This One's For All You Pro-Choice People

Youngest Surviving Premature Baby Stays at Hospital

A baby born just 21 weeks and six days after conception will spend a few more days in a Florida hospital as a precaution, The Associated Press reported.

Amillia Taylor, born to Eddie and Sonja Taylor, was only nine and a half inches long and weighed less than 10 ounces when delivered in October. She is the first baby born prior to 23 weeks gestation to survive. Today she is almost 26 inches long and weighs 4 and a half pounds.

Though she has experienced some difficulty with underdeveloped lungs and digestive tract and had a mild brain hemorrhage, Dr. Paul Fassbach said none are expected to pose long-term health problems.

"We can deal with lungs and things like that, but, of course, the brain is the most important," he said. "But her prognosis is excellent."

Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at Focus on the Family Action, said viability is not a fixed point and as technology improves, so do the chances that premature babies will survive.

"This baby had several elements in her favor: good medical care and parents who wanted her to survive," she said. "The irony, of course, is that in most states it would be legal to abort this baby and others approaching or exceeding the age of viability."