Two-year-old Ellie Schneider is a name recognized in the wide-spread neonatal medical world. With her recognition in President Trump’s State of the Union address Feb. 4, she became an icon for the pro-life community.

Not many people gave her a chance. In fact, hospitals around her home in Kansas City, Missouri were not equipped to treat her. Thankfully, medical personnel at Saint Luke’s Hospital decided to take her on. With a lot of hard work, research and the faith of her family, the doctors ended up saving her life.

At birth, Ellie weighed 14 ounces and was 10.4 inches long. She was barely the size of a soda can. However, as small as she was, she was and is still a miracle from God.

No one can imagine a mother or father’s pain as they watch their child battle for survival. Standing feet away from your little baby girl lying in a glass tube, medical devices sprouting in and out every orifice in her face, can be daunting. Not knowing her future, if there even will be one, is terrifying. It is so easy to lose hope when you see no easy answer. No one can blame you for giving up.

But, as Ellie’s mother Robin said on Facebook, the family will never give up hope.

“…My heart was so weak, but now I know I can face anything, as long as I have God and good friends,” Robin Schneider said.

The story of little Ellie shows how her very presence speaks to the authority of life. In most states (although the policies do vary), a woman can have an abortion up to 24 weeks of the pregnancy, Planned Parenthood says. Ellie Schneider was born at 21 weeks and 6 days, making it completely legal for her parents to kill her even minutes before she was born.

If she had been conceived by another couple, there is a very big chance that she might have met that fate.

However, her parents had faith and trusted that everything was going to turn out alright for their little girl. Now a healthy, joyful toddler, Ellie is a miraculous testament of what God can do in a dark situation.

As inspiring as her story is, even the fact that she could have been aborted just a day before she was born speaks to the disgusting disregard for life in our society. This precious little girl, who could not even cry for the first four months of her life, has already faced death twice. With the legalization of abortion up to 24 weeks, Ellie faced death before she ever took a breath.

Some medical professionals advocate for abortion in the face of a difficult pregnancy or even just an inconvenient one.

Inconvenient. We sacrifice our children on the altar of selfishness and claim it is convenient.

Anyone who is pro-choice has already lobbied for her death.

By reading this article from The Daily Citizen and this article from Little Tiny Loves, I am reassured in the validity of our claims of life and am inspired to keep up the fight: the fight for Ellie, for every unborn child and for the future of the pro-life movement. If she can make it, so can the millions of other miracle babies deemed “unable to be saved.”