A Florida woman says she was the abortion survivor whose name was fact-checked by Sunshine State Gov. Ron DeSantis during last week’s first Republican primary debate after left-wing critics cast doubt on the story.
“I know a lady in Florida named Penny,” DeSantis, 44, said in response to a question about having signed a law banning abortion at six weeks. “She survived multiple abortion attempts. They left her discarded in a frying pan. Fortunately, her grandmother saved her and took her to another hospital.
Miriam “Penny” Hopper, 67, has since claimed that she survived despite being subjected to repeated abortion attempts in 1955, including being abandoned “in a urinal on the back porch of the clinic” where her mother attempted end the abortion. Pregnancy after 23 weeks due to complications.
A doctor failed to detect the fetus’s heartbeat and induced the abortion by giving Hopper’s mother an injection, then telling a nurse to “discard the baby alive or dead,” according to Hopper’s own testimony in an advertisement of the pro-life group Faces of Choice.
A Florida woman says she was the abortion survivor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about in last week’s Republican primary debate, despite critics casting doubt on the story.Fox News
Miriam “Penny” Hopper, 67, in recent interviews has confirmed that she is the woman who survived more than one abortion attempt in 1955.AP
Hopper’s grandmother and aunt showed up a day later and, finding her still alive, notified the police and transported her to a hospital in Lakeland, Florida, where nurses nicknamed the baby “Penny” because of her red hair.
“I existed at 23 weeks,” Hopper told Fox News Digital this week. “There are thousands of abortion survivors around the world who have stories to tell, who have miraculous stories to tell.”
Hopper also told the Associated Press: “My parents had always told me all my life, ‘It’s a miracle to be alive.'” He declined to say whether the DeSantis campaign had been in contact with her.
Her grandmother and aunt showed up a day later and, finding her still alive, notified the police and took her to a hospital in Lakeland, Florida.AP
“I’m not going to get into that because I don’t want to get into politics,” he told the outlet. “This story is about abortion and abortion survival.”
Contemporaneous news articles from the Lakeland Ledger and the Tampa Tribune confirm that Hopper did, in fact, make an unusual recovery after being born prematurely, although the details were unclear.
Hopper also appeared in a Faces of Choice ad shown at the 2020 March for Life in Washington, DC.
Hopper also told the Associated Press: “My parents had always told me my entire life, ‘It’s a miracle to be alive.’”
Critics seized on DeSantis’ story during and after the Aug. 23 debate in Milwaukee, with former Republican consultant Steve Schmidt calling it “ridiculous.”
“The story of Penny being found in the frying pan by DeSantis is ridiculous and obviously false,” the Lincoln Project co-founder said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This should be investigated by the media.”
“I understand that politicians lie, but DeSantis’ story about ‘Penny,’ a woman who he claims survived multiple abortion attempts and was rescued from a frying pan by her grandmother (????), is such a story. strange and impossible that is impressive. that any human being is that gullible,” liberal journalist Jill Filipovic also tweeted.
Critics seized on DeSantis’ story after the Aug. 23 debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with former Republican consultant Steve Schmidt calling it “ridiculous.” AFP via Getty Images
“My response to that would be the fact that I existed,” Hopper told Fox News, adding that it was “exciting” and “shocking” to hear her story mentioned in the debate, although she says she didn’t see it.
“You know you’ve known your story your whole life, but you’re not the only one who tells a story, you have stories to tell,” he told the outlet. “I was very honored by that.”
“The miraculous life of Miriam ‘Penny’ Harper is a testament to the humanity of a child in the womb,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser told The Post. “Pro-abortion Democrats want to deny her story and that of other abortion survivors like her to hide from the American people their barbaric position of abortion on demand throughout the entire pregnancy.”
“A strong reminder that all but two House Democrats voted against the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, denying people like Penny the right to live after surviving an abortion,” added. “We thank Penny for bravely sharing her story. There is a network for anyone who has survived the violence of abortion. We will continue to work hard to expose this extremism and fight to protect children in the womb.”
NARAL Pro-Choice America denounced DeSantis and the other Republican candidates after the debate in a press release, saying they had told “blatant lies about abortion” in an effort to eventually pass a federal abortion ban.
NARAL did not respond to a request for comment from The Post in response to Hopper’s story.
Hopper is one of about 650 members of the Abortion Survivors Network, a group that connects people who were “born alive” after failed abortions.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn