Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s fourth child is still snuggled safely in utero after doctors performed an emergency fetal surgery that saved his life.
“I will be forever grateful to my incredible doctors for saving our baby’s life,” the “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” star wrote in an emotional Instagram post on Sept. 6. “I am eternally grateful to my husband who rushed to my side from tour to be with me in the hospital and take care of me afterwards, my rock. And to my mom, thank you for holding my hand through this.”
It’s unclear exactly which condition doctors treated Barker’s son for. What is clear is that undergoing “urgent” early intervention, which may have involved cutting open Barker’s uterus to operate on the baby inside, bettered her baby’s chances of life outside of the womb.
“I don’t think anyone who hasn’t been through a similar situation can begin to understand that feeling of fear. I have a whole new understanding and respect for the mamas who have had to fight for their babies while pregnant,” Barker continued. “Praise be to God. Walking out of the hospital with my baby boy in my tummy and safe was the truest blessing. 🙏🏼🤍.”
Barker’s latest pregnancy and fetal surgery success story is “the truest blessing” — but sadly, it’s not common enough.
Nearly 3 percent of babies born in the U.S. gestated with “a complex birth defect,” some of which are potentially life-threatening. Abortion activists all over the country believe that parents who receive scary diagnoses for their preborn children should have the choice to put those babies to death.
Medical professionals, similarly, have recommended hundreds if not thousands of “fetal abnormality” abortions to grieving parents, even for babies with nonfatal complications. Oftentimes, these recommendations are based on the results of prenatal tests that are, unbelievably, “usually wrong” about the existence or extent of disorders and syndromes.
Overall, around 800 U.S. abortion facilities willfully execute babies — with or without diagnoses of potential physical challenges — on any given day.
Fetal surgery, on the other hand, was designed three decades ago to save and even “help improve the long-term outcome of children with specific birth defects.” It’s estimated that there are more than 2,000 full-time practicing maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) specialists in the U.S. today but doctors all across the nation say there should be more.
Invasive prenatal procedures can vary depending on how “complex and challenging” the unborn baby’s condition is. In some devastating cases, surgeries may not be successful. Even so, thousands of children are alive today thanks to this early intervention technology.
Barker may not realize it, but overcoming her many fears to undergo a surgery that would keep her preborn son alive is one of the most pro-life decisions she ever could have made.
There is a long-held double standard of care applied to children in the womb in the United States. An unborn baby who was intentionally conceived and actively wanted, like the Barkers’ son, gets showered with love, attention, and top-of-the-line prenatal treatment. A child in the womb who was conceived unexpectedly or unwanted by his parents due to a “defect,” however, is removed from the womb like a parasite and taken out with the trash in a biohazard bag.
The striking difference in the value assigned to unborn babies’ lives is something Barker personally struggled with when she conceived her oldest child Mason Disick in 2009.
“I definitely thought about it long and hard, about if I wanted to keep the baby or not, and I wasn’t thinking about adoption,” Kardashian told PEOPLE shortly before Mason’s birth. “I do think every woman should have the right to do what they want, but I don’t think it’s talked through enough. I can’t even tell you how many people just say, ‘Oh, get an abortion.’ Like it’s not a big deal.”
Kardashian ultimately decided to keep gestating her firstborn after she read online testimonials of “people who felt so guilty from having an abortion.”
“I was reading these things of how many people are traumatized by it afterwards,” Barker explained.
Thanks to Barker’s bravery and her doctors’ willingness to prioritize life, no matter how small, another living and breathing baby boy can keep growing in the womb and soon, Lord willing, make his way into his mother’s arms.
