A shout-out to KCTV5 for reporting the story of a Leawood woman who chose to give birth to her child despite being diagnosed with cancer.
A NICU nurse herself, Stacey Johnson noticed a lump in her breast soon after learning she was pregnant. Johnson wasted no time in getting it diagnosed. She then promptly consulted with a doctor on a course of treatment and was told she should consider abortion.
Johnson sought a second opinion and got one from Dr. Lauren Nye, a breast cancer oncologist with the University of Kansas Health System. “So then I met [Johnson] and we talked about her options which none of them included terminating her pregnancy,” Nye told KCTV-5.
Recent research suggests that after a woman has moved into the second trimester of her pregnancy doctors can treat several different kinds of cancer, including breast cancer, without undue risk to the child.
During her pregnancy, Johnson had a mastectomy and underwent a chemotherapy regime. The more toxic drugs were administered after the delivery of her healthy son, William, a year ago next week. “Today,” notes KCTV, “the family is enjoying life and loving every minute of it.”
As heart warming as this story is, and as topical, this is the kind of story major media newsrooms have a hard time warming up to. Only two media outlets nationwide seem to have picked the story up. One is WHNT in Huntsville, Alabama, which, like KCTV, is a CBS affiliate. The other is the Claremore, Oklahoma, Daily Progress.
The story undermines the narrative that women have abortions largely to preserve their own life or health or to forego bringing a baby into the world with no chance at life. In April of this year, Rep. Senator Barbara Bollier, herself a doctor, advanced this argument on the floor of the Senate.
Said Bollier for the record, “People don’t understand that there are times when you end a pregnancy because of a serious issue that is going to lead to no life, and rather than stay pregnant and risk your own life as a mother already, it’s the right choice to terminate.”
In reality, the overwhelming majority of abortions, even late term abortions, are performed for the convenience of the mother. The abortion industry, with the media’s help, has spent the last fifty years suppressing the truth.
Kudos to KCTV5 for letting a little bit of it out.