Medical science continues to advance and things continue to get better for mothers and unborn children who face potentially devastating prenatal diagnoses.

Doctors in the United Kingdom performed the country’s first-ever “keyhole” surgery to repair the spine of an unborn child with spina bifida, the BBC reports.

Sherrie Sharp and her son Jaxson, who was diagnosed with the condition after a routine 20-week pregnancy checkup, had the surgery during the 27th week of pregnancy. The 29-year-old mother told the British media outlet that the diagnosis left her in shock, but the option of aborting her little boy was a “definite no.”

Spina bifida is a birth defect that affects the spine, the CDC explains. It can happen anywhere along the spine where the backbone protecting the spinal cord doesn’t form and close properly, which often leads to nerve damage.

Jaxson’s spine was not developing correctly because gaps left his spinal cord exposed to amniotic fluid, leading to concerns about paralysis.

In order to correct the problem, surgeons at King’s College Hospital in London sedated both mother and child, made three small incisions in Sherrie’s uterus, and then used a small camera and tools to put the exposed spinal cord in place and patch up the gaps in the baby’s backbone. The procedure took three hours.

This was the first time doctors in the United Kingdom have used the “keyhole” approach to prenatal spina bifida repairs. A previous procedure involved opening up the uterus.

Consultant neurosurgeon Bassel Zebian explained that, while the second-trimester procedure isn’t a cure for the defect, “improving the function of the lower limbs may be the difference between someone walking and someone not walking later in life.”

Jaxson arrived a few weeks early and spent some time in the NICU, but his mother says he’s doing well now.

“He’s got movements in his legs, we were told he’d have minimal movements if we didn’t have the surgery and he wouldn’t be able to move at all,” Sherrie told the BBC. “I’ve got high hopes for him, from day one he’s done things, he’s amazed us all.”

“He makes me proud every day, he’s just a miracle.” (For more from the author of “Doctors Perform Historic Surgery on Unborn Baby After Mother Chooses Life” please click HERE)

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By Breitbart. As expected, the national media have been critical of the Alabama law and have given little attention to the Alabama legislature’s goal, which is to challenge the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision by establishing personhood for a baby inside the womb. . .

The lack of an exception in the cases of rape and incest seems extreme. Why wasn’t that included?

The purpose of the law is to challenge the Supreme Court’s 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision by establishing a baby in the womb as a person. If exceptions are added for cases of rape and incest, then it contradicts the argument, according to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Terri Collins (R-Decatur). . .

Would this make it illegal for a person to prescribe the Morning-After pill since one would only take that if they thought they were pregnant, and this bill makes abortion illegal from the moment a woman suspects she’s pregnant?

“The decision was based on someone in utero, someone pregnant so we don’t get into conception. We don’t get into birth control,” Collins explained. “We don’t get into the morning-after pill, but in utero, which is the language they used that when a woman is pregnant. This bill criminalizes abortion through the doctor. And not the woman, but the doctor.” (Read more from “Fact Check: Things to Know About Alabama’s Abortion Law” HERE)

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Alabama Women Worried New Law Means an Immediate End to Abortion Flood Clinics with Calls

By NBC News. The phones began ringing off the hook at the clinic not long after the Alabama governor signed a bill that would ban nearly all abortions in the state, including in cases of rape and incest.

The desperate women calling the POWER House, which is home of Montgomery’s only abortion clinic, all wanted to know the same thing.

“They’re asking, ‘Can we still come in? Are you still open?’,” said volunteer Bianca Cameron-Schwiesow. “They’re in a panic and they’re scared. And we say that is fine, you can still come in because they don’t realize that this is going to stay open for the next six months.”

If not longer. The law is supposed to go into effect in six months, but likely legal challenges from the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood mean it could be years before the controversial Alabama law is enforced, experts have said.

“They are still terrified though,” said Margot Heartline, who also volunteers at POWER (People Organizing for Women’s Empowerment and Rights). They fear “they’re going to be thrown in jail if they go to a clinic.” (Read more from “Alabama Women Worried New Law Means an Immediate End to Abortion Flood Clinics with Calls” HERE)

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