Today, I feel compelled to share one of my mom's recent blog posts. It details the testimony of an unrepentant abortionist and it made me weep. Please read it before continuing with mine.
I haven't mentioned this here before but Chris and I lost two babies between Mia and Grace. They both died between 11 and 12 weeks gestation. I miscarried the first baby at home and Chris and I held him in our hands. Our son Ethan was tiny but perfectly formed. He was not a blob, a mass of random cells or a "fetus". He was our sweet baby.
Do not kid yourself about what goes on at abortion "clinics". Some call it choice. The abortionist in my mom's article mentioned ripping off limbs with forceps. What kind of choice is that besides a choice to murder--the body of a baby and the soul of a mother? Many "good" people across our great nation--including our president--think that this is necessary and will somehow contribute to a better, more peaceful future. But really--can anyone truly believe that God would create even one precious soul to be aborted?
If you call yourself pro-"choice", I have to think that, with all of our modern technology, you have seen the truth about what you're supporting but have been tricked* into thinking that a woman's right to choose comes ahead of a baby's right to life. You and I are on different sides of a great chasm, you saying "choice", me saying "life". That's the way things will remain unless you rethink your position because compromise is impossible.
If you are on the fence on this issue, trying hard to empathize with both sides, please understand that your silence implies consent. You are standing with Lisa Harris, the abortionist in the article. Get off the fence and come over to the good side.
If you are one of those fighting hard for the little people who "are people, no matter how small", thank you. I feel especially grateful to those who have been fined or imprisoned for their peaceful protests. You are heroes.
If you are like me, pro-life but doing little to put your faith in action on this issue, join me in resolving to do something tangible today. We can: talk about and educate people on abortion, donate time, money or baby items to a crisis pregnancy center, witness in front of Planned Parenthood, work on the pro-life committee at church, encourage the young people we know to choose chastity but if they find themselves facing a crisis pregnancy--life, offer support and encouragement to young families living the Church's doctrine on the life issues, make sacrifices in atonement for the sins of our nation, pray. We can all do something and our actions matter whether or not they yield results on a large scale. Let's start today.
*I say tricked because one of the ways Satan lies to us is to convince us to put a lesser good above a greater one. No one can deny that choice is a good thing. But the right to life is a much greater thing.
Baby's feet at eleven weeks, the age Baby Ethan was.
Baby Samuel, 21 weeks, grasps the surgeon's finger during an operation.
Amazing.
Great post, Alice!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about pro-life issues yesterday too. I was listening to a radio morning show and the hosts were talking about about a woman in Arizona who was being threatened with a court-ordered cesarean if she refuses a cesarean at Page Hospital. She had already delivered one baby after having a c-section but the hospital refused to do any v-bacs. The hosts were just ripping into this woman about how she needed to do what the hospital said and how could she put her baby at risk. I would be willing to bet at least some of the hosts are pro-choice.
I was just shaking my head finding it so terribly ironic. That women are allowed to choose to kill their babies, up to the very end when there is zero question of viability simply because they feel like it. But a mother who decides she doesn't want major surgery is basically a lunatic! Why aren't all the pro-choicers up in arms about this?? Her right to choice is being taken away.
The host went onto say that the chance of uterine rupture during a vbac is less than 1% (I don't know if this is an accurate number, it's just what he said) and he said, well it doesn't matter, if there's any chance, she should just have the c-section. And I really considered calling and asking him if he went in and had a physical and the doctor told him that he had less than a 1% chance of having testicular cancer based on family history and his recommendation was to have both testicles removed. Would he do it? Isn't it his choice?
Anyway, sorry, this is long winded, I just have trouble understanding how people can be totally okay with abortion and then blast a woman who is trying to have her baby, trying to do what is best. That we can convict someone of 2 murders if they kill an 8 month along pregnant woman, but that same woman can go and have a partial birth abortion, completely legally. That doctors do everything in their power to save a premature baby born at 25 weeks one day and abort a baby at 25 weeks the next day.
