During High School, active in church and youth group, constantly babysitting, I was (of course) avidly, unswervingly pro-life, anti-abortion, end of discussion. It's evil, it's wrong, end of story. I thought the women who choose it were immoral and abortionists & clinic workers were demon possessed.
But just like my narrow life experience caused me to interpret the book of Acts to mean that Jesus' apostles had the Bible bound in paperback edition and were distributing it to a literate populace, I thought it all began with Roe vs. Wade, 1972. I also never considered that I or my friends would ever be within 4 billion light years of that choice. We were all virgins (in my mind), had never suffered sexual abuse & would get married, never have a miscairrage or an unexpected pregnancy & have 3.5 children.
Then, through college I made poor choices. I never got pregnant, but some of my friends did. Some even chose abortions and I all the sudden found myself realizing I was their friend, and I might make a different choice, but if I were to judge them in that situation, it would be the wost hypocracy. But, out of sight, out of mind. Only when I was pregnant, a little earlier than planned and faced with the reality of being responsible for a human life did it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was terrified, and I had an education, career, a husband, supportive family, & I have to admit, it always caught me off-guard when people told me "congratulations!" because deep down, I was scared and stressed out.
I really felt horribly conflicted. I imagined how I would feel were I still in college & my relationship with the father weren't supportive. It's easy to say I would give the child up for adoption, but once I felt that baby kick & saw ultrasounds that looked humaniod, a HUGE part of me felt I was fulfilling my life's purpose, not someone else's!
But in my real life, I had all the support humanly and superhumanly possible. No excuses for me. So what does my flesh turn to as a source of fear? The physical discomfort of pregnancy & labor. I didn't even have much to complain about comparitavely speaking! Not much morning sickness, not too uncomfortable, & only about 3 hours of pain before I gave in to the epidural.
So then Gosnell's case (or should I say the lack of media coverage of Gosnell's case) woke me out of my stupor during my 2nd pregnancy while wiping away my toddler's 4th poopie of the day. I remembered hearing about that raid on the news while planning my wedding! Shook my head & thought, "Well, what do you expect?" & forgot about it.
THAT'S the problem. A large majority of Pro-life/Anti-abortion people can't empathize with desperate pregnant women or conflicted workers in abortion facilities, so they shake their heads & think "Well, what do you expect?" & would rather not think about the atrocities and so move on.
Once pro-life/anti-abortion people have had their own children they can't truly empathize with a scared teenager. Or if their contraception works fairly well, they can't understand the fatigued desperation of a umpteenth "oops" baby.
But statistically, many women who get abortions identify as Christian. So they must be struggling with a great guilt, or hypocrisy or have a true split of mind.
In reading Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End, Jennifer Worth's essay on the history of infanticide & abortion in England was an eye opener. For centuries, women have suffered the sole financial burder and moral stigma of an "illigitimate" pregnancy (doesn't it sound weird? Illegal pregnancy?) without ANY support (in fact more likely active opposition) from the father, her family, & the government in a society where she had no opportunity in life other than to be married anyway. There was no education about sex, there was no contraception. Missing a period & feeling sick to your stomach was that moment when you realized your life, literally, was over.
In 1850, Even if a woman was married, educated and middle class, knowledge & information regarding pregnancy was not just minimal, it was non-existent. As in the local handywoman made an UNeducated guess based on the 100 or so successful or not so successful pregnancies she'd heard about. No need to rehash the old arguments about profiteering and heartless back-alley abortionists or desperate use of knitting needles and coathangers (none of which were sterile). What suprised the heck out of me was to learn that many of the "back alley" abortionists of the 1st half of 20th century in the US were doctors and nurses. But what REALLY left me speechless is that today, legal abortionist still choose to perform the procedure "blind" in facilites that do not meet standards for surgery or hospital admission...Huh? & the pro choice/abortion movement argues in FAVOR of this!
Even the 20th century's history of maternal care in the developed world is obcene. Look up twilight sleep! Not to mention Thalydomide, x-rays on pregnant women's pelvises, & the list could go on. Even now they've been able to develop the RU-486 (abortion) pill because they realized it was causing miscarriage in pregnant women who took it for ulcers and then prescribed it for inducing labor before they realized it was killing women in labor because of uterine rupture. Reassuring, huh?
