Monday, January 23, 2012

A Special Anniversary


I have started and deleted this post several times over the last five years and decided that although it's technically it's April now, it high time I published it.

Today is January 23rd. Not much of a day to most people, but for me, it's always a little rough. Working in a newsroom with a diverse group of people has its advantages and disadvantages. I like getting a better understanding of the liberal perspective. On the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, however, things can get a little tense.

39 years ago, Texas went to the Supreme Court to challenge a ruling . They emerged with a new understanding of "personhood", and America was given the right to murder children.

The Court determined that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but stipulated that that right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests of protecting prenatal life and protecting a woman's health. The argument was that because these state interests become stronger over the course of a pregnancy, the Court resolved to tie state regulation of abortion to the woman's current trimester of pregnancy.

When it comes to abortion, I will say this. Most mothers who get abortions do not understand what they are doing. Many are honestly ignorant of how this will change them and what their lives will be like afterwards.

Often, I am afraid to write this type of column because of the reactions I might receive. I am afraid that coworkers and friends will be offended. That said, this is one topic I feel I can speak to with honesty and experience. 

My mom was never supposed to have any children: she had six. 

I was never supposed to live through my first year: I am now 25 years old.

My mom has a kidney disease that denies her body most of the usual functions that allow women to deliver healthy babies. She spends alot of time in the hospital and often can't get through the day without being sick.

When she was 18, Tammy married my dad and three years later, a very very small little girl made her way into the world. I weighed less than two pounds, had small lungs, and survived a major brain bleed before going home five months later.

Since then, my mom has given birth to five more children despite two kidney transplants and a very serious disease that affects her daily life. I understand that this way of living is not for everyone. The decision to have a large family may not be the right choice for many people.

That doesn't make it right to cut short a life that could have been.
The picture to the left tells the story of a little boy who nearly died when his mother was 21 weeks pregnant, but due to the courage of some very skilled surgeons, is now 13 years old. During this dangerous surgery, the doctor watched as the unborn child wrapped his tiny finger around the surgeon's, an undeniable sign of life.