This Doctor Tried to Save an Abortion Survivor…and it Changed His Life

“When they’re dying… I can’t describe it. It feels like the whole universe — a focal point of good versus evil. 

By Carole Novielli
Live Action News

The death of an abortion survivor changed the life of Texas physician Dr. Ron Bryce. During the 1980s when Bryce was doing his residency at a Fort Worth hospital, he attempted to save the infant’s life. As an emergency medicine physician, Dr. Bryce recalled the day he was summoned by the neonatal intensive care unit late in the evening. He recalled receiving a code blue to the operating room and said that he had no idea what the emergency was about.

Upon arrival, he found it unusual that hospital staffers said nothing to him. 

“They looked at me — no one told me anything.” Then he saw the baby in the corner on a table. The mother was still sedated. Bryce later learned that the baby had survived an abortion attempt. The hospital, Bryce says, committed abortions on poor women “under the radar.”

“It was confusion in the operating room. It was confusion,” Dr. Bryce recounted.

“Usually when we get called to code blue, you have a team-coordinated effort. When I got in there, nobody wanted to talk to me — I just see the baby in the corner up against the wall on a table. It was just odd. I didn’t understand it was an abortion at that time. I just thought the baby was delivered early… it was later I started questioning people when I realized it was an abortion.”

“It really hit me in the NICU when I had the baby in the incubator. I had to write a history of visual for the little guy. Initially it was just confusion. As far as I know, I was the only one that got called in for one of those. There may have been more, but they did not talk about it,” Dr. Bryce told Live Action News. “My gut feeling at that time was that it had happened before and babies were just left to die. The abortionist didn’t want me in there. He didn’t say anything to me.”

Sadly, the child, too young to survive outside the womb at the time, ultimately died.

“The baby was too young to be viable — 21 weeks. I couldn’t just let him die. I took to the baby to the neonatal intensive unit. Some probes were too small. He survived until the next day and then died,” Dr. Bryce stated emotionally.

21 weeks

Dr. Bryce elaborated further in his book Fingerprint of God:

At the time, I had been a physician for about three years. I had seen a few aborted fetuses who still had a heartbeat. But this infant wasn’t lying limp like the others were doing. He was moving his arms and legs and looked as if he wanted to cry—a rather embarrassing situation for the abortionist. 

The situation struck me as absurd. Just minutes earlier, this fragile human being had legally been a “nonperson” possessing no rights. Yet, after surviving the abortion, he had magically become a “person” entitled to medical care (however inadequate that care happened to be). The same system that had failed to kill him was now in charge of saving his life.

I stared down at his frail body, emotion arose in my chest with each tiny heartbeat… his breathing became more labored, he grimaced several times—evidence of a struggle with something he had no ability to comprehend. While I could see him, with his eyes fused shut he could not see me. He would never know me or remember me, but I would always remember him. Finally, his grunting quieted, movements ceased, and the grimace passed.

Live Action News article continues here

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline:

Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.

In Southeast Penna:
Call the Community Women's 

Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available. Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

When I Was Nine, I Learned I Was Adopted…and an Abortion Survivor

"But most of all, it is a beautiful story of a woman who almost lost her life to the silent holocaust that is abortion--now ready to speak up for those yet to be born." Dona Marie, abortion survivor

By Dona Marie
Live Action News

I remember being a happy child. I had simple joys then. Some toys, some sweets, my playmates, a VHS tape of The Sound of Music, my beloved dog and my doting parents made me feel the luckiest kid on earth. 

But an experience suddenly burst my happy bubble when I was about nine years old. It was the 16th of January, a big feast in our small town is being celebrated. It was Sto. Nino’s fiesta (Feast of the Child Jesus). I remember being glad because there were no classes that day. Therefore I was allowed to watch The Sound of Music even if it wasn’t Friday.

I also remember seeing my mother with a somber expression. She went upstairs to the master’s bedroom but before she did, instructed me to follow her after a couple of minutes. I did as I was told. I entered the room having no idea that my life was about to change. My mom smiled at me but I noticed the smile did not reach her eyes. I smiled back and tried to cheer her up with a tight hug. It was then that I realized she was crying.

