Nik Hoot first made headlines in 2013 as a high school wrestler who was missing parts of his legs and fingers. He lost them when an abortionist failed to kill him, but still managed to rip off parts of his body.

Born in Russia, Hoot was immediately placed for adoption and a year later was adopted by an American couple, Martin and Apryl Hoot. He immediately took to his prosthetic legs, ditching his walker and learning to run within two weeks, according to his mother. As a boy, Nik loved sports, playing baseball, basketball, football, and wrestling. He had his obvious challenges, but never let those hold him back.

“It’s self-discipline. There’s so much you don’t want to do like all the hard work and conditioning. It’s just part of life,” Hoot said in an interview with News Channel 15. “You’re gonna hit a lot of barriers in life but you really have to just get over them.”

Hoot thinks of himself as a miracle and knows that he can accomplish a lot of things in his life. He doesn’t see himself as much different from his peers. While he wasn’t as fast as the other kids he played sports with, he said he found ways to get around any limitations.

“I knew that I was supposed to be an aborted baby and it failed. It makes me angry because I would never want for that to happen to any kid. Anybody can become anything, and getting rid of a kid like that isn’t right to me.”

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In 2018, Hoot was working as a landscaper and a middle school wrestling coach, and his prosthetic legs were causing him pain. Still, he worked through it, not wanting to be a quitter. His parents wrote about it on Facebook:

“He works through pain, inconvenience et all,” his parents wrote on Facebook. “I wish I could replace his legs with real ones instead of those plastic, wood and metal appliances. I wish he could feel sand and waves wash over his feet and squish his toes in the mud. I wish he didn’t have to live with someone else’s choice.”

His parents, who have adopted six children and have three biological children, say Hoot is a role model to his siblings, many of whom also have disabilities.

Hoot isn’t the only person to ever survive an abortion. According to the CDC’s admittedly incomplete data, between 2003 and 2014 an estimated 376 to 588 babies survived abortion attempts on their lives. Some of them lived for a day or more. Arina Grossu of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council testified in 2016 that those numbers are much higher than estimated. She said that just the newborn babies killed by the now-convicted killer and late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell exceed the numbers from the CDC.

Hoot and his family are firm in their pro-life stance, knowing that it was an abortion that caused him to lose parts of his body. His parents say that when he was three, he began asking questions about his legs and wondering why his mother would have tried to kill him. When he learned he has a sister who lives with his birth parents, he stopped asking questions. It must be difficult to know that an abortionist meant to end his life that day, but Hoot is determined to live his life to the best of his abilities.

“Personal liberties are one thing, but not at the cost of physical damage and pain to another human which limits their ability to pursue life, liberty and happiness,” said his parents. “Fortunately my son rises above it.”

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