This opinion (laced with facts) is brought to you by the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Please be warned that there will be terms here that may not sit well with some. Let’s define them first.
- Rape – unwanted and forceful sexual intercourse, sometimes violent
- Incest – unwanted sexual advances by a member of one’s family
- Baby – a human life in any stage of development
- Abortion – ending of a human life before it has been born
- Conception – when the sperm finds the egg and the cells merge and begin to form a human baby
The choice of words may vary, but the definitions are the same.
Now, whether or not you believe that abortion is wrong, we can agree on a few things. First, there is the fact that rape/incest can lead to a pregnancy and that is a very difficult pill to swallow for someone who has been traumatized by the rape or incest itself and that now there is a life growing as a result. We can agree that should the mother choose to keep the baby, they will endure the trauma of the event as well as the constant reminder that the event occurred every time she looks at her child.
I happen to know someone who not only endured rape, but because she believed that abortion was wrong she chose to keep the baby. That baby is now about 9 or 10 years old and her mother has since married and had another baby. I see her love them equally. I watched her care for her first child as any mother would, since she saw that baby as an innocent life made up of her own genes.
Second, when someone with any sense of morality takes a life, it is something that they remember for the rest of their lives. Just ask a veteran. Or someone who had an abortion.
I happen to also know a veteran and a mother who aborted her baby. No matter the circumstances, unless you’re Dahmer, taking a life leaves a scar that you feel forever. That veteran will remember the faces of those he was tasked with killing. And that mother mourns that child even now, 30 years later.
The root of the disagreement between pro life and pro choice is this: Is a baby a baby prior to birth? Here’s what I believe and most pro life advocates believe based on what we’re taught in the Bible, which is that God formed each of us in the womb. He knew us before we were created. Whatever the circumstances of our conception, He intended for each life to be. Even if you take the Bible out of it, the proof of “life begins at conception” is repeated in that someone who is guilty of killing a pregnant woman is also guilty of feticide. In fact, veterinarians won’t perform a spay procedure on an animal who is pregnant.
There’s also the popular argument that it may be medically necessary to abort a baby in the case of an ectopic pregnancy or if the pregnancy is threatening the life of the mother. And, you guessed it… I know people who fit in these categories too! The mother who had an ectopic pregnancy didn’t go to Planned Parenthood, she went to her OBGYN, who sent her to the emergency room because this was an emergency situation and had there not been medical intervention, neither life would have been saved. But, in no way was she glad to end that pregnancy. It was devastating for her as any miscarriage is for a mother. I knew a girl once who was pregnant with twins. An early ultrasound showed that one of the girls’ brain had stopped developing very early and that while she would be physically perfect, there was only enough brain function to enable the reflex to gasp for air. But, only just before suffocating. And only for a few moments after birth. It was impossible to remove the unviable fetus without also ending the twin’s life as they shared a placenta and sack. So, the mother was faced with carrying both babies to term knowing that she would lose one of her daughters very soon after birth. Another former coworker of mine was told that her body was too small to carry both twins and that she needed to choose which one to remove. She refused to choose and chose to see what God did. Sadly, but in perfect wisdom, one of her babies stopped developing and her cells were absorbed causing no harm to the other baby or the mother.
Another scenario is “my body; my choice”. Since we’ve determined that the life that’s developing is that of a whole other human, that is that whole other human’s body that’s being killed: not the mother’s. Besides, that argument didn’t work for the thousands of people who were forced to accept an experimental drug or lose their jobs. And in their case it actually WAS their body.
One concept I have a hard time touching on is the brutality of an abortion. I believe every woman contemplating an abortion should be required to watch a full, unedited video of how one is performed. Just like I watched birth videos prior to delivering my kids. If it’s too horrible for her to watch, then just think how horrible it is for the baby.
The last thing I think we can agree on is the right to choose. I will absolutely agree that it is a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have a baby. And that choice should be made before you make a baby. With so many preventative measures available to us, it’s simply irresponsible to make a baby accidentally. Even if your method fails, there are things that can be done the very next day, before any baby has had time to occur. And are people so sex-crazed that they can’t just keep it in their pants until they get ready to have a baby?
So, when I see women protesting and crying because their “right” to kill their baby has been threatened, I only see promiscuous girls that are fighting to protect their right to literally kill the consequences of their own actions. I mean… who in their right mind would mix the flour and sugar and butter and eggs and put them in the oven and then say “Gee… I hope there’s not a cake in there!”
Now, please don’t be fooled by the left into thinking that the overturn of the ruling will strip women of their “right” to an abortion. No, hun, you didn’t have that right to begin with. If you need a comprehensive list of what your rights actually are, please click here: LINK
In My Humble Opinion 