“What’s the matter?” I asked her. 

“Anak (child), do sit with me on the bed.”

I obeyed. She took a deep breath and looking into my eyes started to say:

“Do you remember the story we used to tell you about our friend’s daughter? Our friend who adopted a baby who survived abortion, and then the baby grew up to be a bright young woman?”

“Oh, that story!” I smiled a bit, remembering the story I’ve heard a number of times from both my parents. I always loved that story and admired the strong young woman who survived abortion.

With another deep breath, my mom continued. 

“Dona that is your story. You are that bright, young girl.”

I thought I must have misunderstood my mom.

“I beg your pardon?” I asked, my voice just barely over a whisper.

“Dona you are the abortion survivor. Your biological mother had an abortion but you survived. And then God gave you to us. And now you’ve grown into a bright young woman,” she explained.

There was a lump in my throat. I lost my voice. My mind was reeling to process everything. This means I am not my parents’ daughter. This means my whole life has been a joke… everything’s make-believe. Oh, God the times I disobeyed my parents! How could I disobey them when I owe them so much!

My thoughts went haywire.

“Dona are you okay? Please be okay. Remember that we love you very much. It doesn’t matter if you are adopted. We love you just the same. Nothing will change.” I heard my mom say, but she seemed far away because I could barely hear her.

She was wrong. Everything has changed. I have changed. I felt like a different person. I looked at my hands. It was strange that I felt like I was another person. But I knew I needed to say something. 

“I’m okay,” I said, trying to convince both my mom and myself that I was. My mom hugged me. I realized I was crying albeit silently. Tears were flowing down my cheeks. I asked my mom for details. I wanted to know what happened. She said that she didn’t know my biological mother. 

But according to the birth attendant/abortionist (not a medical professional, traditionally called pilot in the Philippines), my biological mother was a young woman, some weeks pregnant. “I want to have an abortion,” she said, and the pilot obliged, for this was her “job” (abortions are done secretly because it is illegal in the Philippines).

Live Action News true story continues here

Abortion Survivor Claire Culwell to Address Irish ‘Stand Up for Life’ Rally April 2nd

“My life is a miracle and I would be selfish 

to keep this gift of life to myself.”

Claire Culwell and Her Birthmother

By Dave Andrusko

National Right to Life

Abortion survivors, for obvious reasons, have incredibly testimonies. Many pro-lifers, including me, are more familiar with Melissa Ohden and Gianna Jessen, who both miraculously survived saline abortions. However they are not the only ones to have bested the abortionist’s best efforts to kill them.

Claire Culwell’s story is the most remarkable of all. We’re writing about her because a Donegal Now, an Irish newspaper reported today that she will share her story at a ‘Stand Up for Life” rally next week in Donegal.

As NRL News Today readers are well aware, there will be a referendum in the Republic of Ireland in May or June whether to repeal the 8th Amendment to the Constitution, which affords the mother and the unborn child equal rights, and give Parliament authority to pass abortion legislation.

A few years back LiveActionNews provided this wonderful overview of Claire’s incredible story:

Claire’s mom had grown up in a broken home and found herself pregnant at the young age of thirteen. When Claire’s grandmother found out, she brought her to the abortion clinic, where a surgical abortion was performed while Claire’s mom was five months pregnant.

Four week later, a friend encouraged her to go back to the doctor, as there appeared to be complications. She went back to the abortion clinic, where it was discovered that she was still pregnant. Claire’s twin had been aborted, but she had survived. With the amniotic sac broken, Claire was born just two weeks later. At 3 pounds, 2 ounces, little Claire struggled to live, spending the first two and a half months of her life in the hospital.

Claire is not angry at her birth mom; rather, she finds her to be one of her biggest heroes. The courage it took to tell Claire the story surrounding her birth has resulted in people’s lives being impacted.

Indeed since that story was published, Claire and her birth mother have reconciled but Claire is also very clear that she was blessed by the parents who adopted her. That LiveActionNews story included a beautiful testimony from her adoptive mother.

In the interview with Donegal Now, Claire recalled how: 

“One of us was aborted, one of us survived,” adding, “I’m a survivor of abortion. My life is a testimony that there are wonderful alternatives to abortion, such as adoption in my case.”

