Abortion Survivors Speak to the Horror of Abortion

Before children are born, we cannot communicate with them, touch them, or interact with them in the same ways we can with a child who is born. Hearing a baby’s heartbeat or seeing an ultrasound image can be powerful, but to some people, the preborn child may seem much less real than the already-born babies we see around us. That is why, for decades, we have been bombarded with messages seeking to downplay the fact that abortion kills a human being.

But what happens when abortionists fail to kill the innocent preborn babies they target? Often, the babies are left alone to die.

Though abortion advocates say this does not happen often, evidence proves otherwise. And the existence of these abortion survivors seems to terrify pro-abortionists, as it forces them to see the humanity of the preborn.

Failed abortions: The boys and girls who live

Melissa Ohden

At the gestational age of approximately 31 weeks, Melissa Ohden¹ survived a saline abortion—a type of abortion in which a salt solution is injected into the amniotic sac, poisoning and burning the child over a prolonged period until death occurs.²

The abortion was not her mother’s choice but was forced upon her by her family. Melissa soaked in the salt solution for five days before her mother’s labor was induced. The abortion failed to kill Melissa, but it caused jaundice, respiratory problems, and seizures. Upon realizing she was still alive, the nurse who delivered her, who was actually Melissa’s maternal grandmother, demanded that Melissa be left to die. Eventually, one of the other nurses rushed her to the NICU, stating, “She just kept gasping for breath, and so I couldn’t just leave her there to die!”³

The details of Melissa’s birth were not widely shared. Though she knew she was adopted, she did not learn the full story until she was 14.⁴ Her birth mother didn’t even know her baby had survived until Melissa found her biological family when she was 30. Since reconnecting, Melissa and her mother have been able to form a positive relationship, overcoming the wounds they both suffered at the hands of abortion.⁵

Melissa has now become a strong voice for the preborn and for abortion survivors. She founded The Abortion Survivors Network, which offers support to survivors and educates the public about the reality of failed abortions. 

On several occasions, she has given testimony before Congress in support of pro-life policies and increased protections for abortion survivors. While testifying in 2019 at the Threats to Reproductive Rights in America hearing, she used her story to highlight the reality of so-called abortion rights, saying, “The abortion industry talks in abstract and gray when it comes to the science of when life begins and what abortion does, but the reality is much clearer. I’m alive today because someone else’s ‘reproductive right’ failed to end my life.”⁶

Josiah Presley

Stories of abortion survivors suffering from severe disabilities because of the abortion are not uncommon. Abortions of almost any type are tremendously violent. Survivors endure being mutilated, burned, cut, poisoned, and starved in the brutal but unsuccessful attempts to end their lives. Few escape unscathed. Many struggle with serious health issues or are missing entire body parts as a result.

Josiah Presley was the victim of an abortion attempt in South Korea and was born with a left arm deformity, likely a result of the abortion he endured. As he explained in one of his interviews, “A curettage abortion is a type of abortion where the doctor goes into the mother’s womb and basically rips the baby apart and brings them out in pieces, and that’s actually why we think that I’m probably missing an arm today.”⁷

Adopted at a young age by a family in the US, Josiah grew up like most kids, participating in sports and activities despite his lost limb. But after learning about the abortion that failed to kill him, he began struggling with his self-image, and he developed feelings of worthlessness and anger toward his birth parents. Over time, however, these feelings morphed into an appreciation for his adoptive parents and a feeling of purpose—to protect other children and the preborn from what he endured.⁸

Today, Josiah works as a student minister and shares his story to raise awareness for the preborn. While speaking at the National Convention for Life in Dublin, Ireland, in 2014, he said, “Through my story, the Lord has opened doors for me to speak the truth about abortion and His love for us. All of this has spawned from a passion for the unborn who have no voice because that’s who I was.”⁹

Nik Hoot

Another child with physical scars from the attempt on his life is Nik Hoot, a young man born in Russia who lost his legs and parts of his hands during a failed abortion. Despite his disabilities, Nik played several sports in his youth, including wrestling, basketball, football, and baseball.

He was adopted by an American couple when he was a year old. His adoptive parents were honest about the abortion attempt—information he found difficult to overcome.¹⁰

“I knew that I was supposed to be an aborted baby and it failed,” Nik told a local news station. “It makes me angry because I would never want for that to happen to any kid. Anybody can become anything, and getting rid of a kid like that isn’t right.”¹¹

Sarah Brown

While many abortion survivors go on to live full lives as social workers, ministers, husbands, and wives, not all failed abortions have happy endings. Some babies die or are killed shortly after birth, while others may succumb to health complications years later.

