35 Years and Nine Months Ago

35 years and nine months ago I was born. I often think about what might have happened if it was a year later with a different mom and a different doctor. My mom had a serious infection while pregnant with me and then they told her I was dead. My mom remembers the nurse telling them that it was probably a good thing as I would likely be seriously damaged had I lived. Her doctor let her go home to "let Nature take it's course." You cannot imagine the joy quickly followed by anxiety when my mother later felt me moving.

At that point, what if it was a year later, when abortion was legal? What if my mother's doctor had been quick to suggest abortion when there could be a problem with the baby? What if my parents hadn't been faithful Catholics who trusted in God? The outcome of the story might be different and I might not be writing this today. As it turned out, I was born, completely normal and healthy (my husband might debate the normal part, ha!). And then, nine months later, came Roe vs. Wade.

Now, 35 years later, 50 million babies have been destroyed. The number is almost too staggering to comprehend. Abortion is the number one cause of death in the world. I sat watching the coverage of the March for Life Rally earlier today surrounded by my 4 innocent children. How on earth could our country come to the point where it is legal to destroy babies in their mother's womb when in just a few short months and years they look like this? All I have to do is look into my little 8 month old baby's face to see the horror of abortion.

As a doctor, I cannot comprehend how doctors, who take the Hippocratic Oath pledging to first do no harm, can perform abortions. I personally have been privileged to have the opportunity to counsel pregnant women at our local crisis pregnancy center and to offer them sonograms. Almost invariably, they stare transfixed at the sight of their little baby's heartbeat and movement. They know they are looking at a baby and the majority of the time, an abortion becomes unthinkable.

It is easy to get complacent about abortion when it is ever present and seemingly never-ending, and I know I am guilty of this at times. Let us support each other to continue the good fight and to above all, pray, pray, pray, and to remember to offer up our sufferings for an end of abortion. May it soon become unthinkable to this country and the world.