“An accidental or unwanted child still deserves life, even a child with disabilities. I was born two and half months early, weighed 3 lbs 2oz, had dislocated hips and club feet. I had to wear casts on my feet, a harness and eventually a body cast. The abortion still affects me today.”

Ahead of her Donegal visit, Culwell, who was put up for adoption by her mother shortly after she was born, explained why she wanted to visit Ireland: 

“I want to encourage women to seek alternatives to abortion because I would never want any woman to go through the grief and the pain that my birth mother went through simply because she didn’t know she had any other option.”

She now travels the world sharing her story, urging people to choose life instead of abortion. Culwell says she can’t imagine not sharing her story with others. 

“My life is a miracle and I would be selfish to keep this gift of life to myself,” she says.

Website: National Right to Life

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.
In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

Woman Who Survived an Abortion at 8 Months Finds Her Birthmother

By Micaiah Bilger

Life News

Melissa Ohden has learned the truth about her unique birth in bits and pieces across several decades.

Ohden survived a late-term saline abortion and was adopted three months later into a loving home. Last year, after four decades, she and her birth mother met for the first time.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Ohden explained how she gradually learned about the circumstances of her mother’s abortion and her birth.

It began when she was 14 and in an argument with her sister. Ohden learned that she had been adopted after surviving a botched abortion. She said the news was difficult for her to process, especially the idea that her mother did not want her and tried to have her killed before she was born.

When she was 19, she said she decided to start looking for her birth parents anyway. Here’s more from the report:

She pored over phonebooks, newspapers on microfiche, and year books at the library, not knowing her birth mother’s name but looking for someone who looked like herself.

She also put an advert in the local newspaper appealing for anyone with information to come forward, but to no avail.

After years of futile hunting, Melissa came across a startling lead when she was 30.

‘I knew my maternal grandparents’ surname and where they had been employed, so that was a big piece of the puzzle,’ she said.

‘I was flicking through a nursing college year book when I came across a woman I suspected was my grandmother. I still didn’t know at this stage her full role in what happened

She sent them a letter, but only her grandfather wrote back.

‘He said my live birth was not the intention the day I was born. He also made it clear I wouldn’t find my birth mother through them because they were estranged from her.

‘It was evident their relationship with my mother was never the same after my birth. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I knew then something sinister had gone on.’

Later, Ohden learned that her grandparents basically had forced her mother to have the abortion. Her mother was about eight-months pregnant with Ohden, though doctors at the time of the abortion estimated she was about 20 weeks along.

Life News continues

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  

Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  

Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.



Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.
In Southeast Penna:  Call or text 610-626-4006  

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org. 

40 Years Ago I Survived an Abortion, Thank God I’m Alive Today

By Melissa Ohden
Life News

If you’ve ever wondered what goes through an abortion survivor’s head on their birthday, I’ll give you a sneak peek into mine on my 40th birthday.

12:33 am: I’m woken up by our 3-year-old. I glance at the clock, realizing it’s now the 29th. I say a prayer, thanking God for being alive and continue this prayer multiple times throughout the day.

6:30 am: I think about how I was delivered around this time in the final step of the abortion procedure. I’m saddened and horrified thinking about it, while at the same time, so thankful to have been born alive.

These thoughts automatically trigger my questions about who all was present at the time or shortly thereafter and the effect all of this might have had on them. My grandmother was there. Nurses were there. I worry about them. Yes, even my grandmother. Did this haunt them throughout their lives? When did the abortionist first find out the abortion had “failed”? When did he begin to panic? Was I his first botched abortion survivor?

I reflect on the panic that so many must have felt. This wasn’t supposed to happen. And then to be told I needed to be left to die. To hear me, to see me, this suffering newborn gasping for breath. My heart breaks for them. I wonder, do they realize today is the 40th anniversary of that fateful day?

9:00 am: I wonder how long I had been in the NICU forty years ago today at this time. I wonder if my grandmother kept checking on me. I wonder if she was allowed anywhere near me? I wonder what that was like for her to have me there at the hospital she worked at, trained nurses at, for the next twenty one days. Was she ever thankful I was actually born alive, or was she simply angry that the abortion failed, and I was there like a black eye for all to see–the child born to her daughter out of wedlock?