Wow, looks like I should've done my own blog about this! ;) Anyway, I'm glad you're my sister and glad our mom didn't think of us as choices.
a few of my favorite quotes from Mother Theresa:
ReplyDeleteFebruary 1997 - National Prayer Breakfast in Washington attended by the President and the First Lady. "What is taking place in America," she said, "is a war against the child. And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another."
"Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants."
"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
AND thank you so much for sharing your heart about your two babies ahead of you, praying for us all. I feel your loss and appreciate your sharing the pain of holding your 12 week old baby boy. So many forget that we are formed already by then...fingers and toes. I remember mitch and i went to the museum last year to the Body World Exhibit. They had an entire wing just for LIFE. And it was packed! People were in awe, shock and disbelief that at 10 weeks, fingers and toes are distinguishable. It was quite beautiful to see so many eyes being opened, and so painful to see how many of us had been duped.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thank you for sharing. We are 12 weeks along now. No matter what, they COUNT. :)
T--you make me proud.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Especially your point about silence meaning consent. This is not a "to each his own" issue. Even if your only action to support your stance for life is to pray -- especially if your action is to pray -- you should in your own mind and life make a choice to support life, especially if you are a husband and a father. (This is not only a woman's issue.) I am reading a book about WWII and the Jews and this story is different than the others. It's about Jews that refused to go to the ghetto and refused to submit to the Germans. These Jews went to the forest and lived and fought and survived. But that was not enough. They actively sought other Jews and recruited them to live in their community with them. What extraordinary risks they took to seek out these Jews and save them and care for them! Older people, women, children – great burdens to a community living on the land and fighting for their lives at unexpected turns – but they did it because it was the right thing to do, no matter the risk, no matter the cost. We too cannot simply run and hide from this issue of abortion. (The book I’m reading is “Defiance” by Nechama Tec.)
ReplyDeleteWow! Dad and I are blessed in our children by birth and our children by marriage. Alice, what an incredible post. I remember seeing little Ethan and marveling at his beauty. What an awesome God we serve! Tara, I always said you were a sparkler or maybe that spectacular Texas rattler (my favorite firework) is a better image because you sure could rattle some talk show hosts with that bright (and biting) wit. I laughed out loud when I read your comparison of the woman's decision to a guy having his testicles removed. And, Chris, you are the kind of courageous warrior who can always be counted on to fight for the good and battle evil. Dad and I are so proud of (and humbled by) all of you.
ReplyDeleteAlice, thank you for this. And speaking of LIFE, I turned big, fat 31 on Friday (the day of your post) -- good thing my mom chose life, as well.
ReplyDeleteI must say that I used to be one of those "on the fence," "to each his own" women before I sat down and thought about it. Before I started to think about what mattered in life (I was 18 and certainly didn't want anyone to tell ME what to do, therefore I wasn't going to tell anyone else what I thought was right or wrong for them to do). Anyway, since then, I have definitely come full circle and moved on over to the "good side." :) Dustin and I got married on January 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and although it has always seemed circumstantial, I am coming to realize that maybe God had His hand in that -- to call our attention to something that he wants us to advocate. Sadly, though, after the reception (we made a donation in the name of our wedding to TX Right For Life based on the # of guests at our wedding, and made them aware of it by putting a slip of paper in a box at everyone's place setting stating that a donation would be made instead of them receiving a neat little something-or-other weddingish...), we haven't done much other than pray for the unborn.
We also lost a baby, Hope, last October. The 26th of this month will mark the 1st anniversary of the day we lost her. I've got a whole spiritual story to accompany her (I just know she was my girl!) but I will save that for another day. Unlike you, we didn't get to "see" her. She was about 7 weeks along.
I need to post this on my fridge or somewhere to remind myself that Satan is ALWAYS trying to deceive us... "*I say tricked because one of the ways Satan lies to us is to convince us to put a lesser good above a greater one. No one can deny that choice is a good thing. But the right to life is a much greater thing."
Robin