As the battle over abortion heats up in states across our nation, pro-abortion activists are stepping up their campaigns to sell late-term abortion as a good for women, men, and their babies.
Vice produced a video for airing on HBO criticizing Georgia’s Heartbeat bill that prohibits abortion once the baby’s heart is detectible by a medical professional.
It featured women and men who chose late-term abortions in the wake of diagnoses that their babies had serious health issues.
Their onscreen grief seems to belie the message that they have no regrets for using abortion to end a difficult medical crisis.
Our heart goes out to any parent facing a pregnancy with serious or severe physical anomalies. Sadly, anecdotal evidence shows nearly all are presented with the choice of abortion.
Some medical professionals cross the line by repeatedly advising or even aggressively intimidating women into aborting their babies.
Other parents are blessed to have a pro-life doctor who assists them in making a life-affirming decision, while connecting the parents to resources and individuals who will walk with them through the pregnancy.
Research shows that a pro-life approach does more to reduce the incidence of post-traumatic distress order, grief and regret than those who opt for an abortion.
A study of women and men who lost a baby to anencephaly shows that women who chose abortion suffered “significantly more despair and depression.” It also found that church attendance and religious activity reduced the grief in both women who aborted and those who chose birth. Researchers concluded there was “a psychological benefit to women to continue the pregnancy.”
Research published in The Journal of Clinical Ethics found over 97% of the women who chose to give birth had no regrets. They “valued the baby as part of their family” and cherished the “opportunities to love, hold, and meet their child.”
In another study researchers were moved and surprised by parents who chose to continue the pregnancy. They looked upon themselves as parents and viewed their babies as “precious.” The mothers wanted to keep their babies in the womb as long as possible to give them the best chance at surviving after birth. It was noted that none of the mothers said they wanted their pregnancy to end, even with the discomforts common to late pregnancy. Each day was treasured, and parents “chose to focus their love and attention on…the present moment.”
One of the most poignant moments in the video unfolded when a sobbing woman said her arms literally ached to hold a baby. Those who choose to give birth are afforded those precious moments, and gifted with positive, loving memories that will last a lifetime.
Regardless of how softly and carefully the abortion process is framed, no matter how gently the medical staff and parents initiate the early demise of their baby, in their heart of heart every parent knows the difference, and their memories return regularly to haunt.
In the video, a woman seated with her husband says, “We still grieve every day. I don’t think it will every go away.”
During that traumatic conversation with the doctor, an emotional hurricane swirls around the parents and makes thinking difficult at best. But it is at this precise time that they must understand the term “incompatible with life” is a judgment, not a medical diagnosis. Quite literally hundreds of accounts have crossed my desk where the doctors were proven wrong when the parents rejected abortion as the solution to their medical crisis.
A 2011 study revealed that one of the most devastating realities the parents had to deal with was the “often insensitive treatment by health care providers.”
As incredibly difficult as it is for parents to endure a pregnancy when their baby is not expected to live, giving them time with a newborn, for however long, softens the emotional blow of not being able to take this baby home.
Intentionally taking the life of a person under the cloak of “mercy” is wrong whether it’s done at the beginning of life or through euthanasia after many years on this earth.
Protecting innocent human life,
Leave a Reply