A horror. Love. And maybe a miracle thrown in. That looks like what happened in Minneapolis when a mother threw a newborn baby into a snow bank leaving her to die until a stranger stepped in.
This kind of action by the mother horrifies us all. Maybe love was always in short supply in this world but this action by the mother just seems too common of late and the love from a stranger who saved the newborn’s life is the aberration.
KSTP reports:
Keith St. Pierre says he saw a woman throw her newborn baby in a snow bank and take off, leaving it there in a diaper, just two feet away from a busy Minneapolis road.
The temperature Saturday morning was just 12 degrees.
St. Pierre had just gotten off the bus when he heard a young couple fighting and saw what the woman did.
That’s when he ran across the street, grabbed that baby and called 911.
“She was lifeless, I picked her up, held her in my arms, started rubbing her chest cavity, she was cold, she was red, and she had a newborn tag on her foot still.”
St. Pierre says it took two calls to Minneapolis police for officers to respond.
The mother of the baby, 21-year-old Ashley Couch is in jail being held on neglect and child endangerment charges.
She’ll likely be in court Tuesday morning.
Reportedly, the baby is recovering.
St. Pierre said that just being there to see the baby thrown was “divine intervention” because he’s rarely there at that time of the day.
Whenever I hear something like this I just want to say to the mother that help is out there for the asking. It’s being offered. So many people want to help. If you want someone else to take the baby, how many of us would take the baby? I know I would and I’m sure many of our readers would do the same. Heck, we’d be thrilled.
If she needed help in dealing with the baby so many of us would help. Maybe we don’t do a good enough job letting them know that we’re here, that we want to help. Maybe we could do more. I’m sure I could. But today I’ll thank God that a man saved a baby. I’ll pray to God that we all help build a world where love and heroism don’t seem like such a rare exception.
March 8, 2011 at 9:44 am
Sorry, Mr. Archbold, but this is one of those posts that makes me glad I grew up in the fire-breathing, Protestant South rather than a post-conciliar pocket of Catholicism (even if my classmates were constantly telling me I was bound for Hell). I know you mean well, but I strongly urge a reconsideration of your parting message.
A mother tried to murder her own child for pity's sake! On Judgement Day, will God be rounding up souls, wagging His finger about a deficiency in welfare support, or will He reproach a mother thusly: 'Woman, I gave you life and limb to know, love, and serve Me. You squandered my gifts, serving your concupiscence, and then you attempted to murder the little soul I had entrusted to you. WHY?'
There are crisis pregancy centres, plenty of them, and their services are free. There are Internet resources too, and I'm sure there were plenty of Godly people put in that mother's path. My cousin just visited a girl begging her to consider adoption for her poor unborn child.
This female opted for abortion, so it wouldn't interfere with her night-life. Is that fear or selfishness?
It's time to rediscover a little horror at evil, rather than treat evildoers like poor animals that make such abominable choices out of a confused notion of necessity. We have free will, and God will hold us accountable for it.
March 8, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Just got back from the grocery store. In the checkout line, US Weekly has one of the "stars" from MTV's Teen Mom (Jenelle) with the headline "I'm just not ready to be a mom" (hanging head), I've actually seen a few episodes with her on the show, she is a horrible excuse for a person, much less a mother. Wish she would have given her baby up for adoption.
Sadly, I think your premise is right, that the hero is the exception to the rule.
March 8, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Jacobitess, just because people do evil things we aren't justified in condemning/ostracizing them. We need to reach out to them, be ready to help them at all times.
Yes, there are plenty of services where this mother could have sought help, and she didn't. (By the way, this wouldn't be "abortion", but "attempted murder". I don't understand why she wouldn't be tried for that.) But, unfortunately, more people know about clinics to get abortions than crisis pregnancy centers.
March 8, 2011 at 6:53 pm
@Matthew S. – they don't know about CPC's or adoption agencies either, apparently.
March 9, 2011 at 5:37 pm
PattyinCT, many of those that do know about local access to CPCs and adoption agencies probably also believe that they will add to their problems. Abortion looks like a quick-fix that has no repercussions (it's not, but that's what it looks like).
January 19, 2022 at 8:32 am
I wonder how the child is doing today in 2022…should be 12 years old…as for the hero lives on in every day minneapolis Minnesota..iam doing great..blessings I have had in 12 years…