Now, I have seen all the pictures on pregnancy websites and books of what babies look like in utero. They are cool, but have you ever noticed how those pictures look almost unreal? They have a fictional, puppet-like quality to them. My son was real. He was miniature perfection. He didn't look like he wasn't alive. He was all there. He was beautiful. He took our breath away with his created brilliance. We loved him with every ounce of our beings.
He was actually our 5th child. Our third child's heartbeat stopped at 12 weeks in utero. Our 4th child was delivered at 40 weeks, on June 4th 1992, a perfect little girl who had a head full of dark hair, lovely features, all fingers and toes, fat cheeks, sweet little rose bud lips that we were never allowed to see curl into a smile. She didn't draw a breath on earth. Her full nine-months were lived in my womb until a day before her delivery. Her name is Mary Elizabeth, our Marybeth. We can't wait to see her smile someday. I know that she is perfect and I know that she was created for a purpose.
Our 6th, 7th, and 9th children given to us were all lost in miscarriages with heartbeats ended, as did our 3rd child's, in their 12th weeks. The vast emptiness of our arms almost defeated me. But God *did* intend that we would enjoy the privilege of raising our 1st, 2nd, 8th, and 10th children here on earth and, oh, what joys! Each child born to us has changed our lives in different ways, but Mikey Jr's birth forever changed our thoughts on abortion.
You see, here in NC it is legal to abort a child all the way up to the mid-point (20th week) of pregnancy without any medical reason other than a mother's conception of inconvenience - a sickeningly heinous method of birth control. As Mike and I both looked at each other, when we could see through our tears and and find voices to speak after the death of our son, who looked for all the world as if he had just drifted off to sleep, we could not believe that a mother had the "right" to choose death for her unborn child. At that moment, I would have fought the whole world, and every demon in hell, to the death for the "right" to have my son alive.
I understand that all of the medical drawings of babies in utero look rather clinical and unreal, but I am telling you, babies don't look like that. They are tiny, most often perfect, little individuals with lives ahead of them. 55.5 million little lives, such as our Mikey, have been stripped in death from their mother's wombs mercilessly since the Roe v. Wade decision 40 years ago today. It is a horrific tragedy. I am not condemning one woman who made the gruesome and sad decision to end her baby's life, for I know through research, that those mothers suffer horrendous consequences, as it is. I just long to save one woman from making this sad decision. I want to fight to see that the medical community and scientific community will admit to mothers that their children are alive and well within them, that choosing abortion is choosing murder, and that there are beautiful alternatives to murder, such as adoption by those parents who are longing for a child to love and shelter.
I have a friend who has suffered 20 miscarriages and she made the most astounding point. So many people upon learning of her experiences with her children, will offer their condolences, but many of those people are the same ones who believe in the right of a woman to choose to murder her unborn child for convenience sake. How very hypocritical to offer sympathy to one woman at the loss of a child that they refuse to admit is a person with God-given rights to life. Or offer sympathy for the loss of a 12-20 week old life while supporting the murderous death of other 12-20 week old lives? Who is mourning for them?
Where is your defining line? It's ok for a woman to choose to murder? No. It's not. Murder is murder. You may label it abortion if you wish to prevent such offensive language as murder, but the definition of abort is to stop. The definition of an abortion according to Mirriam-Webster is the termination of a pregnancy followed by the death of an embryo or fetus. You may feel more comfortable calling a child an embryo (as if it was a chicken yolk or something) or fetus (not really a life?) if you like, but it is a baby-a miniature individual person.
Our Mikey was beautiful, he was created gloriously magnificent, and Mike and I knew after we saw him that we would never think of a baby within a womb as an embryo or fetus again. We held our baby and he was amazing.
Dear Father, thank you for the experience of having everyone of our children, no matter how brief the moment may have seemed. We understand that that was just a heartbeat of time in a lifetime of eternity. We know that there was a purpose in each life given and each life taken. We accept your Sovereignty. We ask that you would help us, and everyone of our friends who have passion to fight the enemy of the tolerance of murder and make a change in America for the better, and for the hope of life for those yet born. Help us fight the good fight Father and forgive us as a nation for allowing such heinous crimes. Please give us the ability to stop the worst violation of human rights ever known in our nation and the world. Please help us protect and be a voice for the unborn. In Jesus' powerful name, Amen.
Let's work together to stop this tragedy; let's say "NO" to the redefined values of human life. God will not allow this injustice to continue. Let's be the voice together for the unborn.
