In the first in our new ‘Choose Life’ series we hear from Bonnie and Phil, parents of a baby girl who died 15 minutes after being born.
They said they had “definite peace” that it was the right thing to see the pregnancy through after being offered an abortion.
Stark choice
The couple were stunned by the stark choice doctors presented to them.
During a routine scan, their daughter Grace was diagnosed with a serious birth defect called anencephaly, in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.
They were told it was therefore not a “viable” pregnancy and were offered an abortion within the week.
“It was that blunt”, said Bonnie Walker, who has four older children with husband Phil. He added: “There should never be a choice like that.”
Perfect
Bonnie and Phil chose to continue with the pregnancy saying: “We didn’t know how much time we’d have but we had definite peace it was the right thing to do”.
“When she was born she was perfect”, said Phil. “Perfect in every way”.
“She was a little human being and that’s one of the reasons we called her Grace. By the grace of God we had this time with her.”
Pure love
He described the 15 minutes they spent with baby Grace as “15 minutes of pure love” with Bonnie affirming: “There’s a purpose for every life, no matter how short”.
Phil continued: “We took Grace to the family. We had time where we all held her, like a normal typical birth. The family held her and took photographs and there was a lot of happy sad tears”.
Gift
“The gift of life was seven months before she was born”, he added. “She was a gift from God and that gift wasn’t for us to take away.”
The couple concluded: “It was never the wrong choice. The wrong choice would have been to take her away without ever having seen her face and known her.”