already must.
In 2002, then-President George W. Bush signed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act into law. That law recognized abortion survivors as persons so that babies born alive during an abortion would not be left to die. The law also states that a child who survives an abortion has worth and dignity — but it did not go far enough in the way of enacting penalties for medical professionals who do not provide care to these children.
Editor’s Note, 9/5/23: Added additional links regarding the abortion survivor mentioned by DeSantis.
