Dear Editor,
Imagine, if you will, a young couple expecting their first child. So excited for their first ultrasound to see their growing child. An appointment that should end in happiness and excitement with the coming months. Only to be informed your baby is missing a big part of his/her skull. Ultrasound pictures make it fairly clear but you pray that it’s just an incorrect reading and all will be well. A second ultrasound confirms this devastating news. Your doctor tells you this happens frequently and the fact is, these babies rarely survive gestation. On the off chance they do, they will not survive. Are they in pain now? Will they be in pain as they grow in the womb? Are you jeopardizing your health in trying to carry this child to term? After a few days, you make the agonizing decision to end the pregnancy. Definitely not the outcome you wanted but after some time, you can try again. You’ve already grown to love that tiny human inside you but will not put it through a pregnancy, nor yourself, that is doomed.
Within 12 months, you’ve had a healthy pregnancy with a normal birth of your first child at the age of 28. Fast forward 11 months to the devastating news you have breast cancer, are positive for the BRCA2 gene and your beautiful baby isn’t yet a year old. Not much time to think or consider. If you hope to have future children of your own, the only option is fertility ahead of chemo, radiation and removal of your breasts, your ovaries and eventually, your uterus. You’re lucky, many women don’t have that option. There isn’t time. God gifts you with a decent number of embryos to freeze for future use once you’ve beat cancer (this time). Modern science allows the doctors to test the embryos for the same gene you carry. Why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to save a future child from going through this experience?
Those embryos found to have this gene are discarded and you are left with a few chances to increase your family once this journey is over and you’ve waited a few years for your body to be rid of the poison they’ll be subjecting it to.
We can all agree the topic of abortion is not a simple one. It isn’t just black or white. There are so many factors that play into the procedure. While I do not agree with abortion just to get rid of a responsibility you don’t want to deal with because you were careless, I do believe the decision should be the woman’s. No man should tell a woman what to do with her body. A male has no idea what a woman goes through in puberty, menstruation, childbirth or menopause. A woman’s life is fraught with so many changes we have no control over. I’d like to think the good lord knew who was capable of handling it better, thus the end result.
Judge ye not lest ye be judged. Isn’t that what the good book says? Why do we place more value on a life in the womb than a living, breathing human being? What about the mental and physical health of the woman? Does that mean or account for nothing. I was taught we will all answer for our sins when we die. Why are we so quick to punish women ahead of that? For the majority of women, this is a very tough and emotional decision. It isn’t made lightly and she has to live with that decision. If what we’re taught is true, she will also answer for that action some day.
I tell this story to remind everyone, the subject of abortion is a complex one. This is only one example. We have become a disrespectful society who does what they want and the rest be damned. There is no consideration for your fellowman and anything goes. It’s all or nothing. I hope our God is the forgiving God we have been taught about. If not, many of us will very likely burn in hell.
Respectfully,
Angela Oberndorfer
(Neither Republican nor Democrat….just working on being a Christian)
Altenburg, MO