One such example is Sarah Brown. At 36 weeks, Sarah was injected with potassium chloride to stop her heart. In late-term abortions, this substance is often injected directly into the child’s heart to ensure that there are no accidental live births.¹² In Sarah’s case, however, the abortionist injected the poison into her head.

The poison caused chemical burns and severely damaged half of Sarah’s brain. After her birth, the staff at the hospital simply wrapped her in a blanket and left her in a bassinet to die. She suffered alone for 24 hours until a nurse in the newborn unit of the hospital contacted a pro-life attorney who found a family to care for her.¹³

Though blind, Sarah progressed normally for several months, but complications from the abortion continued to worsen her condition. She never recovered completely from a stroke she suffered as a baby and died at the age of five.¹⁴

How many abortion survivors are there?

To many people, the idea of any child surviving an abortion is absurd. Abortion advocates have pushed a narrative for years that abortions do not happen late enough for a child to survive or that such abortions only happen to “nonviable” babies. In reality, however, abortion survivors do exist.¹⁵

It is difficult to say just how many children survive abortions. Very few states have reporting requirements for abortion survivors. Even when such requirements do exist, the severe neglect that the survivors often endure makes it unlikely that such reports are accurate.¹⁶

What data we do have, though, indicates that there are likely thousands of abortion survivors each year. The Abortion Survivors Network used Canadian data to estimate the number of survivors born in the United States, as Canada tracks this information more consistently and has similar abortion and healthcare systems.¹⁷

What it found is astounding. ASN estimates that 85,817 infants have been born alive after failed abortions since 1973 and that around 1,734 infants survive abortions each year.¹⁸

In truth, it is miraculous that we have any survivors reported at all. These children are born directly into the care of the abortionist. Almost every report paints a horrific story of neglect. For example, a report on abortions in Minnesota in 2019 reported three survivors born alive that year. Doctors in this state were required to detail the care given to abortion survivors, but the report stated that “no measures taken to preserve life were reported and the infant did not survive,” or “comfort care measures were provided as planned and the infant did not survive.”¹⁹

Such reports highlight the need for stronger, more enforceable legal protections.

Killing children, before and after birth

As of 2024, 35 states had passed some type of protections for babies born alive after an abortion, but only 19 of these states have strong protections.²⁰

Federal protections, however, are nearly nonexistent. Currently, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 is the only federal law intended to protect abortion survivors. It was enacted to “protect infants who are born alive” and specifically says that any child who survives an abortion is a person under the law.²¹ But that’s the extent of the act. Though well intentioned, it provides no real protections or enforcement.²² Certainly, it has not stopped the ongoing atrocities being committed against these children.²³ On more than one occasion, abortionists have abandoned, drowned, or suffocated the baby.

Since the BAIPA passed in 2002, many unsuccessful efforts have been made to enact true federal protections for those surviving abortions. Nearly every year, lawmakers have tried to create a solid and enforceable legal framework for protecting survivors. In the last few years, including this most recent congressional session, they have proposed a law known as the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Primarily, this act would require that care be provided to survivors and that they be admitted to hospitals rather than remaining in the care of the abortionist. It also criminalizes failures to provide care, failures to report such violations, and attempts to kill survivors.²⁴

This legislation may seem commonsense, but every attempt to expand abortion survivor protections has been voted down by pro-abortion politicians who claim that they are harmful restrictions on abortion. Others, despite the significant verifiable evidence and reports, refuse to acknowledge that children can survive abortions.

The efforts to block protections for abortion survivors reveal the true aim of abortion. It isn’t about a woman’s “right to choose” or “reproductive rights.” Instead, a right to abortion means a right to a dead baby,²⁵ applied ideally, but not necessarily, before birth.

Abortion survivors give a voice to the millions of children who endure the same horrors but who don’t have the same chance to live. They prove that the preborn are beautiful, valuable people with stories just waiting to unfold.