And THAT'S the other problem. Pro-choice people argue as if it were not just 1950, but 1850! But only one version of 1850. In 1850 one of the reasons abortion was illegal in England was because it was performed on underage prostitutes to keep them working. If they died (as they often did) their bodies were dumped elsewhere. Today's pro-choice(abortion) movement doesn't even consider that abortions cover abuse, & scoffs at the idea of women being coerced into an abortion she doesn't want.
A girl "illegitimately" pregnant in 1850 faced a very different situation than a single high school or college student with an unplanned pregnancy faces today after her contraception fails. Today, even if her boyfriend, parents and friends are not supportive, she has plenty of other places to turn for financial and emotional support. That's not to say I'm ignorant of the emotional turmoil. But the reality is that no girl in the US today can say that because she is unmarried, young and pregnant no man will ever marry her, she will be turned out of every job for life, and she and the child will starve and freeze in the street while people walk by and laugh and spit at her saying "good riddance." But one thing that remains the same is pregnant girls are as unaware of their own anatomy and the processes and proceedures perfomed on them as they could possibly be.
This is the new millenium. We have contraception. We have a government social safety net. We have extensive knowledge of the need for sterility during surgery. We have ultrasounds. We know what an abortion is & we know how to make it RARE & SAFE. But we don't.
When laws are proposed to require hospital safety standards and technology guided visibility pro-choice/abortion advocates argue it restricts access to abortion. Why aren't they arguing against the restrictive pricing of abortionists flying from state to state in their private jets, ridiculing their patients while charging $1,000 a pop to wear a white coat while they scrape the modern equivalent of a knitting needle around blindly, using receptionists to administer anesthesia? Instead they argue for the government to subsidize these monstrous fees. The pro choice/abortion movement argues rigorously to rid the abortion industry of profiteering bad apples, right? Instead the abortion profit industry further violates & victimizes obviously desperate women by lying to us there are NO bad apples. They put forth that all abortionists are caring teddy bears who would do it for free if they could, but they have to feed their familes...& mean Christian pro lifers demonize poor women.
Now that I have been pregnant, this is one thing I would tell a young pregnant woman: Your cervix is like a vault. The code has been set to open when the fetus' lungs say "I'm ready to breathe air!" Abortion means they are going to pry your cervix open. This will be painful and take 3-4 days before your uterus can be emptied. If you take the pills home, you can have your abortion in private, but you will have no pain medication and you are risking an unsterile environment and infection. If you opt for the surgery you can have pain medication & anesthesia. You better pray that the anesthesiologist is trained and does a good job. Like in any surgery, if they give you too much, you won't wake up. Pay attention to make sure that the abortionist uses sterile equipment and ultrasound to guide him while he empties your uterus and leaves nothing behind.
Up to this point I've focused on the pregnant woman. But the pro life argument always focuses on the fetus/baby. It's moronic to get into the philosophy of whether/when the embryo fetus becomes human or pain capable. As one doctor testified, it's obvious that the embryos move away from painful stimuli. Knowing that, it's inhumane not to address fetal pain and apply modern remedies.
Pro life arguments often gloss over the sad reality that many poverty stricken women in ages past suffocated or abandoned their infants because contraception wasn't available and they couldn't "stomach" an abortion. Even some middle to upper class infants were victims due to disabilities or undersirable gender. As is the case in abortions today. I can't say whether I would parent if I found my fetus were mentally or otherwise disabled rather than give the infant up for adoption. But any argument regarding the legitimacy of abortion in this case is as moronic as arguing when the fetus becomes human. A disabled person is not less human, nor is a disabled fetus. Even if a law were passed against gender based abortions, it's easy for a woman to give some other reason to get around that. But it would be nice to at least have the law. There will always be women who will seek abortions and that is a tragedy. Just as there will always be teens who attempt suicide.
I've come to the conclusion that making abortion illegal is about as harmful as making suicide or alcohol illegal. Abortion is a kind of suicide of a symbiotic being. A woman who has aborted her pregnancy is forever physically and emotionally and spiritually changed. "Some may be in denial and hide it well with the many other distractions life brings. That's unfortunate because God can heal and doctors, family and friends can help. Abortion is not a solution to a problem, any more than suicide is. But this reality will never stop desperate women from seeking an abortion.
