As ABC's World News Tonight aired a story sympathetic to the pro-abortion movement, NBC Nightly News actually devoted 20 seconds to an inspiring story out of San Diego. Fill-in anchor Savannah Guthrie reported on the progress of “what doctors are calling the world’s tiniest surviving baby,” so while NBC deserves credit for running this story, they failed to acknowledge its impact on the abortion debate.
Guthrie noted that “the world’s tiniest surviving baby” was “just 8.6 ounces when she was born prematurely at 23 weeks.” She added that “after five months in intensive care, the little girl, named Saybie, is now healthy, and she’s headed home.” The idea that a healthy baby born at just 23 weeks gestation can survive flies in the face of the pro-abortion movement’s talking points.
After all, liberal states have sought to expand the legalization on abortion later and later into pregnancy; New York has actually succeeded in that effort, removing restrictions on third-trimester abortions. The birth of Saybie occurred during the second trimester of pregnancy.
As of right now, more than half of the states allow abortions after 24 weeks or the “point of viability,” according to USA Today. Pro-abortion activists are going to have a harder time arguing that babies born earlier than 24 weeks are not human lives in the wake of Saybie’s birth but NBC did not point that out.
A more in-depth report on Saybie’s story aired Thursday morning in ABC's pre-dawn program World News Now. Perhaps unintentionally, the segment refuted one of the most common pro-abortion talking points. Reporter Will Ganss noted that doctors said “they needed to perform an emergency C-section,” adding that “the baby wasn’t growing and mom’s life was in immediate danger.”
Keep in mind that abortion is often justified if the “mom’s life was in immediate danger.” According to USA Today, more than a dozen states with stricter abortion laws allow exceptions in the event of a “threat to a woman’s health” or a “threat to a woman’s life.”
The ABC report also mentioned that after “working around the clock for five months,” Saybie was released from the hospital as a “healthy five-pound baby.” While Ganss and the anchors were impressed by the story of this “miracle baby,” they failed to acknowledge how the story flew directly in the face of the abortion debate, much like NBC.
Saybie’s success story raises a lot of questions that the pro-abortion movement, which has attempted to legalize abortion later and later into presidency, should have to answer. Fortunately for them, the media have shown no interest in asking those questions so far.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Wednesday’s edition of NBC Nightly News is below.
NBC Nightly News
05/29/19
07:16 a.m. Eastern
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Tonight, an amazing announcement from San Diego; what doctors are calling the world’s tiniest surviving baby, just 8.6 ounces when she was born prematurely at 23 weeks. Well, after five months in intensive care, the little girl, named Saybie, is now healthy and she’s headed home and we are so happy for her family.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Thursday’s edition of ABC's World News Now is below. Click “expand” to read more.
ABC's World News Now
05/30/19
03:43 a.m. Eastern
KENNETH MOTON: Well, turning now to an amazing story of survival out of San Diego.
MAGGIE RULLI: Where we’re hearing for the first time about a baby girl believed to be the tiniest surviving newborn weighing only as much as an apple and our own Will Ganss is here with her story.
WILL GANSS: That’s right. Good morning, you guys, and good morning to all of you. The baby’s family gave their permission to share her story but they wish to remain anonymous so that they can focus on caring for their newborn daughter. Saybie is the nickname the baby’s NICU team used during her stay at the hospital, and here’s her incredible story.
GANSS: When she was born, baby Saybie weighed only 8.6 ounces, about the size of an apple. Her mom remembering that day in December vividly.
MOTHER: It was the scariest day of my life.
GANSS: Doctors saying they needed to perform an emergency C-section. The baby wasn’t growing and mom’s life was in immediate danger.
MOTHER: They kept telling me that she’s not going to survive. She’s only going to live two or three weeks.
GANSS: The typical pregnancy, 40 weeks and at delivery, Saybie becoming the world’s smallest surviving newborn, according to the Tiniest Babies Registry, which is kept by the University of Iowa. But baby Saybie was a fighter.
MOTHER: They told my husband that he had about an hour with her, and she was going to pass away. But that hour turned into two hours, which turned into a day, which turned into a week.
GANSS: The staff at the Sharp Mary Birch NICU working around the clock for five months.
KIM NORBY, REGISTERED NURSE: Even when I’m not here, I think about her, like how’s she doing today and that? So yeah, she’s a miracle, that’s for sure.
GANSS: Those nurses and doctors becoming Saybie’s second family, and her mom thankful.
MOTHER: Her primary nurses were just…they became friends. Look at all those signs. They made it. I’m so grateful for them.
GANSS: And everyone, mom, dad, nurses, and doctors, grateful that Saybie, who weighed as much as a child’s juice box at birth, was discharged from the hospital as a healthy five-pound little girl.
GANSS: How cute in that little graduation cap. Her doctors say that baby Saybie experienced almost none of the medical challenges typically associated with micro-preemies, which can include brain, lung, and heart issues. So if there was any doubt she’s a miracle baby, there’s your proof right there.
RULLI: What an amazing network of nurses as well.
GANSS: Incredible.
RULLI: Incredible to watch them.
MOTON: You always have to thank those nurses and highlight those nurses because they are miracle workers as well as those doctors.
RULLI: And amazing to see the love they put into it, making the signs.
GANSS: The signs, right.
RULLI: When she was three pounds.
GANSS: Right, moved into an open bed, celebrated mom’s birthday and I love what that one nurse said too, that she was thinking about her even when she went home, you know, how’s she doing, I wonder how she’s doing.
