“I’ll sue you if you don’t provide her medical care.” That was Lidia’s response to the reckless doctor who botched her abortion at 26 weeks. “Her” here refers to Lidia’s newborn daughter, the one the doctor was supposed to abort.

“Your daughter will be a mental vegetable incapable of having a normal life. You should leave her to die on the table,” he said. Lidia was an immigrant living in poverty in New Orleans, and no doubt had no idea how to follow through with her threat of a lawsuit if the doctor didn’t comply. But a mother’s instinct kicked in, even though she had intended on walking out without a baby on that day in January 1990.

Sarah Zagorski, Lidia’s daughter, writes about her earliest moments in a chapter of the new book Choose Life: Answering Key Claims of Abortion Defenders with Compassion. …

Zagorski now works for Louisiana Right to Life. I most recently spent time with her at a working group on adoption at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, discussing ways to better help women, children and families survive and thrive.