Thursday, October 22, 2009

She’s been there

Tucked inside the story of her saddness and regrets over her own abortion in 1986 at Ambivablog, was this interesting aside:
    "I once had a flabbergasting conversation with the mother of the family I told you about that lost a daughter to cancer. She’s a close friend of mine, a vivacious, youthful 80 now, and I love her very much, but I think of her as what I call an “NPR listener” -- someone who holds all liberal principles as unquestionable and superior. We were talking after one daughter’s abortion, but before the other’s illness became known. She was telling me about a conversation she’d had with a priest or minister who was pro-choice, and she said with vehemence, “He's not stupid. He knows that’s – “ with a wave of her hand – “nothing.” I was open-mouthed. This is a woman who will carry a spider carefully outdoors and release it! And I thought, “That ‘nothing’ was your grandchild.” How can someone have such reverence for the tiny miracle of a spider (which I share, by the way), yet believe that a human embryo, burrowed into the wall of a womb and growing and unfolding its design with a dizzying impulsion, is “nothing”?

    I know exactly how, because I’ve been there.
The story of her abortion

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The spider is already alive; conscious, sentient, a separate entity from any other creature.

I doubt that woman meant that a human embryo is literally 'nothing' - of course it is something; it is a human organism in development. I think what she meant is that an abortion of a small cluster of cells is not a sin, and it is not wrong, and she is correct.

It is not a miracle to get pregnant - millions of women do it every year, and billions have done it in the past. Billions will continue to do so in the future. If a woman does not want to carry the pregnancy and give birth, she has every right to terminate it. Her uterus is under her control, and if she doesnt want to give birth, she does not have to. It is her body.

A born child is a miracle to its parents, and should be protected as a human being. But every child should be wanted, and to force a woman to give birth to a baby they don't want is cruel to both parties, and to society.

Instead of focusing on embryo rights, why not use your energy to better the lives of children who are already here, who are conscious, suffering, and needing your help?

I applaud your compassion, but it is misplaced. A clump of cells in someone's belly does not deserve your love; a child that is suffering in a Columbus foster home or abusive situation DOES.

Norma said...

Even you, a former clump of cells in your mother's womb, totally dependent on her for your future, has a right to believe an unborn child, even one 7 or 8 months old, is deserving of killing for doing nothing. That's what we've come to in modern society.

Anonymous said...

The child in the foster home who deserves compassion doesn't deserve to be killed before birth just because of a rough patch in life.