Why I am Pro-Life

Why am I personally pro-life? There are several reasons in several areas. I will freely admit most of them are firmly set in my faith. With the Bible as my guide I see staunchly defending life at all stages is the only way to go. I know there are those who would disagree with me while believing in their position just as much. The debate rages in some ways more at a fever pitch than before with the battles over Health Care Reform. The debate has descended into yelling matches at some meetings.
The first and foremost reason is my own situation. I was born with a form of dwarfism, Turners Syndrome. There are other effects outside of short stature. I won’t go into them, but suffice it to say they have made life challenging. With all the technologies available today many people are making the decision to terminate their pregnancies rather than have a “disabled” child. Yes, there are difficulties and patience is required. There is no doubt on that fact. Not to mention the possible costs of treatment. Very good insurance is essential in these cases. I will always be thankful my parents didn’t take this route which admittedly wasn’t as readily taken back when I came into this world fifty-five years ago. Being small made for some interesting times while growing up for sure. Trying to convince people I was older than I looked was one of them. This lead to many adventures. Believe it or not, I can still get some of the same reaction today even though I am middle aged.
Another reason I am pro-life is the make up of my family. It is interesting to see some of the looks when we go places. Our son is adopted, see my earlier blog of July ninth about his coming into our lives. As adoption is a BIG part of my family is it easy to see why I am pro-life. I have wondered at times what my life would be, or if I would even be in this world, if my grandparents had not brought my father into their lives. There are many couples ready and willing to take these children into their lives. They are willing to start the long, complicated process of adoption to love the children. There are even people adopting children at the very earliest stages of life…as embryos and bringing them into this world. I met one of these “snowflake” children at a Right to Life conference several years ago. I considered it a privilege to meet this precious little boy and his parents.
Let me now go to the other end of the spectrum, the end of life. My views on life were set while I was in high school and college, but thoroughly cemented when my beloved mother-in-law and my mother passed away within a period of about twenty months. My husband’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and left us about four months later. The lessons she taught during that short time period will never leave me. She taught us about leaving a legacy of love and focusing on others even though she knew she was dying. I will always seek to emulate her the rest of my life. There are those who would have advocated her leaving as soon as possible for various reasons but I would argue we would have lost those invaluable lessons taught. Shortly thereafter, the effects of a brain wasting condition caught up with my mother and she collapsed while out with my father to take care of some business. She was finally diagnosed with Older Age Hydrocephalus which had the same effects as Alzheimers disease. The next year and a half she was in and out of responsiveness. She was non-responsive for nine months giving only one or two word answers to questions or shaking or nodding her head. My father was going to leave on a well deserved vacation to see my brother and his family who lived in California at the time. He reminded my mom he was leaving and suddenly she “woke up” wanting to know when he was going to pick her up to go to the airport. This was the beginning of a God given time of reconciling between the two of us. She was so completely changed when she woke up we were able to make up , as much as possible with her brain injury, for a lot of things which had happened in the past. Then finally, we had one last time of singing duets together at a family gathering. My brother’s family had just moved here from California and it was birthday time for a couple of us. After dinner I sat down and started playing the piano. Mom came up and wanted to sing. We did for about half and hour to forty-five minutes until she tired. It was very shortly after this Mom went into her final coma leaving us about a month later. Once again some would have had my mother leave us sooner but the precious time of reconciliation and the last time of making music would have been lost.
I could go on about my reasons for being so thoroughly pro-life, but my biggest thought is only God has the right to determine when we will go home to meet Him. With abortion I think of how many doctors, musicians, or whatever profession have we lost when that tiny life was ended? Have we lost the person who could have found the cure for any one of the horrible diseases in the world? Have we lost the next Yo-Yo Ma to the music world? This is why I am pro-life!!!