Contact: Brandi Gruis, 605-271-7581, Vote Yes for Life
SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota, September 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- A TV ad from "Healthy Families," a pro-abortion activist group, depicts a woman telling her story about her pregnancy with twins. It implies that a procedure resulting in the death of a twin that has "Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome" is illegal under the law. That claim is not only false, but a shameful exploitation of the mother shown on the ad who lost her child.
Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome is a complication that occurs in less than one out of a thousand pregnancies. In some cases, it can threaten the lives of the babies in utero. However, today there are modern medical procedures that are used to save the children.
Performing those procedures, which are intended to save the lives of the babies, is never prohibited by Measure 11, even if one or both of the babies dies. The claim that the mother, under the new law, could not have had a procedure to save the life of one or both of those children is totally false.
There is no reason for a doctor to deliberately abort one of the twins in an effort to save one of them, and physicians do not do so as part of accepted standards of medical practice. Under Section 2 of the law, only if the procedure is designed to deliberately and intentionally kill the baby, is it prohibited – unless it is permitted by one of the exceptions. An unintended death is not a violation of the law, and the law permits the procedure even if there is a risk that one or both babies could die from the procedure.
Section 2 specifically requires that the doctor's act is "with the intent of causing the termination of the life of an unborn human being." Medical treatment intended to save the lives of the babies is not prohibited. Further, Section 13, paragraph 1 of the law states:
"Medical treatment ... that results in the unintentional injury or death of the unborn child is not a violation of this Act."
It is offensive that the abortion proponents would use this personal tragedy to mislead the public, and it is exploitive of a mother who suffered a tragic loss. The ad is deliberately misleading and should be taken off the air. For more information, visit www.Voteyesforlife.com.
