Family Planning [daughter coerced into murdering grandchild]

The Old Gray Lady [The NY Times] ^ | "The author's name has been withheld."

[SlickWillard]

t started with a premonition from a friend who was crazy, though mostly in good ways. She was a storyteller with a hooting laugh, and one afternoon in front of my wife and daughters, she launched into a tale about how she'd once gotten a job when she showed the boss that she could fit her fist in her mouth. When my friend finished her tale, we all realized that my younger daughter, then 5, had her fist all the way inside her mouth. Out of nowhere, the friend said, ''That child is going to be pregnant by the time she's 15.'' I thought of those words the day my friend died. I thought of them again the day I learned that my daughter was pregnant. She was 15.

Her older sister is on the dean's list at her university, and she's always so well behaved that I sometimes worry she's too good. Maybe my younger daughter feels she has to carve out her own identity by doing what she pleases. She smokes cigarettes and marijuana and doesn't care who knows. She promises to drop out of school when she turns 16. We used to ground her until she realized that there was no way we could forcibly make her do anything she didn't want to do.

My wife knew the girl was pregnant before she did. She was bedridden for several days, and my wife took her to the doctor. According to the laws of my Bible-belt state, a minor needs her parents' permission to have an abortion, but her parents can't tell her not to have a baby. She thought she wanted to keep it and swore she'd be a good mother. My wife and I -- and my oldest daughter -- freaked, and not just because of our dashed aspirations for this girl. We were too old to want to raise another baby -- and we felt sure the raising would fall to us.

Of course there was a boy involved, and he hadn't fled. He lives with his grandparents, and they asked us all to come talk. The grandfather lectured the young couple on responsibility. The boy admitted he wasn't ready to be a father. The only person in the room who wanted the baby was my daughter, but in the face of family advice, she decided she couldn't go through with the pregnancy. My wife scheduled her for an abortion.

The day before surgery, our daughter announced that she had a meeting with a guidance counselor and a county probation officer because of her truancies. She wanted her mother to go with her. Finally, it seemed, we were getting help. My wife came clean, explaining that many of her late arrivals to school had been due to morning sickness. But when she mentioned the abortion, my daughter started crying, and the officer, a woman, ordered my wife to take the girl to a counseling center.

''Like Planned Parenthood?'' the guidance counselor asked.

''No,'' she snapped. She had to go to a pregnancy center that ''tells all sides of the story.'' They drove directly to said ''counseling'' office, which turned out to be an anti-abortion propaganda center, where a counselor showed my daughter aborted fetuses on a video and talked about the after-effects of abortion -- with no mention of the complications of pregnancy. My daughter was right back on the teenage-mommy track. While the counselor went home thinking she had saved a life, we felt we had been sentenced to 18 years of hard labor.

As word spread about the pregnancy, other women called offering to tell about their own abortions. My daughter's friends, her sister, her sister's friends all counseled against having the baby, but she wouldn't listen. We decided to stage an intervention. When my daughter came into the living room, there were 15 women waiting for her, including four mothers. They asked me to leave; I listened from the kitchen, and though I couldn't hear anything other than sobs and laughter, I could feel the gravity. But when it was over, she still hadn't decided.

The next week, I took her to a counseling appointment at Planned Parenthood. As I sat in the waiting room, I thought about my own sister, who had a botched abortion before it was legal. She got kicked out of college for nearly bleeding to death in a dorm room. That night when we got home and my wife asked our daughter what she was going to do, she blurted out, ''I don't have a choice.'' The next day, she turned on Saturday-morning cartoons, as if she'd decided to be a kid again.

We spent a week wondering if she'd change her mind, but she didn't. I realized later that I would have more to worry about if she had easily and immediately decided on an abortion. Ultimately, she did, but she struggled with her decision, and I hope she made the right one.

I still have hope for this daughter. I am astounded at the number of women who have told me about getting pregnant or running away with drug dealers who still grew up to be lawyers, businesspeople and mothers. Adolescence is like a fever: usually it breaks; sometimes it doesn't; often it leaves scars.

I know what's inside my daughter. When she was 4, her best friend died of cancer. Other parents wouldn't let their children play with the dying girl, but my daughter held her friend's hand right up to the end. I am still proud of the way she handled herself. I know that person is in there, and someday, when the fever breaks, I pray that I'll see her again.

The author's name has been withheld.

