Recently, one of my children called us unexpectedly to say they were having car trouble and needed a bit of advice. My husband, being the fixer that he is, jumped into motion, ready to drive across town to where they were to help them figure the issue out. Our child, however, really just wanted advice over the phone as to what they should do. They did not want to inconvenience us.

I had to laugh a little bit. Because here is the truth. Children are an inconvenience from the time they are conceived, and my personal research thus far proves they continue to be an inconvenience for the sum total of their existence. It’s just the way it is. Most of us realize that, in theory anyway, when we decide to become parents. Nevertheless, kids are just… inconvenient. They get sick right before a vacation. Their little toes grow through the ends of their shoes very unexpectedly. They need an elaborate science project… and it’s due tomorrow. It is teacher appreciation week and they signed you up to bring in homemade breakfast casserole. Also needed tomorrow. See? Inconvenient. 

But we have taken this whole inconvenience thing way too far in our nation. Recently, the Governor of New York signed the “Reproductive Health Act”, which among other horrible atrocities, makes late term abortions (after 24 weeks gestation) legal. There were smiles and cheers all around, from what I understand, at the signing ceremony. But there are many American people who are grieving this action now. Hearts are breaking all over our nation for the innocents that will be sacrificed in the name of convenience. The most common defense (other than the woman’s right to choose) seems so kind- we must protect the life of the mother. But it is a lie. There is never a need to abort a baby that late in its gestation. Delivery, yes, but not abortion. 

I find it really interesting that the only difference between using every medical intervention we have at our disposal to save the unborn child and tossing the “contents of conception” aside like garbage is whether the mother wants the child or not. If she does, we will fight to save that life. If she does not, it’s not even a life at all.

Maternal mortality rates in the US have grown a bit in the last few years with it landing at about 23 deaths out of every 100,000 births (CDC.gov). This is a sad number, for sure, but most of those cases have to do with poor management of chronic conditions and poor access to health care. Those are the issues that should be dealt with in order to lower the mortality rate among expectant mothers. Perhaps instead of funding Planned Parenthood, we could improve prenatal care for those with chronic health conditions or poor access to healthcare. 

I do know a few mothers who put themselves ahead of their children, but none who don’t suffer from some mental disorder. I don’t know a mentally healthy woman alive who would not sacrifice her own life to save the life of her child. And if she could do it twice, she would. The “life of the mother” argument is negligible. It is far more common for a woman to decide that she did not intend to become pregnant, and then place her own desires above the needs of the baby in her womb. Mother Teresa is attributed with saying, “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish”. 

The great deception of the enemy about abortion is in the belief that the contents of a woman’s womb is not a person. It is much more palatable to rid oneself of something that is not a human being than to dispose of a tiny person, piece by precious piece, into a garbage pail. Maybe everyone desiring an abortion should first have to witness one in progress. Maybe if every pro-choicer could witness an abortion for themselves, and see the tiny life that is discarded like yesterday’s leftovers, we’d see the tide turn in this country. Maybe we’d begin, once more, to value life as precious. 

Sure, my kids are, each one, an inconvenience… but what blessed inconveniences they are!