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Last Wednesday, Tanya Coonan, of the group Every Life Counts, spoke very movingly on Newstalk Lunchtime about her daughter Lillie who was prenatally diagnosed at 12 weeks with a life-limiting condition.  

In 2013, Tanya was pregnant with twins when the diagnosis was made. The doctor told Tanya that she “wouldn’t be doing her job” if she didn’t give her the option of aborting Lillie, and the young mother was even told that it might be better for her other daughter if she did end Lillie’s life.

 
However, Tanya said that she never contemplated abortion and continued on with the pregnancy for both her little girls.
 
“It was not my place to end my daughter’s life,” Tanya told the interviewer. Despite doctors’ predictions that Lillie would most likely die in utero, week after week, the scans continued to show two strong heartbeats, Tanya said.

At 35 weeks, Lillie and her twin sister Kaylie were born by C-section.  Doctors had been convinced that Lillie would not survive birth but the little girl lived for two hours and ten minutes.  She was born with a condition known as iniencephaly, which rarely enables a child to live very long outside the womb.

In a moving tribute, Tanya stated, “She passed away in my arms.  I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  I was able to tell her I loved her…I am so grateful…I was able to say hello and goodbye ….She was just perfect.”

The radio presenter pressed Tanya on whether abortion should be allowed in Ireland for babies who are prenatally diagnosed with conditions similar to those that Lillie had - conditions were the prognosis does not foresee a long life outside the womb – but Tanya said that what families in this situation needed was better support and not abortion.

Tanya stated that she felt blessed to have had even the short amount of time that she did with her daughter and, with abortion, she would have been robbed even of that. “Those memories I had with Lillie - even during the pregnancy - I will never forget them and I will always cherish them,” she stated.

“If I had gone down the abortion route, I never would have been able to see my Lillie’s face.”

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW HERE: http://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/Lunchtime/Highlights_from_Lunchtime/117401/Im_so_grateful_I_got_to_see_her