Woman shares her experience of late-term abortion to fight back at Donald Trump

“It was not wanted. It was not a ‘way out’. It was not birth control. It was heartbreaking. The government does not belong here.”

(Lindsey Paradiso)

A woman has shared her heartbreaking experience of late-term abortion in response to US President Donald Trump’s controversial pro-life stance.

Virginia-based wedding photographer Lindsey Paradiso spoke out on Facebook and shared pictures and videos from throughout her pregnancy, and her post quickly went viral.

“This is ending a wanted pregnancy,” she wrote, after reluctantly terminating the pregnancy of her daughter Omara at 23 weeks because the likelihood of her dying in the womb was so high - there was just a one per cent chance of survival

Trump has been vocal about his anti-abortion views, and just a few days ago we learned his administration is preparing to enshrine an order stating “that life begins at conception.”

Paradiso shared her story in the hope of stopping the government getting involved in a woman’s right to choose whether she has an abortion or not. She wrote:

“It was not wanted. It was not a ‘way out’. It was not birth control. It was heartbreaking.

“The government does not belong here.”

Contrary to some people’s views, her experience serves as a reminder that many abortions are not undertaken lightly or treated as just another form of contraception.

Paradiso and her husband Matt were forced to have an abortion because an inoperable tumour on Omara’s neck was growing incredibly quickly into her brain, lungs and heart and she wouldn’t have lived to birth.

If the couple had decided to wait past the window of a legal abortion and Omara had died in Paradiso’s womb, she would have had to continue carrying the baby’s body while her own began breaking it down, Paradiso explained.

The couple had only learned there was a problem at 18 weeks, and if they’d continued with the pregnancy there was also a risk Paradiso would be left infertile.

“We opted to end the pregnancy early, relieve the suffering that she and our family were experiencing and deliver her through labour fully intact,” Paradiso said. “Because of this decision we were able to hold her and say good-bye.”

Paradiso posted photos of her doing just that, and the post has now been shared nearly 115,000 times.

“We have to end these misconceptions,” she implores, explaining that she first decided to share her story after Trump “inaccurately and brutally described late-term abortion” in one of the national debates in October 2016.

“His words made me physically sick; having lived through a late-term abortion myself. I could not let his idiocracy go unchallenged and watch it painfully affect so many people,” she says.

With Trump’s controversial order on abortion policy garnering a lot of attention in recent weeks, Paradiso’s post has received a new boost of shares, comments and likes since she first posted it too.

Another highly-shared image regarding the issue was of Trump signing an abortion-related order on his first day in the Oval Office, surrounded by men who’d been involved in the decision.

It was widely derided on social media.

Many people hope posts like Paradiso’s will have an impact and help make a change.