News

Woman's Abortion Story Goes Viral After Trump's 'Rip The Baby Out' Comment

REUTERS

One mother's story about the "worst moment" of her life is going viral, and it all happened because of Donald Trump's erroneous claim about late-term abortions.

In a Facebook post that has been shared over 20,000 times, Utah resident Alyson Draper emphatically wrote,

I HAD A LATE TERM ABORTION. IT IS NOTHING LIKE DESCRIBED BY TRUMP. PLEASE DON'T BASE YOUR VOTE ON THE FEAR MONGERING HE IS DOING. PLEASE READ MY EXPERIENCE:

Draper published her story on Facebook shortly after the end of the third presidential debate, a debate during which Donald Trump said late-term abortions allow people to "rip the baby out of the womb" on "the final day."

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton discuss late-term, partial-birth abortion during #debatenight https://t.co/R5o6Y66ZjR — PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) October 20, 2016

That, of course, is not true. And Draper went out of her way to illustrate that, even if it required telling a not-so-pleasant story.

Draper wrote,

I had to have a late term abortion. It was the worst moment in my life.

According to her post, the situation that led to the Utah woman's late-term abortion was a complicated one.

Draper was supposed to give birth to twins, but one of them was dead and the other had a "severe" spinal defect that Draper said would require the baby to live on life support for a matter of days.

The fact that Utah made late-term abortions illegal only further complicated matters.

My health was in danger due to the dead fetus. My husband and I consulted our LDS [Church of Latter Day Saints] Bishop, who assured me I needed to do what I had to do, that it was even within LDS guidelines to do so. He reminded me I had six kids at home who needed their mother to live.

Ultimately, the late-term abortion was done via C-section. Draper described it as a "terrible" and "horrific" experience that left her psychologically scared.

I developed PTSD for which I had to be treated for years, mostly because of the fact I had to have it at all.

In the end, Draper wanted to push across a message that asserted two things: Such decisions are painful and delicate, and they should only be left to the woman.

No woman should have to have the state have a say in the most painful decision she will ever make. Nobody is tearing babies apart in late term. They are always humanely done, only in situations where there is a non-viable or severely defective fetus and/or the mother's health is at risk.

You can read her full post below.