So clearly I'm against abortion, but what do I mean if I think it's harmful to outlaw it? Well, for starters,
So at what point does it become absurd to perform an abortion, even under those conditions? the general consensus seems to be 20 weeks, although I would choose 12-15 simply because I've been pregnant and know what it is to feel your uterus grow and the baby move. But let's say we go with 20 weeks. This gives a woman roughly 4 months from discovery to decide. After that point, it's medically safer for the woman to perform a C-section. For the fetus this is obviously safer, (even at 28 weeks) than being dismembered would have been! This leaves an unwilling woman between 2 and 5 months to do the fetus and society the service of carrying to term, and I feel we should return the favor by offering her the insurance/healthcare coverage of a C-section.
Abortion pills should be outlawed entirely. They should go the way of saline abortions.
Of course those abortions that still fall within the legal limits would remain controversial and tragic. But in a society wrestling with legalizing certain drugs, physician assisted suicide and labeling homosexual partnerships "marriages," the Christian battleground should shift from politically lobbying to make immorality illegal and focus on ministering to the wounded; allowing healed and recovering victims to minister to others with their testimony.
In 1850, Even if a woman was married, educated and middle class, knowledge & information regarding pregnancy was not just minimal, it was non-existent. As in the local handywoman made an UNeducated guess based on the 100 or so successful or not so successful pregnancies she'd heard about. No need to rehash the old arguments about profiteering and heartless back-alley abortionists or desperate use of knitting needles and coathangers (none of which were sterile). What suprised the heck out of me was to learn that many of the "back alley" abortionists of the 1st half of 20th century in the US were doctors and nurses. But what REALLY left me speechless is that today, legal abortionist still choose to perform the procedure "blind" in facilites that do not meet standards for surgery or hospital admission...Huh? & the pro choice/abortion movement argues in FAVOR of this!
Even the 20th century's history of maternal care in the developed world is obcene. Look up twilight sleep! Not to mention Thalydomide, x-rays on pregnant women's pelvises, & the list could go on. Even now they've been able to develop the RU-486 (abortion) pill because they realized it was causing miscarriage in pregnant women who took it for ulcers and then prescribed it for inducing labor before they realized it was killing women in labor because of uterine rupture. Reassuring, huh?
And THAT'S the other problem. Pro-choice people argue as if it were not just 1950, but 1850! But only one version of 1850. In 1850 one of the reasons abortion was illegal in England was because it was performed on underage prostitutes to keep them working. If they died (as they often did) their bodies were dumped elsewhere. Today's pro-choice(abortion) movement doesn't even consider that abortions cover abuse, & scoffs at the idea of women being coerced into an abortion she doesn't want.
A girl "illegitimately" pregnant in 1850 faced a very different situation than a single high school or college student with an unplanned pregnancy faces today after her contraception fails. Today, even if her boyfriend, parents and friends are not supportive, she has plenty of other places to turn for financial and emotional support. That's not to say I'm ignorant of the emotional turmoil. But the reality is that no girl in the US today can say that because she is unmarried, young and pregnant no man will ever marry her, she will be turned out of every job for life, and she and the child will starve and freeze in the street while people walk by and laugh and spit at her saying "good riddance." But one thing that remains the same is pregnant girls are as unaware of their own anatomy and the processes and proceedures perfomed on them as they could possibly be.
This is the new millenium. We have contraception. We have a government social safety net. We have extensive knowledge of the need for sterility during surgery. We have ultrasounds. We know what an abortion is & we know how to make it RARE & SAFE. But we don't.
When laws are proposed to require hospital safety standards and technology guided visibility pro-choice/abortion advocates argue it restricts access to abortion. Why aren't they arguing against the restrictive pricing of abortionists flying from state to state in their private jets, ridiculing their patients while charging $1,000 a pop to wear a white coat while they scrape the modern equivalent of a knitting needle around blindly, using receptionists to administer anesthesia? Instead they argue for the government to subsidize these monstrous fees. The pro choice/abortion movement argues rigorously to rid the abortion industry of profiteering bad apples, right? Instead the abortion profit industry further violates & victimizes obviously desperate women by lying to us there are NO bad apples. They put forth that all abortionists are caring teddy bears who would do it for free if they could, but they have to feed their familes...& mean Christian pro lifers demonize poor women.
