It’s not every day that an anonymous person on social media has the power to take what you believe about a certain matter and turn it on its head — thus making you do a complete 180 on a very controversial belief.
It was several months ago that a member of the website Cafemom submitted an anonymous post about her late-term abortion. I don’t recall when this fetus was actually aborted, but I do know that it was at least twenty weeks into her pregnancy.
This woman — we’ll call her Margo — and her husband had gone in for the twenty-week anatomy scan. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this, it’s during this scan that the sex of the fetus can be determined. It’s usually an exciting event for the parents-to-be.
But Margo didn’t leave the doctor’s office that day carrying ultrasound photos of her baby, a smile on her face so huge her cheeks would ache the next day. Instead, she and her husband left with a black shadow in tow, chasing all their hopes and dreams of their unborn child away, never to be considered again.
During her appointment, Margo learned that her baby had a condition known as anencephaly — he/she was without a brain. Even if a miracle happened and the baby survived post-birth, he/she would be a vegetable.
Margo was given two choices — either carry the baby to term and see what happened, or abort.
I think you know what she decided.
So here’s my question to the pro-lifers who want abortion to be a crime: what would you have done if you were in Margo’s place? Would you have placed yourself and your family through such unimaginable pain because to you abortion is wrong? In this specific scenario, do you still believe that abortion is murder? Should Margo have been forced to carry her child to term, knowing there was no chance he or she would survive, all in the name of doing what’s right and not ending a life?
How and why do you get to decide what is right and wrong for Margo and her family?
Sometimes these issues aren’t as black and white as we think. There are gray areas for every matter and abortion is no exception. Margo’s story really made me think. If she had lived in a country where abortion is illegal, like Ireland, she would have had no option other than to carry her baby to term.
Did I mention that while the majority of the brain of her unborn child was absent, the brain stem was present, so the fetus was making involuntary movements? As a mother, I know how the movements of the child in your womb saturates your being with utter delight. Every kick is a reminder of your child’s health and vitality. Though for Margo, every kick she felt would have been a devastating reminder that her child was, for all intents and purposes, already dead.
Sometimes the moral high horse we’re riding turns against us and we crash to the ground with a dose of reality. I thank Margo for helping me see what I would not have seen on my own.
Thought Factor 