Check
out our latest Real Life Story, on Adeline Raymond and her family. Her
doctors suggested she should be terminated because she was diagnosed
with several birth defects in the womb. Her parents made the wise choice
of letting her live!
Adeline Raymond defied the odds. She was given a one-in-ten chance
of surviving her birth, not by her doctors, but by statistics. If it
were up to some of her doctors, Adeline wouldn't have made it. Her
parents Andy and Ida said they were told by doctors to abort her.
Adeline's misfortune was being diagnosed in the womb with
multiple birth defects. The statistics show a staggeringly high rate of
abortions performed on children diagnosed with disabilities in the womb.....
Andy and Ida said the manner in which the doctors delivered the news
left them terrified. Ida said she felt more like a number in line than a
parent finding out her child might have several serious conditions.
Even worse than the bedside manner was the advice given to
them. Ida said the doctor told them that it would be wise and
responsible to abort their child now, and that waiting to kill Adeline
would only delay the inevitable.....
The couple said they don't know why all of the horrible things that
were predicted never came to pass. Andy guessed that the scan was done
so early in the pregnancy that it was perhaps too early for the doctors
in Ann Arbor to reach a definitive diagnosis. Ida wondered if after
receiving so much prayer and support from their families and the
community that it was divine intervention.
"Maybe God said 'I'll take care of it,'" Ida said.
Whatever the reason, Andy said the experience confirmed their
prolife beliefs. They wrote a letter to their doctors in Ann Arbor with
Adeline's story, hoping that the doctors take a life-affirming approach
with other couples in the future. They said they hate to imagine how
people without strong support or prolife convictions react when
confronted with a troubling prenatal diagnosis. For Andy and Ida, it all
came down to the love they had for their daughter.