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Endnotes

1. Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider: Hearing Before the Comm. on the Judiciary House of Representatives, 114^th Congress (2015) (statement of Melissa Ohden, abortion survivor), docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU00/20150909/103920/HHRG-114-JU00-Wstate-OhdenM-20150909.pdf. 
2. Cassy Fiano-Chesser, “Do Saline Abortions, Where Babies Are Burned in Salt, Still Happen in the U.S.?,” Live Action News, November 30, 2016, liveaction.org/news/saline-abortions-still-happen-america. 
3. Threats to Reproductive Rights in America: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the Comm. on the Judiciary House of Representatives, 116^th Congress, (2019) (statement of Melissa Ohden, abortion survivor), congress.gov/116/meeting/house/109601/witnesses/HHRG-116-JU10-Wstate-OhdenM-20190604.pdf. 
4. Adam Eley and Jo Adnitt, “The Failed Abortion Survivor Whose Mum Thought She Was Dead,” BBC, June 5, 2018, bbc.com/news/health-44357373. 
5. Rachel Cross, “Reconnecting with the Mother Who Tried to Abort Me,” Focus on the Family, April 12, 2021, focusonthefamily.com/pro-life/reconnecting-with-the-mother-who-tried-to-abort-me/. 
6. Ibid
7. Caleb Parke, “Abortion Survivors on New Late-Term Abortion Bills: ‘Where Were My Rights in the Womb?,’” Fox News, February 11, 2019, foxnews.com/us/abortion-survivors-on-new-late-term-abortion-bills-where-were-my-rights-in-the-womb. 
8. Brian Hobbs, “A Living Testimony: Abortion Survivor Josiah Presley Shares Compelling Story,” Baptist Messenger of Oklahoma, September 21, 2023, baptistmessenger.com/a-living-testimony-abortion-survivor-josiah-presley-shares-compelling-story. 
9. Josiah Presley, “Abortion Survivor: Josiah’s Story,” Life Institute, thelifeinstitute.net/learning-centre/personal-stories/abortion-survivor-josiahs-story. 
10.  Nancy Flanders, “Abortion Survivor Missing Limbs Has ‘to Live With Someone Else’s Choice’,” Live Action News, April 17, 2019, liveaction.org/news/abortion-survivor-missing-limbs-choice. 
11.  “Woodlan’s Warrior: The Nik Hoot Story,” WANE 15 News, January 24, 2013, youtube.com/watch?v=-9eMIexNNo4. 
12.  N. B. Isada, P. G. Pryde, M. P. Johnson, M. Hallak, W. B. Blessed, & M. I. Evans, “Fetal Intracardiac Potassium Chloride Injection to Avoid the Hopeless Resuscitation of an Abnormal Abortus: I. Clinical Issues.” Obstetrics and Gynecology 80, no. 2: 296–299, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1635748. 
13.  “Sarah Brown,” Life Institute, thelifeinstitute.net/learning-centre/abortion-facts/survivors/sarah-brown. 
14. William Lawyer and Marisa Cantu, “5 People Who Survived Abortion: Their Stories,” Human Life International, May 8, 2024, hli.org/resources/people-who-survived-abortion/.
15. “Medical Research – Abortion Survivors Network,” Abortion Survivors Network, n.d., abortionsurvivors.org/medical-research/.
16.  “Questions and Answers on Born-Alive Abortion Survivors – Lozier Institute,” Charlotte Lozier Institute, January 27, 2023, lozierinstitute.org/questions-and-answers-on-born-alive-abortion-survivors. 
17.  Alayna Shamo, “Born Alive Abortion Reporting,” ArcGIS StoryMaps, January 2, 2023, storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9e6df996842247138f096256ca23c8f8.
18. Celebrate Life Conference, “There are an estimated 85,817 abortion survivors since 1973, which means there are roughly 1,734 survivors every year,” Facebook, November 5, 2024, facebook.com/watch/?v=1111069693780542
19.  Minnesota Department of Health and Center for Health Statistics, “Induced Abortions in Minnesota January – December 2019: Report to the Legislature,” July 1, 2020, health.state.mn.us/data/mchs/pubs/abrpt/docs/2019abrpt.pdf. 
20. Family Research Council, “Pro-Life State Policy Maps,” updated 2024, frc.org/prolifemaps#gsc.tab=0.
21.  Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002, 1 US Code § 8, congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/2175. 
22.  Roger Byron, “Children of a Lesser Law: The Failure of the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act and a Plan for Its Redemption,” Regent University Law Review, vol. 19, December 12, 2006, regent.edu/acad/schlaw/student_life/studentorgs/lawreview/docs/issues/v19n1/08Byronvol19.1(corrected).pdf. 
23.  Doug Bean, “Routine Infanticide: Lila Rose and Live Action Expose the Abortion Industry’s Darkest Secret – Celebrate Life Magazine,” Celebrate Life Magazine, June 2, 2018, clmagazine.org/topic/abortion/routine-infanticide-lila-rose-and-live-action-expose-the-abortion-industrys-darkest-secret.  
24. Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, S. 6, 119^th Cong. (2025), congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/6.
25.  “Congress Delivers Born-Alive Infants Protection Act,” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/congress-delivers-born-alive-infants-protection-act.