Most people by now know my story. I grew up in small town Wyoming, attended a local church, was very active in my youth group and graduated as the valedictorian of my HS class. I then left home for the a Christian university in a big city. There, I was raped and brutalized by 2 men, somehow got pregnant (in many cases rape is too violent for the little swimmers to survive, but pregnancies can happen), when I was about 9 weeks along I miscarried. I then tried to kill myself, but God had other plans. My time here was far from over. That was the beginning of a VERY long journey to joy. My journey was not easy, there were a lot of tours through some dark valleys but I can now say that I have found an abiding joy. It is a joy that gets me through what life throws my way.
All that to say that I feel like I have a leg to stand on when I talk about being pro-life. A lot of pro-choicers will say, "Generally I am pro-life, but what about the woman that is raped and gets pregnant? She shouldn't have to go through all that and then have to live with a constant reminder of the rape." I WAS that woman and regardless of who the daddy was, or the circumstances of conception, that thing in my uterus, that little bundle that died one morning, that was a BABY, it was a living, heart beating little life. It is NOT a fetus but a baby, and that baby deserved to be just as protected as any other baby--planned for or not. Circumstances of conception do not change the fact that life begins at conception.
There has been a law enacted that forces abortion clinics to preform sonograms, and the mothers have to listen to the heart beating and the clinics have to explain what they are hearing. Some clinics are getting around that law by provided iPods to mothers, so that during the required sonogram the mother doesn't have to listen. Why are clinics do this, because no matter how they cushion it, no matter what terms they give it, that is a baby's heart beating and the clinics deep down recognized that and don't want to traumatize potential clients by making them hear the heart beat of the little life they want to kill.
Yes, finding out that you are pregnant due to a rape is hard to handle. Yes, it means life long consequences, but being raped brings life long consequences. But, you still have choices. You can be pro-life and pro-choice. You can choose to raise your baby or you can choose to let a loving family raise the baby. Adoption is a loving and sacrificial choice. Adoption says, "I love you enough to realize that this family is in a better position to give you all that you deserve."
My heart hurts for our world. We live in a world where fish have more rights than humans. We live in a world that doesn't know what it believes. When a pregnant woman is killed it is double murder (mother and child) but when it isn't convenient a woman can go in and kill the baby. It is murder when someone else does it, it is problem solving when the mom does the killing. How can we accept this? How can we stand idly by while millions of people are being killed every day???
My little Punky jr. is the world to me, and I can't imagine having ended her life just because she arrived earlier than her dad and I had planned. Every baby deserves a chance at life, and every baby's life begins at conception. If you are not ready to be a parent, don't have sex, but if you do get pregnant make the mature, the loving, the ONLY real choice and choose not to be a murderer, choose to give the gift of a child to a loving family.
-JLP-
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