We Can’t Look Away at This Child Left to Die After a Failed Abortion

National Right to Life News recently shared a heartbreaking photo and story from Right to Life UK that I haven’t been able to shake. It reports on laws in Australia where babies who survive abortions may be left without care.

One of those babies was a little boy named Samuel.

Baby Samuel was born alive at 16 weeks after a botched abortion and was left to die. A photograph initially was shared on the Instagram account of Dr. Joanne Howe, a Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide.  “Dr. Howe stated that the photograph and other relevant information were passed on to her by Queensland health workers” who were reportedly horrified by what they witnessed, according to Right to Life UK.

The photo shows him struggling to live. He is all alone, sucking his thumb, seeking the only comfort he could find until he died.

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The image captures the humanity of Baby Samuel, showing him as a real, living baby with needs and emotions, not just an abstract statistic.

To say this image affected me deeply is an understatement. I felt overwhelming sadness and sickness in the pit of my stomach. And what struck me most is this: as horrific as this story is, it is not just an overseas problem. These things happen here, too.

Melissa Ohden is living proof. In 1977, she miraculously survived a saline abortion and now courageously speaks about her experience. She founded the Abortion Survivors Network to give voice to others who, against all odds, survived abortions.

Her story makes it impossible to dismiss cases like Samuel’s as “rare” or “hypothetical.”

These are real people.

Real children.

This is exactly why we need to pass the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act at both the federal and state levels. No baby born alive should ever be denied care or abandoned and left to die.

This should not be controversial. It is basic human decency.

Here in New Jersey, this issue is especially urgent. The state is planning to open an all-trimester abortion clinic this summer. As abortion laws grow more extreme, the risk of babies being born alive and then cruelly left to die becomes more real, not less.

Without clear legal protections—guardrails–there is nothing stopping what happened to Baby Samuel from happening here in New Jersey.

We cannot look away. We cannot pretend this scandal doesn’t happen. Babies born alive deserve protection, care, and dignity—every time, in every state.

Passing born-alive protections is the bare minimum we owe to the most vulnerable among us. At the same time, we must support mothers in need and continue the fight against the injustice of abortion, defending every human life with compassion and resolve.

LifeNews.com Note: Marie Tasy is the executive director of New Jersey Right to Life.