Now that I have been pregnant, this is one thing I would tell a young pregnant woman: Your cervix is like a vault. The code has been set to open when the fetus' lungs say "I'm ready to breathe air!" Abortion means they are going to pry your cervix open. This will be painful and take 3-4 days before your uterus can be emptied. If you take the pills home, you can have your abortion in private, but you will have no pain medication and you are risking an unsterile environment and infection. If you opt for the surgery you can have pain medication & anesthesia. You better pray that the anesthesiologist is trained and does a good job. Like in any surgery, if they give you too much, you won't wake up. Pay attention to make sure that the abortionist uses sterile equipment and ultrasound to guide him while he empties your uterus and leaves nothing behind.
Up to this point I've focused on the pregnant woman. But the pro life argument always focuses on the fetus/baby. It's moronic to get into the philosophy of whether/when the embryo fetus becomes human or pain capable. As one doctor testified, it's obvious that the embryos move away from painful stimuli. Knowing that, it's inhumane not to address fetal pain and apply modern remedies.
Pro life arguments often gloss over the sad reality that many poverty stricken women in ages past suffocated or abandoned their infants because contraception wasn't available and they couldn't "stomach" an abortion. Even some middle to upper class infants were victims due to disabilities or undersirable gender. As is the case in abortions today. I can't say whether I would parent if I found my fetus were mentally or otherwise disabled rather than give the infant up for adoption. But any argument regarding the legitimacy of abortion in this case is as moronic as arguing when the fetus becomes human. A disabled person is not less human, nor is a disabled fetus. Even if a law were passed against gender based abortions, it's easy for a woman to give some other reason to get around that. But it would be nice to at least have the law. There will always be women who will seek abortions and that is a tragedy. Just as there will always be teens who attempt suicide.
I've come to the conclusion that making abortion illegal is about as harmful as making suicide or alcohol illegal. Abortion is a kind of suicide of a symbiotic being. A woman who has aborted her pregnancy is forever physically and emotionally and spiritually changed. "Some may be in denial and hide it well with the many other distractions life brings. That's unfortunate because God can heal and doctors, family and friends can help. Abortion is not a solution to a problem, any more than suicide is. But this reality will never stop desperate women from seeking an abortion.
So clearly I'm against abortion, but what do I mean if I think it's harmful to outlaw it? Well, for starters,
- All facilities need to be up to hospital standards.
- Clearly modern medical technology could find a way to administer anesthesia/pain medication to the fetus.
- abortionists need to use ultrasound to guide the procedure.
- abortionists should not recieve any more compensation for their work than a general practitioner in a county hospital.
- Abortion facilities should be required to notify parents of minors and, like teachers, be required to report suspected abuse, coersion or rape.
- Abortions should not be permitted on the basis of the fetus' race or gender.
So at what point does it become absurd to perform an abortion, even under those conditions? the general consensus seems to be 20 weeks, although I would choose 12-15 simply because I've been pregnant and know what it is to feel your uterus grow and the baby move. But let's say we go with 20 weeks. This gives a woman roughly 4 months from discovery to decide. After that point, it's medically safer for the woman to perform a C-section. For the fetus this is obviously safer, (even at 28 weeks) than being dismembered would have been! This leaves an unwilling woman between 2 and 5 months to do the fetus and society the service of carrying to term, and I feel we should return the favor by offering her the insurance/healthcare coverage of a C-section.
Abortion pills should be outlawed entirely. They should go the way of saline abortions.
Of course those abortions that still fall within the legal limits would remain controversial and tragic. But in a society wrestling with legalizing certain drugs, physician assisted suicide and labeling homosexual partnerships "marriages," the Christian battleground should shift from politically lobbying to make immorality illegal and focus on ministering to the wounded; allowing healed and recovering victims to minister to others with their testimony.
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