1:00 pm: I can’t remember what time my medical records state that the neonatologist visited me, but I think of him today. “Approximately 31 weeks gestation,” he wrote in my records. I’m sure he assessed and directed care for many premature infants. I wonder what he thought of my circumstances?

3:00 pm: The words “it is finished” keep rolling around in my head. Of course, it reminds me of Jesus on Good Friday, as He hung from the Cross, but the words have been echoing in my head all day. After four days of the abortion procedure, today was meant to be the day that it was finished. Except, much like Good Friday, God was not done. What looks like the end, could very well be just the beginning. Thank God, truly!

Life News continues

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  

Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.
In Southeast Penna:  Call or text 610-626-4006  

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

Abortion Survivor Melissa Ohden: Despite Resistance, Pro-Lifers are Saving Lives, Changing Minds on College Campuses

Abortion Survivor and Pro-Life Activist Melissa Ohden

By Danny David
Live Action News

Pro-life activist Melissa Ohden shouldn’t be alive today. Decades ago, Melissa’s mother was pressured into getting an abortion. Luckily, the abortion attempt failed. As Live Action News reported in 2013:

The saline abortion, an injection of toxic salt solution into the amniotic fluid that surrounds a baby in the womb, scalds the unborn baby to death by burning through skin and into the organs. The process normally takes 72 hours, but in this case, it took much longer.

They believed that the baby girl was dead when she was delivered at St. Luke’s hospital on August 29, 1977, and they would have disposed of her, except that a nurse heard her “weak grunting noises” and made a decision that she legally did not have to make. She decided to give her care.

In a recent interview with The College Fix, Ohden shares about her experiences encountering resistance and attempts at censorship as a pro-lifer on college campuses. But what is most interesting is the way Ohden views the progress the pro-life movement has made, and the reality that we can continue it.

In order to best communicate with those who do not currently agree with pro-life values, we need to comprehend who they are, where they are coming from, and why they perceive pro-lifers as a threat. 

“Whether it’s openly discussed or not, we live in this culture that has embraced this narrative that abortion is a choice, it’s right, it’s legal,” explains Ohden. “So anybody who’s going to say anything different from that is seen as a threat.”

Ohden went on to describe experiences on campuses reflecting general attitudes of skepticism toward abortion survivors like her, along with pressure upon pro-lifers to keep silent. However, she also called attention to pro-life groups, specifically Students for Life and Feminists for Life, which have created support for fellow pro-lifers on campuses, providing them with the opportunity to unite and speak out for life regardless of the surrounding campus culture that seeks to silence them. 

Live Action News continues

Gianna Jessen, Abortion Survivor

Abortion Survivor: I Feel a Burden to Be a Voice for Those Who Don’t Have One

By Lauren Enrique 
Live Action News

In 2014, a group of young pro-life advocates produced a stunning video called “Listen to the Beat.” The video demonstrates the impact of abortion on the United States by playing the same number of drumbeats as abortions that occur each day in our nation. 

As the drums beat, a young man talks about the devastating toll abortion has caused in the U.S. and the pro-life generation’s commitment to ending it.

In a stunning turn, the viewer learns that the young man is an abortion survivor himself.

Josiah Presley, the young man in the video, is now a 21-year-old college student. Presley agreed to share more of his story with the readers of Live Action News.

After surviving a dilation and curettage (D & C) abortion in South Korea at eight weeks gestation, Presley was born healthy, but with a disfigured arm — likely attributable to the attempt on his life. He was adopted at 13 months of age and came to live with his family in Oklahoma, where he would ultimately be one of 12 siblings, including 10 adopted children and the two biological children of his adoptive parents.

Presley always knew he was adopted, but he did not know he was an abortion survivor until the age of 13.

“When I was told at first, I kept it to myself for a while,” explained Presley. “However, as the Lord worked in my life and I began to get involved in pro-life ministries, God placed it on my heart to share my story.”

Josiah Presley's story continues