Last week’s leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion that could overturn Roe v Wade has the abortion debate reenergized.  It’s no secret that this has been a fiery topic of intense debate for decades in the political sphere.  It is certainly an issue that is near and dear to many hearts….including my own.

Some quick facts.  Abortion is a medical procedure that ends a pregnancy at any stage.  A pregnant woman can opt for a medication abortion or in-clinic abortion.  Post-abortion side-effects are generally emotional, not physical.  Worldwide it is estimated that approximately 1 in 4 pregnancies end in abortion.  Science demonstrates that life begins at conception.  

Six years ago my husband and I were nearing the end of fostering children within our home.  Our intention from the start had been to adopt one more child through foster care; completing our family.  After months and months of fostering, we still hadn’t had the opportunity and were worn thin from temporary placements; becoming attached to children only to see them returned home….sometimes feeling confident about the return, and other times feeling incredibly dismayed. 

But, in August of 2016, an “adoptive placement” opportunity finally arose for our family.  Because of the circumstances, this placement would not be a temporary foster placement, but rather a permanent placement with legal adoption being the end goal.   When we received the call, we were elated to say the least.  It was during this same phone call that we were told it was not just one, but two girls. Twins. They had been born prematurely at 28 weeks to an addicted homeless mother.  The father was unknown.  

Despite the odds, they appeared to be mostly healthy outside of underdeveloped lungs.  And so, we prayed.  The more we prayed and thought on it, the more excited we became about adding these two little girls to our family.  Twice the work, but twice the reward.  We prayerfully went forward with the placement.   And so, from 28 weeks on, we considered them our girls.  We named them, visited them weekly in the ICU, fed them, held them, nursed their little developing bodies, and quickly restocked our house with infant items that had been long gone!  

Fast forward seven months, and we were being told we had to give up our precious girls.  Unfortunately for us, a father had been identified.  Wait, what??  And, just like that, we were forced to turn them over to what I would have categorized as an ill-equipped father.  We were devastated.  It was then that our adoption journey ended, carrying with us the broken pieces of our hearts.  

I tell you this story for one purpose; to highlight two sacred lives that began well before a traditional forty-week delivery.  They were beautiful baby girls at one week, ten weeks, twenty weeks and forty weeks.  There was never one defining moment when they became human.  I have mourned alongside friends that have miscarried in the early weeks of pregnancy, carried four of my own biological children to forty weeks, and cared for two girls between those ages, and I can assure you that life begins at conception.  The American College of Pediatricians agrees with the body of scientific evidence that corroborates that a unique human life starts when the sperm and egg bind to each other in a process of fusion of their respective membranes and a single hybrid cell called a zygote, or one-cell embryo, is created. (acpeds.org)  Again, life begins at conception.  

For you formed my inward parts;  you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:13

Pro-choice advocates believe that women, and women alone, have the right to choose the fate of an unborn human.  Ironically, pro-life advocates would agree wholeheartedly with a woman’s right to choose. The real collision in belief erupts when determining exactly which choice is up for discussion.  Pro-choice advocates proclaim to have a right to choice over the life of the unborn human after conception.  Oppositely, pro-life advocates maintain that the choice is made prior to conception; occurring before the act of conception.  I concur with the latter.   Women have and always will have the freedom of choice regarding pregnancy.  What I would suggest is that post-conception is not the time to make a decision regarding pregnancy – life has already been conceived and you’ve made your decision.

I can already hear it already, so let me make a clarification for all those itching to yell “but, what about….?!”.  When making decisions surrounding abortion, we cannot get hung up on the rare exceptions surrounding unwanted pregnancy; issues such as conception by rape.  Tragic as it may be, dealing with the trauma and fallout of a sexual assaults can and should be delicately handled without compromising the rights of the unborn. It is not my intention to convey any insensitivity toward injustices such as rape.  It is terribly wrong.  We live in a fallen world where sin exists in many forms, even of a sexual nature.  However, sexual violations in no way grant us permission to heighten the tragedy by extinguishing a life alongside it.

We have and should continue to be a society that values and fosters life at any stage – the unborn and born.  We would consider it heinous to kill our elderly population when they became no longer able to care for themselves independently, yet we do this everyday to 25% of our unborn children.  It’s heartbreaking.  

The implications surrounding on-demand abortion are certainly clearer to me since having become a mother.  I’ve seen the absolute miracle of conception, development, and birth of a child up close and personal.  My kids are the most striking example of God alive and active in my everyday life.  It is my hope for all women around the globe, that they too will see the beauty and blessing of life that begins at conception, no matter the circumstances.