My Political Issue

For anyone who has been living under a big rock, I have an announcement: we are in the midst of a political campaign! I have, for the most part, been ignoring it. When I analyzed this fact, I came away with one reason for the ignoring: I don't want to alienate any of my readers who I consider dear friends. From reading other blogs, I am fairly certain that my political views are very different from some of my favorite people, so I just want to 'play nice.' And, for the most part, this is what I will do. However, there is one political issue that I am extremely passionate about, so I will do my every-four-year post stating my position. I trust that those readers of mine who feel differently will just agree to disagree.

I am 100% against abortion. There, I said it. I could call myself pro-life, but that doesn't really do me justice. I feel there are two kinds of people, those who are against abortion and those who are for it--I don't care for the terms 'pro-life' and 'pro-choice.' Really now, how many people are there exactly who are against life? Ridiculous. And I am 'pro-choice'--I believe when a woman finds out she is pregnant, she already made her choice: whether or not to keep her legs together. (DON'T hit me up on the rape and incest issue. Every place I looked for statistics on how many abortions are performed as a result of rape, incest, or the mother's health say that less than 1% of all abortions are for these reasons--COMBINED.)

Okay, give me a chance here. I could give you the Biblical reasons for my feeling as I do--Psalm 139:13 states "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." for example--but I won't. Anyone who has debated abortion has either used the Bible as a reason why abortions are wrong, or has heard the arguments. I, however, will give you my personal reasons--without 'facts' from any source other than my own heart.

While I have always been anti-abortion, it never was really personal for me. And I am deeply grateful. My heart aches for any woman who has gone through an abortion--I can't imagine. However, 12 years ago I had a very personal experience that brought my beliefs home for me.

I received a phone call in the afternoon of 5 July 1996, telling me that my oldest daughter had gone into premature labor and that despite everything the doctors did, she gave birth. The baby was 11 weeks early. She was being rushed 100 miles to the nearest NICU--which happened to be in the town where I live. I was going to be at the hospital to meet the ambulance and see my first grandchild for the first time.

NOTHING prepared me for seeing my granddaughter. She was only 2lb 7oz. To put this into perspective, go to your pantry/cupboard and find a bag of brown sugar. Now, imagine it weighing seven ounces more--that is what my granddaughter weighed. She not only was smaller in size than a Cabbage Patch doll, she weighed less, too. Her arms were so thin that an adult's wedding band slipped onto her arm easily. If you have never seen, in person, a baby this small, you cannot imagine the horror. The worst part, though, was watching her breathe. As she sucked in breath, her chest would collapse so that it touched her spine--and this happened each time she breathed. I have never been so upset, so horrified, and so saddened in my entire life. My first thought was, "This baby will die before morning." I couldn't imagine how I was to talk to my daughter when I got home--how do you tell a mother that her newborn was about to die? I didn't have one iota of optimism over the fate of this precious baby.

As I stood watching over the baby, my mind began to wander. At one point it occurred to me that, had it been my daughter's wish, eight hours earlier this baby could have been aborted. This living, breathing child could have been killed just because someone didn't want her. The thought was even more horrifying to me because I watched her struggle and fight for her life. It was very hard, but this little being kept breathing, kept wanting to live. She was still alive in the morning. We, as human beings, have a will to live--and she proved how strong that will is. Today, she is a delightful, beautiful, smart, athletic, joy to be around. And she could have been dumped in some garbage heap if my daughter wanted. My daughter was a senior in high school, basically homeless, wandering from place to place with her boyfriend, when she found out she was pregnant. It never crossed her mind to get rid of the 'fetus.' She also never thought about abortion any of the other six times she has been pregnant--even though she has problem pregnancies and has given birth to one stillborn and two more preemies.

Now, onto my other daughter. She cannot get pregnant. She has done the fertility clinic bit and it hasn't worked. They can't afford to try in vitro--it just costs too much. She wants a baby so badly that I swear she would slap anyone she found out had an abortion. Not only would it hurt her to see someone get rid of something she wants so badly for herself, but abortions hurt her on another front: adopting. Right now, it is hard to adopt a baby--there just aren't enough to go around. And if they could find one, the cost of adopting is prohibitive for them--it costs about as much to adopt a newborn as it does to go through in vitro. So, if they can't afford in vitro, they can't afford to adopt. Partly due to abortions being so readily available, there are not as many babies put up for adoption as there used to be. And people such as my daughter and her husband are hurt by this.

Although the majority of abortions are for birth control--I DON'T have statistics, but it seems as if this is the case--a large amount of abortions are done because the 'fetus' might not be 'perfect.' Before anyone has a stroke over that last statement, I would suggest watching an Oprah-type show, reading a celebrity gossip column, or surfing a message board. After doing those three things, you will know that I am right. There are A LOT of people who want everything in their lives to be perfect--and will tolerate nothing BUT perfection. Should one of these women have genetic testing while pregnant, I don't believe she would hesitate aborting. THIS frightens me. While none of us would want to see a child of ours suffer through a terrible illness, genetic testing really can't tell whether a child WILL have a particular problem or not--nor can it tell how severe the problem might be. There may be no indication whatsoever that the child has a problem--it just might be a genetic indication.

I am overweight and have psoriasis--and both of these conditions seem to be genetically caused. (The jury is still out, but every indication is that genes play a major role in both.) So, if someone who wants perfection had a 'fetus' that tested positive for either condition, is that a reason to abort? I might not be great to look at, but as far as having something to contribute, I think I have a right to life. I also have high blood pressure and the beginning of 'sludge' in my carotid artery--both indications of possible heart disease. And it wouldn't be a wonder if I should develop heart disease cause it runs in the family--and can be detected genetically. Does this mean I should have been aborted? I don't have heart disease, but I MIGHT develop it--but I might NOT. But genetically I am predisposed to heart disease. A dilemma.

I don't believe I could ever change someone's mind about abortion, just as my mind couldn't be changed. All I intended to do with this post is to explain my position. This is my passionate political issue, plain and simple. I hope I don't lose any readers because of it.