Our Third Entry

I’ve been pondering this question myself for some time. I attend an evangelical-fundamentalist-fire-and-brimstone sort of church, and the topic always comes up when there’s an abortion protest about why I refuse to attend.

See, I’m sort of the unwilling church poster child for the Pro-Lifers. Or, rather, I’m the mother of the poster child. When I became pregnant with my son, Joey, I had a blood clot left over from my first pregnancy. My obstetrician, a devout Catholic, came to me with the dire news. The best chance she could give me was 50:50 odds that either I would survive OR that she could save the baby. OR...not both. At the time, my daughter was five months old. I had to decide if risking my life to bring my son into the world was worth the chance that my husband might have to raise her alone. Because of my faith, I did not hesitate for a moment in my decision not to terminate the pregnancy. I’ve never regretted that decision; however, I’m glad that I live in a world where I had the right to make the decision for myself. My political beliefs, which are to a degree separate from my religious beliefs, tell me that it’s none of the government’s business whether or not I carry a baby to term. That decision was between me, my husband, our doctor and God. I’d rather Jerry Falwell and George W. Bush not have a say in the matter, as it was, quite frankly, none of their concern.

I wonder why the Christian community focuses so hard on ending abortion, when, in fact, ending unwanted pregnancy would be a much more successful campaign. I believe that one of the reasons there are so many unwanted pregnancies in our modern world is because people are out there having irresponsible sex trying to fill the emptiness in their lives. Birth control is, of course, one solution. Another solution might be for the Christian community to spend less time passing judgment about people’s private lives and more time in spreading the love of Jesus Christ. I’m not saying that churches should condone immoral behavior. My point is that Christian people nowadays seem to think they have to be the morality police, and instead of reaching out to people, they’re pushing them as far as they can go in the opposite direction.

From my standpoint as a parent, I intend to teach my kids about birth control. Teenagers have been having sex probably since about thirteen years after God created the Earth. Telling them how to prevent getting pregnant is not going to give them any new ideas. I also intend to teach them that sex, used irresponsibly, is a weapon that can ruin a life. If you’re not old enough to face the consequences of sex, you’re not old enough to have sex. Furthermore, I hope to teach them to respect their own bodies in a way that they will decide to save sex for that really special someone.

Mary Nichols