The Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing on Tuesday called Threats to Reproductive Rights in America. It focused on the rise of pro-life laws in states around the country. Live Action News contributor Christina Bennett and abortion survivor Melissa Ohden shared their compelling stories with the subcommittee, testifying in favor of the right to life for preborn human beings.

During his opening statement, Constitution Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Johnson (R-LA) called abortion an act during which “a living human being is literally and brutally ripped to pieces limb by limb.” What he described is a (usually second trimester) D&E abortion in which an abortionist dismembers the preborn child in utero while he is still alive. Most of the time, the abortionist is successful, but sometimes, as was the case for Nik Hoot, a child can survive this horrific procedure, which is described by former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino in the video below:

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Judiciary Subcommittee Ranking Member Doug Collins (R-GA) made an opening statement saying, “time has exposed Roe v. Wade as a failure” and “abortion destroys the right to life along with liberty, pursuit of happiness and all other constitutional rights of the children it kills.”

“Pretending an unborn child has no life to lose becomes impossible when we reflect, even momentarily, on what an abortion entails,” said Collins. “And I’m grateful for our witnesses today who are here to give us a look at the lives abortions would have snuffed out.”

Those lives nearly “snuffed out” include Ohden and Bennett, who narrowly escaped death by abortion.

READ: As abortion survivor testifies to Congress, NARAL claims she’s ‘imaginary’

Ohden actually survived a saline infusion abortion in 1977 when an abortionist injected the salt solution into the amniotic fluid surrounding her. It was meant to essentially burn her to death, but it failed. For five days Ohden sat in that solution as the abortionist attempted to induce a stillbirth. When she was finally born, Ohden wasn’t dead as planned. A nurse present that day said Ohden was left to die after her birth, but as she watched the two-pound baby gasp for air, she decided to save her.

“All of these people here today had a privilege that I was not given,” testified Ohden. “And that is simply the right to be born and not be born accidentally. And as you can hear in my voice, I get choked up about it. We see this as a political issue, but I have to live with this every day. […] my children will grow up knowing that they’re only alive because an abortion failed to end their mother’s life.”

Bennett, whose mother walked out of her scheduled abortion appointment despite pressure from the abortionist to go through with it, spoke passionately, saying, “liberation never comes through oppressing others.”

“It’s easy for people to say, ‘Well, I’m glad your mother had a choice,’ but a statement like that devalues my existence and the reality of what that choice would have done to me,” said Bennett.

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“Just as my heart is beating today,” she noted, “it was beating inside my mother’s body.”

Laws dubbed “heartbeat bills” have been passed in multiple states including Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri in 2019. All have been challenged by abortion advocates and the abortion industry.

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