Posted on 01/05/2003 5:42:59 PM PST by madprof98
MY FRIEND SAT across from me on the bed in a dorm room at college, and revealed to me a woman's most intimate secret: She was pregnant.
I was struck with awe: How does it feel, I asked, to know there's a life growing inside you?
The wonder both of us felt soon gave way to a pragmatism unfortunately permeated with ignorance. It wasn't a convenient time to get married, my friend said. Babies would have to wait.
I stuck by her loyally as she went through an abortion. That was three decades ago and I still think about it.
This January marks the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. Since then, some 40 million children have been aborted. Ninety-three percent of the time, women name "social reasons" as their motive for the procedure, not their health, or rape or incest.
Babies often come at inconvenient times.
A decade after college, when I was a young mother I met Mary Ann Fischer, who inconveniently discovered she was pregnant in 1977. A diabetic since her youth, Mary Ann had had a kidney transplant in 1975 and had lost much of her vision to the disease.
When the pregnancy test came back positive, Mary Ann's Georgetown doctor advised her to have an abortion. Her health simply would not support a pregnancy.
But Mary Ann and her husband, Joe, believed in God and they kept looking for another answer. Finally, a doctor at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston was willing to give them hope.
Mary Ann began bi-weekly flights to Boston for obstetric care. Then, when she was 16 weeks pregnant there was another surprise: She was carrying twins.
A shock wave rolled through Mary Ann's doctors at that news. Definitely abort now, they advised her, or she would lose what was left of her eyesight.
The Fischers refused. They would see the pregnancy through.
Jonathan and Stephen were born May 24, 1978. Mary Ann became the first kidney transplant recipient to successfully carry twins.
Today the boys are active, productive young men, both college graduates. One is a computer scientist, the other a Hollywood film editor. And Mary Ann--who survived the pregnancy without further health complications--and her husband, Joe, are blessed with sons they thought they'd never have.
It was certainly inconvenient for my friend Lorie Lasater and her husband, Shelby, to discover baby number two was on the way a few years ago. Lorie had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer when their first child, Alex, was a year old. Now he was 3 and Lorie was still receiving treatments.
When her third radiation treatment left her unusually sick Lorie discovered she was unexpectedly, inconveniently pregnant. Doctors advised her to abort the fetus, who they feared might be deformed.
It was a frightening time for Lorie, whose Marine Corps husband had just been deployed overseas. A chaplain's wife helped calm her down. "God knew this was coming," she said. "This pregnancy was not a surprise to Him."
Lorie's mother echoed these sentiments. "No matter what happens, anytime you conceive a child you have given someone eternity."
Along with her husband, who was shipped home on emergency leave, Lorie consulted with numerous doctors. Eventually she found one who offered her hope: She would either miscarry or everything would be fine, he predicted. Relieved, Lorie and Shelby prayed their way through the next months.
Their son Blake was born in May 2000, perfectly healthy. He was joined just a few weeks ago by a little brother, Nolan.
Faced with the courage of these women, I think back 30 years ago to the time when I did not have the vision--or the faith--to help my friend find an alternative to abortion.
Not long after we stumbled through the darkness of that decision, Lennart Nilsson published his incredible book "A Child is Born," a collection of photographs that show the development of a child in utero. This window to the womb is astonishing: An unborn baby sucks his thumb, a sperm penetrates an egg, a tiny hand, fingers fully formed, grasps an umbilical cord.
The book, along with the advancing technology of sonography, testifies that what is in a pregnant woman's uterus is not tissue: He or she is a child. And a child, no matter how inconvenient, deserves a chance at life.
America is coming to the same conclusion, apparently. Abortions are down, declining now to rates last seen in the late 1970s. And a recent Zogby poll shows that one-fifth of Americans say they're less in favor of abortion today than they were a decade ago.
Things on campus have changed as well. When I was in college, signs read "Question Authority." Now, an organization called Feminists for Life peppers campuses with the slogan "Question Abortion." We've come a long way, baby.
Three decades down the pike I still wonder who my friend's child would have become had he or she been allowed to live. Add to that one child 40 million others aborted and I wonder, have we destroyed the life of the one who might have found the cure for cancer? How many artists, musicians, dancers, doctors, teachers, and presidents have we killed?
Fortunately, I also understand that God, who created all these lives, is a God of second, third, and fourth chances. Even really bad choices can be forgiven.
Choosing life is often inconvenient. It is always a risk. But the Nolans and the Blakes, the Jonathans and the Stephens, and the Jennifers, Tonishas, Sonias, and Rachels are worth it.
Life is entrusted to us to protect and nurture, not abort. Thirty years after Roe v. Wade, we as a nation are beginning to understand that. That, to me, is good news.
LINDA WHITE is a columnist for The Free Lance-Star.
Date published: Sun, 01/05/2003
Thanks for posting....it's one of the most uplifting things I've read in a long time....
A lot of mainliners are also. The "view from the pew" is usually more conservative than the higher ups in those denominations, especially Methodist.
I just want to comment on a side issue, the difficulty in finding obstetricians who are willing to work with high-risk pregnancies. For, example:
Lorie consulted with numerous doctors. Eventually she found one who offered her hope: She would either miscarry or everything would be fine, he predicted.
This doctor is to be praised, because when the patient takes a risk, so does the doctor. An emotional risk, since most doctors do care about patients, and eventually one or two of the high-risk patients will have that bad outcome all the other doctor's talk about. And a professional risk, since risk-taking docs get sued. And no, as doctors know, having a patient sign a waiver does not provide much protection.
Orthodox Jews. I have never heard of a pro-choice Orthodox rabbi, although the same is not true of all those they preach to (for example, Sen. Lieberman). However, in this respect Orthodox Judaism is not different than the Catholic church.
Of course, the other branches of U.S. Judaism (Conservative, Reform, and the even further left Reconstructionists) are another story.
It doesn't matter. Thanks to the internet, Freerepublic and excellent posts like yours, the NYT's and the comPost are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
I don't think this is a major issue for most Catholics. They claim to be pro-life, but they vote mostly Dem. Hand-outs are more important than this issue.
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