Skip to main content

'My Life Is a Miracle': She Survived a Failed Abortion and Was 'Accidentally Born Alive' Now, She's Speaking Up for Those Who Can't

Share This article

“My life is a miracle over and over again.” That statement, from abortion survivor Melissa Ohden, couldn’t be truer.

Ohden, 44, told CBN News on Tuesday about her shocking story of surviving a saline abortion when she was in utero.

“I am one of the babies who have lived to tell their story of a failed abortion,” she said. “My birth mother was forced to have an abortion not long after abortion was legalized here in the United States.”

Ohden, who spoke with CBN in the lead-up to Wednesday’s oral arguments in the historic Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case, proceeded to share some of the difficult details surrounding her survival, including the fact she was soaked in the deadly solution for five days before her birth.

“The procedure that I survived … was a saline infusion abortion and it involved injecting a toxic salt solution into the amniotic fluid surrounding me in the womb,” she said. “They induced my birth mother and I was accidentally born alive that day.”

Ohden has spent the past 15 years working in the pro-life space, sharing her story and trying to help others understand the importance of hearing abortion survivors’ stories.

She is the founder of the Abortion Survivors Network, an organization that helps survivors find healing.

“My life is a miracle over and over again,” Ohden said.

Listen to her share the details of her miraculous survival:

Ohden said she has “every hope that Roe v. Wade is going to be righted” by the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.

“God intended for life and it’s really that human, broken condition, I truly believe, that has led us to this place. What an incredibly sad state of affairs we have faced,” she said, while pointing toward the positive outcome she believes to be on the horizon. “I have every hope … that [Dobbs] will be the undoing of Roe v. Wade.”

As for her message to people on the fence about abortion or to those who don’t quite understand her story, the survivor delivered a stirring message.

“You have a birthday … and I have a day that I now celebrate as my birthday, which happens to be the day that I was accidentally born alive,” she said. “What is the difference between you and me? Why is it that other people can have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but we have a whole population of people that are denied that right?”

Ohden’s interview was part of CBN’s pre-argument coverage of the Dobbs case. We’ll leave you with the full program, which originally aired Tuesday:

***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

Share This article

About The Author

Billy Hallowell writes for CBN's Faithwire.com. He has been working in journalism and media for more than a decade. His writings have appeared in CBN News, Faithwire, Deseret News, TheBlaze, Human Events, Mediaite, PureFlix, and Fox News, among other outlets. He is the author of several books, including Playing with Fire: A Modern Investigation Into Demons, Exorcism, and Ghosts Hallowell has a B.A. in journalism and broadcasting from the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York and an M.S. in social research from Hunter College in Manhattan, New York.