Note: This testimony was originally submitted to the Senate urging them to vote in favor of HB 625, the Fetal Life Protection Act. HB 625 is now Sections 37-40 of HB 2, the State Budget.
Dear Republican Senators,
Please vote in support of HB 625, the Fetal Life Protection Act without bill-gutting amendments like fetal anomaly, rape and incest and removal of criminal penalties. I’m writing wearing my personal hat, not that as volunteer Executive Director of Cornerstone.
Doctors can misdiagnose.
In 2015 – here in Bedford – at my routine 18-week ultrasound with my last pregnancy, a concern was raised about the development of my son, Aidan.
Days later, I was sent for a level 2 ultrasound. There, Aidan was diagnosed with a developmental anomaly that, although not life threatening, if properly managed with life-long medication and surgery, he would have a physical deformation. The physician gave us various options, including “terminating the pregnancy” – “abortion” is another way to say it.
My husband and I chose to pursue a 2nd opinion and went to Boston Children’s Hospital for additional testing, including an MRI. We spent the entire day there while a team of doctors (geneticist, endocrinologist, urologist, among others) consulted with each other – they all met with us at the end of a long day and determined that we had a totally normal healthy baby boy. They didn’t understand the reason behind the diagnosis from the doctor associated with a well-known hospital here in NH.
We of course, wouldn’t know for sure if he was “normal” until he was born and sure enough, he was totally normal. Not a single thing was “wrong” with him.
Doctors are human. They make mistakes.
I often wonder what would’ve happened to Aidan if he had been carried by a different mother who wouldn’t have sought out a cumbersome and expensive 2nd opinion. Would he have been the victim of a “therapeutic” abortion? My husband and I are grateful that we have Aidan and so are his four older brothers who dote over him.
Please vote to support HB 625 without a fetal anomaly exception, rape or incest nor removing the criminal penalties. Please support the Birdsell and French (Judge Lynn’s) amendments. Thank you for your service.
Shannon McGinley
