There has been no shortage of political dialogue about the abortion issue, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court negated Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Unfortunately, though, there has not been enough discussion about what an Aug. 9 Wall Street Journal headline described as “A life-or-death divide for very premature babies.” Every woman and many men should be interested in what that all is about.

The Journal article in question reported that doctors now are capable of saving the lives of babies born at 22 weeks and, in rare cases, a week earlier, thanks to improved techniques “to help tiny lungs develop and protect fragile skin and organs.”

According to the article, hospitals with extensive experience resuscitating extremely premature babies report survival rates as high as 67% for babies born at 22 weeks.

However, the Journal article points out that hospitals’ opinions surrounding that capability are far from being unanimous as to how much effort there should be to save them because of the challenges that could lie ahead for the children, both short term or possibly extending for the rest of their lives.

Parents’ opinions and parental choices should prevail, preferably after consultation with their doctors regarding the possibilities — negative as well as positive — that could lie ahead.

Three specific paragraphs in the Journal’s lengthy report are particularly relevant to the “22-week” discussion.

They deserve more than cursory reflection by couples of child-bearing age who, unfortunately, could find themselves in a crucial situation that they, in their joy over the “child on the way,” never anticipated and are unprepared to deal with.

Those three paragraphs:

– “Saving a child born at 22 weeks is difficult. Their mouths and airways are small, making it difficult to intubate them. Their outer layer of skin is often only a few cells thick. Their guts are thin and can develop holes. They have trouble regulating their body temperature and usually need months of treatment.”

– “Those who survive can develop vision problems or blindness. They may need extra oxygen or feeding tubes at home. Longer term, they might have developmental delays. Some might never catch up.”

– “The University of Iowa hospital offers parents the option of either active treatment to try to save the baby or comfort care to those born at 22 weeks. The vast majority choose active treatment. Out of those it tries to keep alive, 62% end up going home. The hospital has even graduated several 21-weekers from its neonatal intensive care unit.”

Dr. Edward Bell, a neonatologist at the University of Iowa hospital, says “we’ve done what we thought was never going to be biologically possible.” He said that during his career of more than 40 years, the limit of viability has moved about a week every 10 years.

However, despite the progress on behalf of very premature babies, fewer than half of neonatal intensive care units, about 45%, provided treatment to babies at 22 weeks, according to a study of a sample of hospitals published this year in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The time has come where more hospitals should be striving to join the 45% that today are defying what previously had been the limits of viability.

Supporters of caring for extremely premature babies say that while there are risks, results are now so good at some hospitals that doctors can no longer say treatment is futile.

So true.