Monday, February 16, 2009

With Child

The daughter of a friend is “with child” and it turns out that her prognosis is extremely poor. Her unborn infant (a girl) carries an extra “X” chromosome and the diagnosis is: life for only 2-3 days after birth, if she carries to term. There are also risks to the mother if she continues with the pregnancy. We’re all praying for what’s best, that God’s will be done and for wisdom for the parents that they make wise decisions, though I’m certainly not sure what those decisions are.

Anyway, that got me to thinking about the greater issue. In terms of “Right to Life” and “Pro-Abortion”, I tend to vacillate with definite leanings towards the sanctity of life; though on the other hand I do recognize a woman’s right to choose. I suppose I just hope and pray that it’s the right choice.

Many years back when we were having our family, the wife became pregnant and as is more common than one would imagine, miscarried, 3 different times to be exact. Twice were relatively early 1st Trimester, one was not. While I know that the difficult miscarriage lingers with her and she still mourns the loss of that son on Easter Morning so long ago, I’m pretty sure she’s not forgotten those other miscarriages either and continues to mourn the loss of those children, too.

Ultimately, where I’m headed with this is a perceived disconnect in the thought process of far too many young people; “enlightened” young women in particular. It generally appears to me that when one “terminates a pregnancy” (i.e. aborts by medical action), it is looked upon as a birth control issue and the fetus is not considered an infant; yet were that same woman to miscarry (in a contemporaneous time frame) she would have just lost a child. I am also assuming it is not uncommon for miscarriages to happen to many women who have previously had abortions. As such, I don’t see how you can have it both ways for the nature of the being in the mother’s womb remains the same, given either result.