A Vignette

The following is true.

When Julie was 6 months old, I had my gallbladder removed. In the hospital, I was lying there waiting to be taken in to surgery. Mark was off in the waiting room. There were about 5 curtained off areas for people waiting to go for some kind of abdominal surgery. There was a bit of commotion as someone from the ER was brought in. The curtains give some privacy, but they are not sound proof. From what I could hear, there was a crying young woman and her mother. She had gone to the ER with abdominal pain. She was pregnant with her first child. She was diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy.

For those that do not know what that means, an ectopic pregnancy is an abnormal pregnancy that occurs outside the womb (uterus), usually (not always) in the fallopian tubes. The baby (fetus) cannot survive.

She wanted to wait until her husband got there before going into surgery. She wanted this baby. She was crying and started speaking loudly about them killing her baby. Her mother tried to calm her down. She started shouting that she didn’t want to kill her baby. Her mother pleaded with her, saying that she needed to live. And then I was wheeled away. Left with the hysterical voice of one and the pleading voice of another.

At the time, I was a new mother. I empathized with this young woman I could not see. My heart broke for her and her pain. I couldn’t imagine how I would have dealt with the same situation. 8 years later and I empathize with the mother. Her pleas for her daughter’s life ring in my ears. I would rather have my daughter alive than have her risk her life to see a baby to term.

I know of no doctor that would put an ectopic pregnancy in the same category as a chosen abortion.

There are pro-lifers that do. A terminated pregnancy is an unforgivable sin, even if it must be done to save the life of the mother. And that puts the life of the baby ahead of the life of the mother. And that puts the mother into the category of an incubator. Not worthy of life, just worthy to carry life.

All women are worthy of life, whether or not they are mothers. All women are valuable.

We’ve had a rash of laws around the country trying to speak to the intensely personal issue of abortion. All of them end up criminalizing women or doctors.

What laws am I talking about? Georgia State Representative Bobby Franklin has introduced a bill that would make abortion illegal in Georgia and would criminalize miscarriages.

South Dakota State Rep. Phil Jensen had to shelve his bill that would expand the definition of 'justifiable homicide' to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus. In other words, it is OK to kill someone trying forcibly to make you abort. Which the current self-defense laws already covers. The way it was worded made everyone think it was OK to kill abortion providers.

In Oklahoma, House Bill 1571 defines a person as a human being at all stages of human development, including the state of fertilization or conception.

Ohio State Rep. Lynn Wachtmann introduced a piece of legislation that would forbid abortions in any case in which the fetus had a detectable heartbeat, a development that can come as early as 18 days into a pregnancy.

I am not an incubator. I am a person, worthy of life. The choices I make are mine to make.

When does life begin? I cannot say. I know my daughter was alive when I held her in my arms. And I will protect her right to be allowed to make hard decisions should she ever need to. I will plead with her to think about how valuable her life is. And I will pray she is never in such a hard place, faced with losing a baby she wants.