The Small Things in Life

I've had a few sleepless nights after Planned Parenthood petitioned outside my building. I've thought before about blogging my feelings on abortion since being faced with infertility but had decided to remain politically neutral on my blog. Then this week happened and I just can't contain myself! The guy asking for funds told me that only 3% goes toward abortions. I said, "3% goes toward killing babies?" "Yes", he replied, "We do, do that." I was dumbfounded. He was unapologetic, cold and proud. I started shaking and had to walk away. 

Appreciating and protecting the smallest, weakest, most fragile things in life is a human quality, politics and religion aside. I know of liberal feminists who are pro-life. They recognize abortion as demeaning to women and see every tiny human being as worthy of human rights, whether it be an injured animal or person, the elderly or sick, or babies born or still growing in the womb. These are the "small" things in life, yes, the dependent beings. I care about them. My heart breaks for them and I cannot sleep at night when I hear about someone's callous responses to them. When my 3 1/2 year old overhead the phrase, "killing babies," his response was, "But, Mommy, babies are FRAGILE". That's right; my CHILD understands when the adults around him seem confused.

In our family, we protect the things that are fragile because we value life itself. Ethan and I take care of a 10 year old with special needs. She cannot talk and makes lots of funny noises but Ethan loves her and plays alongside her as best he can. Last week he asked me if she was his sister. :) We don't squish bugs or frogs or anything living just for the fun of it and we would never dream of helping a mother discard the little miracle forming inside her womb.

Infertility takes away a lot of choices, so when I know a woman could choose to bring life into the world, I'm heartbroken when she ends it instead. I see every conception as miraculous because I've seen how impossible it can be. People have said to me, "Doesn't it just kill you when you hear about all these teenagers getting pregnant and you can't have the child you want in your stable marriage and family." You know what? It doesn't bother me. What bothers me are the women, teenager or adult, who get rid of their pregnancies instead of selflessly looking for the best way to nurture the life within them. This could mean transforming into a mother before they were ready or it could mean giving the greatest gift to another waiting mother.

This week on ABC I read an interview with Jaycee Dugard, the girl kidnapped, held captive and repeatedly raped by her abductor for 18 years.
"Perhaps the greatest reminders of real love and goodness was the birth of her daughters in 1994 and 1997. She writes that having her first daughter meant that 'I wasn't alone any more. [I] had somebody that was mine... And I knew I could never let anything happen to her.'"  I also read that when she first saw her baby she was enthralled by her beauty. She took the most horrific situation and still valued and protected the life that came out of that trauma.

So, am I insensitive to the situations that some women find themselves in by speaking out against abortion? No. I am moved by a deep compassion and desiring only that all human beings, great and small, value the life around and within them. And for all the infertile and fertile women facing choices they never wanted, may they find all the love and support they need to be as courageous, loving and selfless as possible.

I Would Die for That