Should My Parents Have Aborted Me?
On January 22, 1973 – just more than 18 months before I entered this world – the United States Supreme Court handed down the decision in Roe v Wade. Since then over 58,000,000 babies have been aborted. Yes, I said “babies.” With all due respect, one of the most foolish arguments I’ve ever heard is that gives a woman freedom over her own body. Fine – let a woman have freedom over her own body (if a woman is in Christ, her body belongs to the Lord – 1 Cor 6:19-20 – but that’s a discussion for another day). But, are we really expected to accept the idea that a child in the womb is part of a woman’s body? The beating heart, the sucked thumb, and the kicking feet are really a part of the woman’s body? I have yet to hear a cogent argument in the affirmative.
When I first went to my neurologist, he diagnosed me, from his clinical exam and my history, as having a genetic condition. Further exams and tests have confirmed that diagnosis. He told me not all that long ago, “Look, there’s a lot of debate as to when life begins, but there’s no debate about your DNA – your DNA was set at conception.” I wish he had stopped to contemplate what he had just said – we don’t know for sure when life begins, but your DNA is set at conception. All our biological traits begin at conception but we’re not alive then? I cannot see the logical consistency in what he said.
Scripture confirms conception as the genesis of life. Gabriel says to Mary, “Your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren” (Lk 1:36). Elizabeth conceived a son, not a clump of cells – a son.
God hates “hands that shed innocent blood” (Prov 6:17). Please tell me what could possibly be more innocent that a child in the womb who has never drawn a breath? Those who make abortion easy, those who perform abortions, and those who have had abortions have blood on their hands.
My parents would never have considered aborting me in a million years, but many parents would have. I had a fair amount of health issues that required doctor’s appointments, expensive medication, and orthotics the insurance company didn’t cover. Mom and Dad never connected all the dots of my strange medical issues; our family physician tried, but he got it wrong. If Mom and Dad and Dr. McLaughlin had gotten me to a good neurologist who had diagnosed my dystonia, do you know what that neurologist could have done for me? Absolutely nothing. There are only two treatment protocols for dystonia: deep brain stimulation and Botox injections – neither of which were FDA approved for dystonia until I was married with children. So, Mom and Dad made sure my symptoms were treated and that’s all that they could ever have done.
But, what if they had known how much money I was going to cost and how much time would be spent going back and forth to doctors? What if genetic testing revealed I was “damaged goods,” and Mom and Dad decided to abort me? Many parents would have; no sense in raising a child who is going to be a “burden,” they reason
I’m outraged that any parent would ever think of any child – healthy or not – as a “burden” or “damaged goods.” One made in the likeness and image of God is never a burden. God sent His Son into the world to redeem all of mankind, not a selected few who were perfect specimens of health and vitality. Jesus loves all the little children in the world, not just the healthy ones. All lives matter – Period.
Life – no matter how scared or broken – is a gift from God. In our lives, let us seek to bring honor and glory to our Father in heaven.