A new study has been published showing that a tiny percentage of extremely premature babies born at 22 weeks can survive with intensive medical care. The new study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that 3.5% of 357 infants born at 22 weeks could survive without severe health problems, and this groundbreaking study could and will shape the pro-life debate forever.

“Some people are strongly committed to pro-life, and some are strongly committed to the other side, but many fall somewhere in the middle,” said Burke Balch, director of the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics for the Nation Right to Life Committee, the non-profit advocacy organization. “The fact that those children could survive will affect those in the middle.”

The pro-life movement’s objective is to shift focus away from the reasons women seek abortions onto the babies themselves, and this study has the ability to change many minds if we can spread this new information. The far left progressives and abortion-on-demand hags use many lies – that babies don’t feel pain, that children with disabilities don’t have worth and their lives will suck anyway, and that babies aren’t viable at “this” stage, so they aren’t real yet – to spread their lies and peddle abortion to young, innocent girls and experienced women.

With the discovery that a percentage of babies are viable outside of the womb as early as 22 weeks, people on the fence about abortion are more likely to become pro-life if they are aware that – with our medical advances – these children are becoming viable outside of the womb. The Left hates fact, though, so I’m sure they won’t be likely to help pass this valuable, lifesaving information on to the masses.

The Supreme Court has held that states can restrict abortions if the fetus is viable outside of the womb, but to date there is no strict legal definition of viability. Some 13 states have already outlawed abortions past 20 weeks, and other states – such as Wisconsin, South Carolina, and West Virginia – have begun debating similar bans this year. While this new information doesn’t affect the progressive viewpoint on abortion, it strengthens the persuasive argument about when a fetus should be deemed viable, and therefore protected and given the legal rights they are entitled to under the law.

“Viability has never been a set number,” said Eric Ferrero, vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “It is determined by each doctor based on the woman and the pregnancy and it varies. That’s what the medical community has said and what Roe v. Wade says, and that’s unchanged by this study, which is about the extremely intensive care that is provided in some places.”

Actually, Mr. Ferrero, this study and our technological and medical advances have the ability to save many, many babies at younger and younger ages. Perhaps if rabid abortion supporters would stop peddling their slaughter of the unborn for a little bit, they could appreciate that many in the medical field prefer to save lives instead of taking them.