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It’s the ultimate moral dilemma when it comes to the issue of abortion -- What do you do when a mother’s life is at risk and she is pregnant?
ABC News, in a 2008 television program, highlighted new research helping pregnant moms who suffer from cancer to avoid having an abortion.
The network’s “World News with Charles Gibson” program focused on the story of 26-year-old Linda Sanchez who received the news she had cancer just one day after learning she was pregnant. Ms.Sanchez ultimately gave birth to her baby, Isabella, one month ahead of her due date. The healthy baby showed no signs of the chemotherapy she had during the pregnancy.
The choice between having an abortion and subjecting an unborn child to chemo treatment is an excruciating one. “My doctor basically said it was me or the baby,” Sanchez told ABC News.
But the program highlighted new research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center showing that women may no longer have to make that decision. Scientists there say it is possible to treat the mother without hurting her unborn child.
“Yes, chemotherapy is toxic. But what we have found is that when given in the second or third trimesters it appears to be safe. [The] placenta is protecting the baby. That baby is not getting the same side effects as the mother,” Dr. Jennifer Litton, breast oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer center, told ABC News.
