Choose Life

Though I have some very strong political opinions, for the most part I choose not to speak about them on this blog. There are a lot of gray areas in the political arena and I recognize that not all of the positions I take are inherently biblical.

But there is one issue that absolutely does not qualify, and that is abortion. I don't care how you market it, I don't care what kind of terms you use to soften the reality. It's wrong.

And as I sit here, my hands are shaking and my heart is beating fast because of an article I just read that absolutely sickened me.

A doctor on trial for murder after it was revealed that some late term abortion babies had been delivered alive and killed afterwards. I can't even bring myself to type out the horrific things that happened but you can read about it here.

To quote the author: "Regardless of such quibbles, about whether Gosnell was killing the infants one second after they left the womb instead of partially inside or completely inside the womb...is merely a matter of geography. That one is murder and the other is a legal procedure is morally irreconcilable."

This has always been an issue that is close to my heart, but particularly after what I have experienced the last few months. For those that are not familiar with my story, let me tell you. I have had two miscarriages in nine months. Both babies died at 9 weeks. At that stage of development nobody would have even thought twice about giving me an abortion had I asked for one.

When the baby was 6 weeks, we heard the hearbeat. When it was 8 weeks we had an ultrasound and we saw the heart beating inside of it's tiny chest.

In the very early hours yesterday morning, my body was laboring to deliver that sweet, tiny 9 weeks developed baby, this time with no heart beating inside. We held it, my husband and I. It had the tiniest legs and the tiniest arms and little eyes. As fruitless as I knew it was, my heart yearned to protect it. It was so tiny and so helpless and all I wanted to do was make it all better. There is absolutely no question in my mind that it was a human being, in its earliest stage of development.

The demarcation is absolutely undeniable. At 8 weeks, a heartbeat -- alive. At 9 weeks, no heartbeat -- dead. I don't care if the baby's heart stops beating on its own or if someone causes it to stop beating. The difference is still the same. Heartbeat - alive. No heartbeat - dead. I believe that life begins at conception because that's what the Bible teaches, but even if I didn't, the physical evidence of life in a developing baby is undeniable, at a very early stage.

A friend of mine put it better than I could when he said,

"It's funny to me that bacteria found on the planet Mars is considered evidence of life or even life itself, yet a beating heart inside of a pregnant mother doesn't count."

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Perhaps it is because the image of my baby is still fresh in my mind. Perhaps it is because I felt my mother's heart breaking at the knowledge that there was nothing I could do to make my baby whole again.

All I know is, I did not have the power to give that baby life and I should not have the power to take it. We have got to stop with this ridiculous notion of choice over what happens with our bodies when it comes at the expense of the life in someone else's. When I think of the many women who have been deceived into making such a decision, I do not condemn them -- but for the grace of God, there go I. There is redemption and forgiveness for every wrong decision any of us has ever made at the cross of Christ. And I do not believe that those who are pro-choice are evil baby haters.

But I do believe that there are a lot of good people that have believed a lie and the best way to stop a lie is with the truth.

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak.Not to act is to act.We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I cannot do anything to give life back to my unborn child, but I can fight for the lives of others.

I will not be silent.