Photo: WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 23: Anti-abortion activists attend the annual March for Life rally on the National Mall on January 23, 2026 in Washington, DC. Anti-abortion activists attended the annual march to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court's, now overturned, 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling which legalized abortion in all 50 states. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
A pair of sobering developments this week underscored the vile nature of the pro-abortion movement and the left’s shocking disregard for human life.
The first came out of Massachusetts, where Democrat Governor Maura Healey signed a radical new law removing virtually all limits on abortion. Massachusetts becomes at least the 10th state to permit abortion up until the moment of birth.
Defenders of the legislation have argued that it only permits late-term abortions under certain circumstances. But the plain language of the law permits abortion at any point based solely on the doctor’s “professional judgment.” Previously in Massachusetts, a doctor would have to affirm that a late-term abortion is necessary because of a grave fetal diagnosis or a threat to the life of the mother. Those restrictions are now gone.
In other words, so long as a doctor agrees to perform an abortion, it is now legal.
But perhaps even more unnerving than the legislation itself was the scene that accompanied its signing into law. Healey put pen to paper surrounded by a group of smiling young women who clapped and cheered that ending the life of a baby just seconds away from birth is now legal in their state.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, put it best in a statement to National Review:
“It takes a truly dead heart to celebrate and sign a bill that allows viable babies to be killed in the womb via heart attacks when they could live outside of it. Gov. Maura Healey ignored settled science, human decency, and common sense as her own state’s laws allow a person to be charged with fetal homicide if they end a baby’s life without a mother’s consent.”
But that wasn’t the only major abortion-related story in the headlines in recent days. Down in Texas – a state that has committed to protecting the unborn – a baby was born this week after narrowly escaping an abortionist’s table.
The saga began this spring after McKenna West, a nurse from Alaska, discovered that the baby she was carrying had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare, potentially life-threatening condition that would require multiple surgeries post-birth. West was a surrogate, carrying the child for a couple in California.
Upon learning of the diagnosis, the parents who “rented” West’s womb reportedly demanded that she travel to California to abort the baby. Horrified, West instead traveled to Texas, where she hoped the state’s pro-life laws would help save her child.
“I was full of fear and stress of what they were going to choose,” West told Live Action News. “I was feeling pretty confident that they were going to choose termination, and how could I possibly live with myself going through that?”
In most cases, surrogacy contracts give the intended parents a say in whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. If the birth mother refuses, however, she can face steep financial and legal consequences. But that was of no concern to West, who named her baby “Gabriel.”
“His life doesn’t have a price tag on it,” she said. “There’s nothing that they could try to come after me for that would be worth his life.”
Things came to a head this week as Gabriel’s due date rolled around. Fearing that the baby could be denied life-saving care, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, now the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in the state, petitioned a district court to order doctors to provide medical aid.
The court granted Paxton’s petition, ordering that “upon the child’s live birth, medically indicated stabilizing and life-sustaining care shall be provided to the child pending further order of this Court.”
That live birth happened on Wednesday. According to reports, Gabriel is stable and receiving the care he needs.
UPDATE: Baby Gabriel is here! McKenna gave birth after courageously refusing the contracting parents’ demand that she abort him because of his serious but treatable heart condition. Heartbreakingly, a temporary restraining order issued yesterday prevented McKenna from seeing or Show more
In one of the most appalling and tone-deaf statements in recent memory, a lawyer for the California couple who hired West to carry their child then issued a statement claiming that they “would place their baby’s health and well-being first, following the advice of the baby’s medical team.” Yes, you read that right – the people who wanted to murder the baby in the womb now claim that they will place his “health and well-being first.”
At this point, the legal future for Gabriel is uncertain. Paxton has secured a temporary restraining order keeping the child in Texas until a hearing later this month. While West is seeking custody, a court has also issued an order barring her from presenting herself as Gabriel’s parent.
But the one undeniable positive from the whole mess is that Gabriel was born alive. Unlike so many other babies in blue states, he was given a chance at life. With the proper treatment, he has a 72 percent chance of making it to age five, according to New York-Presbyterian Hospital. If he reaches his first birthday, he has about a 90 percent chance of living to age 18.
Still, Americans shouldn’t forget the grotesque disregard for human life at the heart of this story, particularly when placed within the context of Massachusetts’s new abortion regime enacted this week. Progressive ideology is so callous, so depraved that it condones discarding a human life like a piece of garbage the moment anything goes wrong. At the same time, liberals cheer laws clearing the way for even more mass murder of the unborn.
Yet still, the left will claim that it is conservatives and pro-lifers who lack compassion. How ironic.
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