Today I was working out in the fitness center of yet another hotel in my University of Pennsylvania Penn for Life t-shirt. It made me think about the last couple of generations of college students. Roe v. Wade passed in 1973. The students in college now have never lived in a time without legal, government sanctioned infanticide, in the name of freedom, in the name of fulfillment, in the name of women's rights?
These students are a generation whose parents have not been shy or reserved about mentioning the children that they choose not to have for whatever reason. Because my generation and their parent's generations have been so open, these children have survivors' guilt. They wake each day with a thought deeply buried in their consciousness, wondering why they were the siblings that their parents chose to let live. They wonder what was wrong with the missing siblings, or what was right about them.
Since this is also a generation that was raised in a time where we are not to speak of Judeo-Christian values in school or society, they are left to attribute there survival to chance or happenstance.
So is it any mystery that this is the generation that operates 714 college chapters of Students for Life? Consider having a pro-life organization on a college campus in the 1970s or 1980s? Not really. That this is the generation that has, in its search for meaning, rediscovered the phrase "there, but for the grace of God go I." That this is the generation that is investigating organizations that prosper from procedures such as abortion, and asking moral questions, not cultural questions.
Their survivors' guilt may just be the attitude that will generate the actions that save their children from feeling the same shame and uncertainty. I am grateful for their action and voice.
Showing posts with label Abortion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abortion. Show all posts
Monday, November 2, 2015
Monday, May 23, 2011
Doing the Right Thing!
On Thursday, May 19th, I had the privilege of watching the life story of a dear friend. Melissa Ohden is not your average woman. Melissa is the unintended consequence of a late term salient abortion. That's right, for those who don't speak lawyer, she lived.
Her story, "A Voice for Life" (www.avoiceforlife.com), is so honest and unvarnished that if you make it through without a tear you are a stone. This film is compassionately made by Gunther Meisse II and written by Melissa Ohden and Steve Feazel. We watched it with Melissa, her husband and her beautiful daughter (a second generation miracle).
When I tell people about Melissa, my pro-abortion friends are usually politely awed. My pro-life friends are moved to goose bumps and tears. The reaction that affected me the most was when a retired physician friend asked, "They let her live?"
I had to hear it twice to understand the question. That question proves that Melissa is doubly a miracle, and that Kermit Gosnell (Philadelphia abortion "doctor", indicted for killing children who survived the abortion process and other gruesome acts) is just the worse example of what has been accepted in our society--the death, by neglect, of the accidentally born. Something once advocated by our President on the floor of the Illinois legislature.
Last week we had the opportunity to review our lives. Some seriously considered that Rapture might take place on May 21, 2011. Others hedged their bets by revisiting their faith and beliefs. Others just thought it was all a big joke. Most of us, should be grateful to still be here--to have another chance.
I firmly believe that when the time comes, and we meet our God, we will not just have to answer for what we have done to live a life of faith. I believe we must also answer the question--"what have we done to help others turn from evil?"
Turn from evil--not tolerate evil or justify evil, but turn from it. The nurse who saved Melissa when she heard this tiny child grunting turned from evil. Are you ready to do that? Is our country ready to do that?
Let's thank God for the time to have a do over. Let's make it count for ourselves, our families and our country.
Her story, "A Voice for Life" (www.avoiceforlife.com), is so honest and unvarnished that if you make it through without a tear you are a stone. This film is compassionately made by Gunther Meisse II and written by Melissa Ohden and Steve Feazel. We watched it with Melissa, her husband and her beautiful daughter (a second generation miracle).
When I tell people about Melissa, my pro-abortion friends are usually politely awed. My pro-life friends are moved to goose bumps and tears. The reaction that affected me the most was when a retired physician friend asked, "They let her live?"
I had to hear it twice to understand the question. That question proves that Melissa is doubly a miracle, and that Kermit Gosnell (Philadelphia abortion "doctor", indicted for killing children who survived the abortion process and other gruesome acts) is just the worse example of what has been accepted in our society--the death, by neglect, of the accidentally born. Something once advocated by our President on the floor of the Illinois legislature.
Last week we had the opportunity to review our lives. Some seriously considered that Rapture might take place on May 21, 2011. Others hedged their bets by revisiting their faith and beliefs. Others just thought it was all a big joke. Most of us, should be grateful to still be here--to have another chance.
I firmly believe that when the time comes, and we meet our God, we will not just have to answer for what we have done to live a life of faith. I believe we must also answer the question--"what have we done to help others turn from evil?"
Turn from evil--not tolerate evil or justify evil, but turn from it. The nurse who saved Melissa when she heard this tiny child grunting turned from evil. Are you ready to do that? Is our country ready to do that?
Let's thank God for the time to have a do over. Let's make it count for ourselves, our families and our country.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Martin Luther King and Abortion
A couple of days ago I came across an article in the Seattle Times, entitled "Black babies at twice the risk of whites, study indicates." April 4th is the anniversary of Martin Luther King's murder and I just can't believe that this was a part of his dream. The article notes:
"A college-educated black woman in the United States is more likely to lose her baby then a white woman with only high school eduction. an African-American woman who starts prenatal care in her first trimester is more likely to lose her baby than a white woman with late or no prenatal care. A black woman who does not smoke has worse birth outcomes than a white woman who smokes."
Why, asks the author? She concludes that the difference is not due to higher rates of poverty and chronic disease, that the real answer is stress, not just during pregnancy, but from a lifetime of being black.
Hold the phone! The article does not even mention the fact that the rate of abortion for black women is more than twice the rate for white women (55.5 versus 20.2, respectively). A pretty close correlation to the rate of preterm births and miscarriages. The American College of Gynecology (ACOG) completed a study over three years ago in conjunction with the March of Dimes which noted in the appendix, that induced abortion has an impact on preterm births and miscarriages.
How much more important is incidence of abortion than stress? How much of that stress is due to living with the abortion? Why is this nearly direct correlation ignored?
Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, let us also remember his views on abortion:
"The Negro can not win...if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety"--Ebony, Vol. 41, No.3, January 1966, Page 63.
Let's not be afraid to see the real issues and the real facts that affect the lives of black women. And to my white counterparts, think of the future outcomes of your actions as you usher minority women into the doors of abortion clinics.
"A college-educated black woman in the United States is more likely to lose her baby then a white woman with only high school eduction. an African-American woman who starts prenatal care in her first trimester is more likely to lose her baby than a white woman with late or no prenatal care. A black woman who does not smoke has worse birth outcomes than a white woman who smokes."
Why, asks the author? She concludes that the difference is not due to higher rates of poverty and chronic disease, that the real answer is stress, not just during pregnancy, but from a lifetime of being black.
Hold the phone! The article does not even mention the fact that the rate of abortion for black women is more than twice the rate for white women (55.5 versus 20.2, respectively). A pretty close correlation to the rate of preterm births and miscarriages. The American College of Gynecology (ACOG) completed a study over three years ago in conjunction with the March of Dimes which noted in the appendix, that induced abortion has an impact on preterm births and miscarriages.
How much more important is incidence of abortion than stress? How much of that stress is due to living with the abortion? Why is this nearly direct correlation ignored?
Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, let us also remember his views on abortion:
"The Negro can not win...if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety"--Ebony, Vol. 41, No.3, January 1966, Page 63.
Let's not be afraid to see the real issues and the real facts that affect the lives of black women. And to my white counterparts, think of the future outcomes of your actions as you usher minority women into the doors of abortion clinics.
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