To be Christian is to be against abortion, but what about those who aren’t Christian?

State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick told a personal and compelling story for people to share with those who aren’t Christians about why it’s important to be against abortion.

Fitzpatrick says one of the best things you can do if you are on the fence about abortion is to visit a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to see firsthand premature babies fighting for their lives like one of his children did.

Fitzpatrick is the father of four boys, and his oldest are twin boys born premature at 31 weeks. They both have significant disabilities and were in the NICU for four months.

“When you spend four months going every day into a NICU with a hundred babies fighting for their lives, it changes your perspective on the world — you see how fragile life is,” Fitzpatrick told a crowd at Wednesday’s Missouri Right to Life rally at the state capitol. 

One of his twin sons had a heart condition while struggling to survive in the NICU. The baby had what’s called a coarctation of the aorta.

“It’s a narrowing of the aorta arches that basically causes pressure in the heart, and it causes the heart to expand, and if it’s not treated, it’ll kill you,” Fitzpatrick said.

“He was on a medicine called prostaglandins … to keep that arch open so that the blood would flow and it wouldn’t cause his heart to basically experience more damage until he was big enough where he could have a surgery — he only weighed three pounds at birth.”

On Christmas Eve morning 2015, the doctors at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City called Fitzpatrick and his wife to speak with them about something that happened the night before to their son.

The nurse on the night shift had forgotten to give their son his medicine and made a mistake that should have killed him but by the grace of God it didn’t.

“They went and did an echo of his heart, which is basically an ultrasound of the heart, and what they saw was the coarctation of the aorta had disappeared. That was a miracle,” Fitzpatrick recalled. 

“The doctors, the pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital — the guy that’s chair of the department — said he never seen that before, and there’s only one explanation for that, and we all know what the explanation is, and it was God.”

The Fitzpatricks stayed another three months in the NICU.

“Anyone who’s never been to the NICU, it really brings home for you how fragile life is and how it’s God’s intention for the children he puts into this world who can live, should live,” Fitzpatrick said.

“We have to talk to people who maybe aren’t walking the faith in ways resonating with them — to get them to understand the importance of being pro-life.

“I hope as we go out and we campaign [for Amendment 3] and we’re talking to people, keep it civil and keep the discourse appropriate, and just love our neighbor and try to bring people to our side the best way we can.

“And hopefully at the end of the day, when we have this election here in a few months, our side will prevail this time.”