Last night I got myself "swankified," cramming myself in to nylons and heels, thankful I only have to do that once in a blue moon. I threw some pizza in the oven for the kids and raced out the door, headed downtown, where I joined 750 like-minded people for dinner.
We were there to raise funds to help women have true choice, to fund an organization that sees women every day who fear abortion is their ONLY option in a crisis pregnancy. They stand in the gap, advising women there are other choices and then making them possible. They materially provide for those who choose to parent, giving them necessary equipment, diapers, formula and clothing well beyond infancy. They give referrals for those choosing to place their child for adoption. They treat and counsel men and women with STDs, and work with teens with the intent of heading off a crisis pregnancy that puts one in an awful position of having to choose life or abortion.
For me, the issue of abortion is intensely personal, because I was a crisis pregnancy. I'm here because abortion wasn't legal 42 years ago. My siblings are here because without abortion freeing my parents to go separate directions, they married and had more children. My nephews and nieces are here because my siblings existed. My oldest child is here because I was allowed to live. That's an awful lot of people who might not have existed if abortion had been an option in 1969.
I have two other children whose lives were spared, born of two different women. One chose life in a situation many pro-lifers condone abortion for. The other pursued an abortion, thankfully talked out of it by a friend who took her to a crisis pregnancy center in her city.
I can't imagine the world without my kids. No entertainment from Gracie.
No grins from John.
It breaks my heart to think of how many other funny, quirky kids aren't brightening their corners of the world. How many affectionate little guys aren't lavishing hugs on the people they could have loved? All of them are missing for no other reason than because they were inconvenient. It's shocking, isn't it? Inconvenience is road construction and detours, not life. Life is precious.
I'm thankful that I got to live, even though I was monstrously inconvenient. I love my kids and I'm so tremendously grateful to have them as mine; I constantly give thanks for their birth parents looking past fear and inconvenience to choose life.
To me, "pro-abortion" is the same as "pro-Jen and her kids not existing." It's saying we're only worth something if we were planned on and convenient at the moment.
Because abortion wasn't a choice, I get to make hundreds of choices every day.
And so do you. Aren't you glad your mom chose life?
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