In response to the April 10 letter from Lynda Castonguay where she said, “Her baby [an eight-month-old fetus] could have easily survived outside the womb,” I have an important question: How long can a baby survive outside the womb?

How old does a child have to be before it can survive completely on its own? I think we can all agree that even healthy, robust babies at birth are helpless when it comes to their ultimate survival.

We can all remember hearing of the horror stories of babies being born in bathroom stalls and then placed in the trash or left in the toilet. How long could those babies survive without help?

The fact is, babies, toddlers and young children are vulnerable to life-threatening circumstances without the care of their adults. We say they can survive because we assume that the babies will have the nurturing protection of their mothers or other adults.

A mother’s womb is designed as a place of nurturing protection until the baby is born, just as parents are designed to nurture their young until they are ready to “survive” on their own. Fetuses are developing people just as infants and toddlers are developing people. They are just at different life stages, some more fragile than others. They all need protection and nurturing from their parents.

No one should have the right, the “choice” if you will, to take a human life at any stage of its development.

Marie H. Allen, Turner

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