Everyday Tragedy

By: American Decency Staff

This week, about twenty minutes from my house, a newborn child was found on the side of the road by a man walking his dog. The umbilical cord still attached, the naked infant was apparently abandoned by her mother next to a dirt road on a chilly Michigan night and left exposed to the elements for around 6 hours.

Here's the story according to MLive.com:

"Kopp was headed outside with his daughter’s dog for a walk at about 10:30 a.m. when Bobby (the dog)started pulling toward the front of the house.

“It was out of the ordinary,” he said. “Normally, I wouldn’t let him go that way.”

Bobby led Kopp underneath a nearby satellite dish. Kopp said at first he thought the dog was sniffing a rock, perhaps even a dead rabbit — he didn’t expect to find a newborn baby on her side in the fetal position. The baby had no clothing on, and was not wrapped in a blanket.

After calling a neighbor to bring a towel, Kopp said he took Bobby inside and his wife and daughter came out to cradle the infant until police arrived.

… Kopp’s daughter, said the baby had leaves and grass stuck to her skin, along with fluids from her birth. She said the baby appeared to be breathing alright, as the infant cried when she was picked up. They grew concerned at one point, however, when they thought the baby might be turning blue…."

Needless to say, members of our community have been shocked at such callous treatment of a little baby. After all, a newborn is about as close as you can get to an innocent human being, and when a mother abuses her own so heinously, it's always a shock. This kind of thing doesn't happen in Newaygo County! This happens in big cities and faraway places, but never in our own back yard.

Except this time it did; and the truth is, this kind of thing happens in all of our own back yards all the time, except usually a dog doesn't come along at the right time and save the day.

But the fact is, mothers kill their infant children every day, and maybe it's not as shocking anymore to hear the word "abortion" as it is to hear "left outside to die," but the end result is the same.

It's interesting that the child was still attached to her umbilical cord. If the mother had killed it before she cut the cord, it might only be called a late-term abortion instead of child endangerment or attempted murder.

What's even more sickening is that many are using this story to argue for easier access to abortions.

As one reader commented:  "… If she had been given the option to have an abortion, this baby never would have been abandoned because it never would have been born. But now that it has been born, this girl faces shunning from her peers and disappointment from all the adults. She probably saw abandoning her baby as her only option. This is why planned parenthood and protection for teens are so important."

As if it would have better for the child to actually die, instead of almost dying.

But by God's grace, the child was found in good health, and police also believe that they've found the mother – a 14 year-old girl.

Little is known about the girl or the facts surrounding her pregnancy – her age makes it likely that she was a victim of rape or statutory rape and, not knowing what to do, chose an awful option.

Whatever her circumstances, however, she did not choose the worst option, as mothers do legally every day with much more grisly results.

The fact is, we're accustomed to abortions, but when we hear stories like this it's a chance to remind ourselves of how shocking killing an unborn child really is.

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