40 Years Ago Today

Forty years ago today, in January 1973, the Rowe v Wade Supreme Court decision made abortions legal in the United States.  Unfortunately, this was not the beginning of widespread abortions being performed - they had been done for years, not only in backstreet alleys, but also in respected hospitals by respected doctors.  While the lawyers for Rowe and Wade were debating and preparing their court cases, another young girl was struggling with this decision, probably unaware of the battle raging over the subject.  In September 1972, in a small town in Iowa, this young girl found out that she was six months pregnant.  She was seventeen.  She was a good girl in a good family in a good town - the kind of girl that these things don’t happen to.  It would be very easy to make this problem go away.  No one would know.

She did not want to have an abortion.  Her doctor was pressuring her to have this simple medical procedure done, even though she was in her third trimester.  Her parents stood by, not really offering much support, thinking how nice it would be not to have to deal with this problem.  In spite of the "pro-choice" lingo now used by activists, she did not feel that she had a choice.  Then, a caring couple made a difference.  Her minister and his wife visited the home for pregnant girls where she had been sent, gave her money, and did everything they could to talk her out of aborting her baby.  They even found a Christian couple who would adopt the baby and give the baby a good home.  They persuaded her.  While justices debated in Washington, a baby girl was born in Iowa, two weeks before the Supreme Court reached its decision.

You hear often about the mothers who are considering abortion.  Whether they decide to have the baby or to abort it, to keep it or to give it up for adoption, their lives are changed from that point on, and they must suffer the consequences of decisions they have made.  The voices you do not often hear are those of the children.  

Another writer tonight pointed out:

Here’s the thing. We talk about children all the time in this country. Politicians use children as props to promote their causes (gun control, education, national debt). But you’ll notice that when a politician wants to discuss abortion, he puts a woman on stage and not a child.
You’ll never find children on the stage of a pro-abortion discussion. It’s a whole lot harder to talk about abortion when you’re looking at children instead of statistics. (http://www.purposefulhomemaking.com/2013/01/i-should-have-been-aborted-personal.html) 

The children who are aborted are never given a voice.  But the baby in this story?

I just turned 40.

Save the Child (by Jay Banks)

A tiny form

A child at conception

A new beginning starts

A tiny beating heart

The love and hope of two now blossoms into one.

Tiny hands

Forming to perfection

Such a grand display

Stronger every day

The breath of life that all men cherish Has now begun.

But there’s a tear in this little one’s eye

For very soon this little one will die.

Save the child.  Save the child.

If you really care you’ll do what you can do.

Save the child.  Please, save the child.

Would it make a difference if that child were you?

Save the child.

Inside the womb

A wonder of creation

No human hands can form

This human being born

A pure reflection of God’s image and His love.

The child moves

A mother’s sweet sensation

And nothing can describe

The joy that lives inside

This precious life sustained and given from God above.

But before this child draws his first breath

He is tried and sentenced to death.

Save the child.  Save the child.

If you really care you’ll do what you can do.

Save the child.  Please, save the child.

Would it make a difference if that child were you?

Save the child.