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JoAnne Cascia's baby Gabriel was diagnosed at 20 weeks of gestation with Thanatophoric Skeletal Dysplasia, a lethal form of dwarfism that affects the ribs, making them too small for lung development. The doctor advised Cascia to abort, and when the Metuchen, N.J., mother called a clinic, the counselor told her that because it was so late in the pregnancy the baby would "not be intact" after removal. In other words, he would be taken out in pieces. 

  "When I heard that, I just about dropped the phone. I thought, 'I just can't believe people choose to do this to a baby!'" At that moment she realized: "I'm his mother. My job is to protect him." 

Cascia's doctor dropped her case: "I went four weeks without having a doctor at all because nobody wanted to touch me." She eventually found a medical group at St. Peter's, a Catholic hospital that specialized in high-risk pregnancies. 

  Cascia gave birth to Gabriel on Feb. 24, 2004. He lived for 90 minutes. Hospital staff gave out wristbands for easy access and brought in muffins and coffee to ensure that her 35 family members and friends could spend as much time as possible with him. 

She dismissed abortion: "Even if my baby were not going to survive, I would want to spend whatever time I could with her and meet her at the end." 

  But a specialist soon discovered that Celine had been misdiagnosed; she had Right Heart syndrome, a condition that offered slightly higher chances of life.

Celine underwent three surgeries—at 6 days, 9 months, and 18 months—to "replumb her heart," ensuring that it could function on one ventricle. Now 8 years old, she lives her life "full speed ahead." 

  Rafie had already been active in the pro-life community. In 2002, she launched benotafraid.net, a website that offers encouragement and resources to parents who are faced with a serious prenatal diagnosis.

Liz Ledoux of Farmington, N.H., learned of her baby's medical condition at 26 weeks, when doctors told her that baby Cynthia had Exencephaly—her brain was forming outside of her skull. The doctor pressured her to terminate and said that her daughter would "look like a frog." 

  "It was not my choice to make," she said. "We knew that the condition she had was not 'compatible with life.' But in my mind, it was up to God when she returned to Him." 

  Cynthia, born on Dec. 5, 2009, died that day after living for 90 minutes. "My daughter did not look like a frog," Ledoux said. "She was beautiful . . . the smile, and the perfect little fingers, and the perfect little toes. . . . Was it difficult? Absolutely. But I don't regret it. I had—in my eyes—one of the most beautiful babies in my arms for an hour and a half." 

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And   while abortion advocates frequently argue that abortion is better   than carrying an unplanned pregnancy to term, the evidence suggests   otherwise.

Studies   of women with   unplanned pregnancies found that women who aborted had higher   risks of depression, substance abuse and anxiety, and teens who aborted   an unintended pregnancy were more likely to experience negative mental   health outcomes than their peers who carried to term. Further, a recent   New   Zealand study led by a pro-choice researcher found no evidence   that abortion provided any mental health benefits to women even in   cases of unplanned pregnancy.

Risks of misdiagnosis may seem "insignificant" to a doctor, but parents tend to have a different perspective.  A case in point is that of Brandon Kramer, who was diagnosed with a brain defect while still developing in the womb.  His parents, Becky Weatherall and her boyfriend Kriss Kramer were told that their son's brain was malformed and enlarged, and that fluid had collected in his skull (see recent LifeSite coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08022603.html). 

Doctors told the couple that their son would be deaf and blind, and was unlikely to survive long after birth.  Although the pregnancy was at a late stage, they recommended an abortion, an idea that Weatherall and Kramer rejected.

Contrary to the doctors' claims, the couple's child was born completely healthy, and normal.

"I feel incredibly guilty thinking that I could have killed him," said Weatherall, "and then I find myself wondering how many other babies are killed who would have turned out to be completely healthy."

It is difficult to know how many false diagnoses of anencephaly and other birth defects occur annually because a high percentage of such children are aborted, resulting in a mutilated corpse that is not examined after the procedure.

"Doctors will tell you that an anencephalic child can neither see nor hear, nor feel pain, that he or she is a vegetable," says Anencephaly-info, a website maintained by parents of anencephalic children (http://www.anencephalie-info.org/e/faq.php#14).  "However, that does not match up with the experience of many families who have had an anencephalic child."

"The brain is affected to varying degrees, according to the child; the brain tissue can reach different stages of development. Some children are able to swallow, eat, cry, hear, feel vibrations (loud sounds), react to touch and even to light. But most of all, they respond to our love: you don't need a complete brain to give and receive love - all you need is a heart!" the site's authors write.