A 17-year old girl who was diagnosed with Zika after visiting her fiance in Honduras told People that the diagnosis would not stop her from bearing her “miracle” baby, even though he might be born with the disability microcephaly.
“Doctors said that I would never get pregnant so this is a big miracle for me,” said Sara Mujica.
Mujica, a Connecticut resident, was told at 15 that she may never bear children because she had previously contracted meningitis.
Mujica said she believes she contracted Zika while visiting her fiance in Honduras earlier this year.
Microcephaly is a disorder that can cause minor to major disabilities in children, such as seizures, small head sizes, and developmental disabilities, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
A CDC study published in The New England Journal of Medicine on April 14 established for the first time that a causal relationship exists between parental contraction of the Zika virus and an unborn child’s contraction of microcephaly.
However, the causal relationship does not mean that microcephaly will always be contracted.
According to American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists Executive Director Donna Harrison, only one percent of Zika-infected pregnant women bear children with microcephaly.
“The latest CDC information, based on an excellent study in French Polynesia, reveals that Zika virus infection has no effect on women who are in the second or third trimester of pregnancy,” Harrison told The Stream earlier this month. “So, for women who are over 12 weeks pregnant, there is no association with microcephaly. For women who have a documented infection with Zika virus, there is a one percent chance of microcephaly.”
Despite the low risks of contracting microcephaly, abortion groups and a UN official earlier this year used the prevalence of Zika to promote abortion as a way to prevent microcephaly.
Mujica, who told the Associated Press that she is Catholic, refused to let the emotional turbulence the diagnosis caused to change her mind.
“I have a cousin who has Down syndrome and he is so smart and l love him so much. I would never give up a Down syndrome child or a child with birth defects,” she said. “I’m going to stay positive and hope my baby comes out normal.”
Harrison praised Mujica and her fiance for choosing life for their child. “We commend the mothers who have been diagnosed with Zika virus during pregnancy, and who yet have sought to care for their unborn children rather than to destroy them,” she told TheDC.
Likewise, Priests for Life National Director Frank Pavone told TheDC that Mujica is “doing the only right thing any mother can do: care for and protect her children, despite uncertainty about their fate.”
“That uncertainty, in fact, lasts a lifetime,” continued Pavone. “To abort a child in these circumstances would be like killing your three-year old because he or she may become the victim of a disease or accident tomorrow.”
“God Bless Sara.”