‘Put God First’: Botched Abortion Survivor With Underdeveloped Limbs Is a Swimming Champ

'I feel sorry for the babies being aborted because it's a pity when they become victims.'

Ernie Gawilan at the start of Heat 2 of the Men's 100m Freestyle - S8 at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium during the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Sept. 11, 2016. Simon Bruty for OIS/IOC/AFP via Getty Images

A Filipino man born with an underdeveloped arm and legs found his passion in the weightless ocean and went on to become an international swimming champion. Yet, it wasn’t his first experience of overcoming adversity.

Thirty-year-old Ernie Gawilan, of Island Garden City in the Samal Davao region of the Philippines, survived an attempted abortion.