[SlickWillard]

My daughter's friends, her sister, her sister's friends all counseled against having the baby, but she wouldn't listen. We decided to stage an intervention. When my daughter came into the living room, there were 15 women waiting for her, including four mothers. They asked me to leave; I listened from the kitchen, and though I couldn't hear anything other than sobs and laughter, I could feel the gravity. But when it was over, she still hadn't decided.

15 women who will burn in hell for all eternity.

[SlickWillard]

Another tragic bump.

[cardinal4]

Did she have one or not? Maybe Im missing something.

[Tennessee_Bob]

15 women who will burn in hell for all eternity.

And here I was thinking that Christ forgave.

[JMJ333]

I believe in redemption, even for heinous crimes. It depends on the will and intent of the individual. Certainly Christ forgives murder as St. Paul [formerly Saul] had been torturing and murdering Christians, and was on his way to Damascus to continue with his persecution, when his heart was changed. Prayer is our weapon of conversion for these poor lost souls.

[Paul Atreides]

It's amazing how many people who don't know the meaning of the word ADOPTION. It is either keep the baby or kill it. What is even more amazing is the fact that the author of this screed thought this was all something of which to be proud.

[Free the USA]

fyi

[griffin]

What a sad story. This idiot family really messed up this young lady for life. As I read through this I kept wondering when it would be that the family would wise up and realize that their own selfish motives were not a 'reason' to slice up a beautiful person of God. I guess I was wrong, sadly.

These 'believers' are not Christians. They have not idea what it means to be a Christian. "Bible Belt"...They will get their just rewards and wish for eternity that they had not been so concerned about themselves. "Hard Labor". Yeah, right. Watching a young child grow and experience a beautiful world that God has given us....but that some were to selfish to share. I am disgusted.

What a sad story....but what a police officer!

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

"The author's name has been withheld."

UH HUH ok

[griffin]

"And here I was thinking that Christ forgave"

Christ forgives his elect....those who come to Him and accept Him. I see no evidence of that in these people yet, but there might still be time for them. By their fruit you will know them.

[anniegetyourgun]

Unbelievable...yet not. How sad our society has become. We complain about children killing children, then turn around and encourage the same - our own flesh and blood, no less.

"I set before you blessing and cursings, life and death; therefore choose life that your children may live." - God

[JMJ333]

Christianity isn't an elitist religion. Anyone can come to redemption and salvation, and lost souls are brought to conversion through the prayer of others. In fact, it is the moral obligation of the faithful Christian to pray for these people so that they too may open their hearts to God.

[PoisedWoman]

Beautiful picture!

[The Brush]

Adoption? No way! Why should anyone have any consequence for their actions?

[griffin]

"I believe in redemption, even for heinous crimes. It depends on the will and intent of the individual. "

Are you saying that Christ's forgiveness depends on what the person was thinking at the time a sin was committed? That is not scriptural.

It is very clear we are saved by the Lord's Grace and His Grace alone. Period. We are all sinners. If we have committed one sin in the most minute fashion, we are as guilty as if we had sinned copiously.

What a person must do to receive forgiveness is accept Christ as their savior and REPENT. Repent means giving up your sins and following Christ. That does not mean you won't sine again; you will. What it does mean is that Christ, and following the Lord, become top priority in your life and living to be like Christ, as a servant of God, is the aim. We do this through study of Scripture to learn the true character of God and applying what we learn to life.

Like it or not, that is the only way.

[stands2reason]

How come the word "adoption" doesn't even exist anymore?????

[pdlglm]

Seems to me that they shouldn't have had some loon in their house speaking curses over their children.

[AnalogReigns]

15 women who will burn in hell for all eternity.

And here I was thinking that Christ forgave

The sign of Christ's forgiveness received is, by definition, repentence.

Fascinating that the writer of the piece thought 18 years raising a child was both "hard labor" AND worth more than a human life. What a selfish evil attitude.

[lodwick]

bttt

Happy Birthday Mr.President!

Don't miss this one.

[JMJ333]

Are you saying that Christ's forgiveness depends on what the person was thinking at the time a sin was committed? That is not scriptural.

No, I am saying that no one is "elect." Anyone can attain salvation upon true and sincere repentance, even those who commit heinous crime. The notion that some are not elect is an invention of the late fifteen hundreds, and opposes the previous 1500 years of Christian doctrine and theology.

And grace for lost souls is brought about by the prayer of the faithful.