Abortion. It Ain’t An Easy Question.

One of the questions I get a lot is what is my stand on abortion. To be flippant, I don’t stand on abortion, that is a heavy enough load for me to need to sit down and catch my breath.

I believe that, outside certain specific circumstances, abortion is wrong. I believe it is right for pregnancies which imperil the mother. Triage is an old part of medicine, and you save the one that is most likely to be salvagable. Usually, that is the mother. Rarely, it is the child, yet it happens.

I believe it is right for pregnancies resulting from rape or from incest. If there is a textbook definition of an unwanted child, it is the child of rape or incest, and I don’t want to go there. No decent man does. No woman should be expected to love and care for a child concieved in violence. The ladies - and that is the correct word - who carry to term and put the baby up for adoption or raise it get all my respect. But I would not force them to do so.

The rest - I dislike and disapprove of it. And it means absolutely Jack Shit. I am male. I will never be pregnant. I will never, unless I specifically wish it and go to court to fight for it, be left “holding the baby.” The option is there, but men should butt out of the discussion. We don’t have the skin in the game that women do.

Women have the right to decide their own fate. Their own path. One of the things I got from reading the bible and the Christian fathers is yeah, you can tell most of those guys were not married. They had far too high opinion of the “head of the household” influence.

The newer aspect, that the pill is actually an abortition tool because it prevents implantation of a fertilized zygote, I withhold judgement on. The pill hurts women. I don’t like it at all. It is a wee bit better now, but even 20 years ago it was a thing which caused cancers. A fertilized egg may not implant in the uterine lining, even in the best of circumstances.

Like many who believe in both life and rights, I find this issue a hard one to deal with.

“There are so many places we can work in the pro-life field”

Presently, my husband and I volunteer at a “crisis pregnancy center”. It can be very difficult but it’s very rewarding, especially after you get to hold a baby that would not have been there had the woman not been told of the risks and of her options to abortion.

EnglishCon, I am so glad you are on Freep. You have found a good group of people here to provide some answers and guidance.

One brochure we carry at our cpc is called “Conceived in Rape” by Rebecca Kiessling. Her website is http://www.rebeccakiessling.com/index.html
Not only will you find her personal testimony of being a person conceived in rape, she also has a whole page of other testimonies of people who either were conceived in rape or maybe were raped and chose life for their babies. I was very inspired to read or hear of people thinking so selflessly through the hardest of circumstances.

Another woman who matches a similar situation is Juda Myers. Her website is http://www.choices4life.org/
Juda’s own mother was attacked by 8 men when she was walking home from a movie. She not only chose to have Juda but she also forgave the 8 men who raped her.

The gospel singer Ethel Waters was also born of rape. Her mother was around either 12 or 13 at the time of the rape. It has been shared by Kelly Wright (a correspondant on Fox News) that his mother had been raped also. I only mention these because we think about people we have either seen or know and we should wonder ....who else may have had that same beginning but would never say so publicly out of shame? Rebecca’s story is called “From Worthless to Priceless”.

Incidentally, I have a friend who once shared of her situation and while I was already staunchly pro-life by that time, it was she who really put the first “face” to that on a personal level. All of a sudden I realized that her husband would have been without her and that her children and grandchildren would not have existed at all. It was the first time I realized (what others say about people conceived in rape) that we could never go to her and say “you don’t deserve to be here because of how you came into the world”. It just really hit home hard and I was already a believer in no exceptions.

Not meaning to harp here...just wanted to add some helpful resources to consider. Forgive me if some of the links I have provided may have been contributed already by others, EC.

http://www.benotafraid.net/
http://www.lifeissues.org/

God Bless you all! :)

EnglishCon, I was once in your shoes a long time ago as far as asking questions about abortion and pro-life issues. I’ll be praying for you!

Thank You, FRiend. Your encouragement helps, your prayers moreso!

Most of my volunteer work is with a couple of shelters - one Catholic and one secular. We get badly abused women and girls, rape survivors and girls running away from intolerable home life (usually of the sort that Daddy loves his daughter too much, if you don’t mind the euphemism) mainly. Counsel women, and teach self defense classes mainly.

Pregnancy is usually a side issue, not the main one (Thank God!) as we try to put these people back together.

The rape and incest cases are the worst to deal with, from a personal perspective. I come out of those sessions wanting to kill someone.
Frequently bruised too, as sometimes the women just flat out attack me, not as me, but as a man available - and I let them. Encourage it, sometimes as a healthy way of dealing with the ultimate betrayal.

One thing that makes me proud - I’m godfather to 47 children. Children who would not have been without counselling. The mothers deserve all the credit, but I will take a little comfort in that.

More comfort in knowing I have a place to talk now. A place where people understand and can explain.

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