When Jari Lopez was born, he was more likely to die than survive.

Jari was born on February 22, 2021, at just 24 weeks gestation weighing only 11.5 ounces.

As Fox News reports, “Doctors said baby Jari Lopez had a 30% survival rate after concerns of fetal growth restriction combined with mom Amber Higgins’ preeclampsia diagnosis.”

Because of these concerns, along with “reversed blood flow” and Jari’s dropping heart rate, doctors opted to perform an emergency C-section.

According to Jari’s mother, Amber Higgins, doctors had informed her and Jari’s dad that “there was a chance he would not make it.”

“We took it day by day, we saw him in the NICU as much as we could. Dad was able to go see him during that time. He just kept saying he couldn’t believe how small he was,” Amber added.

Dr. Jennifer Anderson, neonatologist and medical director at Pediatrix Neonatology of New Medico, helped treat Jari when he was first born.

She said that Jari needed a breathing machine to survive while his lungs developed.

“Jari’s biggest issue when he was first born was his lungs … The lungs aren’t totally developed when born at 24 weeks,” said told Fox News.

Last week was an exciting week for the pro-life movement as three more state legislative chambers moved to protect the pre-born at 15-weeks gestation. Arizona, Florida, and West Virginia are the most recent states to take significant steps to protect human life in the womb.

Galvanized by a seemingly favorable response of the U.S. Supreme Court to Mississippi’s law limiting abortion at 15-weeks, pro-life lawmakers around the country have been busy crafting their own state legislation to protect the lives of pre-born babies.

Pro-life Republican lawmakers have led all three state efforts. Arizona’s Senate, Florida’s House of Representatives, and West Virginia’s House of Delegates all passed bills last week. To become law, the measures will need to be approved by the second legislative body in the state and signed into law by the respective governor. Passage is expected as each of these states are led by pro-life lawmakers.

In Arizona, Senator Nancy Barto is the primary sponsor of S.B. 1164. According to the measure’s fact sheet, it “prohibits a physician from performing an abortion on an unborn human being whose probable gestational age is determined to be greater than 15 weeks, except in the case of a medical emergency.”

The Arizona Senate approved the measure 16-13.

Illinois might be one of the most liberal states in the country now, but in 1977 the state legislature had the good sense to pass a medical conscience law protecting healthcare workers from being forced to participate in objectionable procedures that violate their conscience. Forty-four years later, a pro-life nurse named Sandra Rojas is grateful it did.

Rojas, a pediatric nurse at the Winnebago County Health Department for 18 years, was told by her government employer in 2015 that she would have to cross-train to perform other medical services, including assisting with abortions. When she objected based on her religious convictions, the county at first accommodated her for a few weeks while other nurses performed the objectionable tasks, but it ultimately refused to continue accommodating her and offered her a non-nursing job as a food inspector, which she refused.

She then resigned and sued the county, with help from attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

In October 2021, an Illinois state court ruled in Rojas’ favor, finding that the county could have continued to accommodate her objections beyond its initial attempts to do so.