on having the baby...

After i posted this on facebook this past sunday:

Today is 'sanctity of life Sunday' - the 39th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade in the States... It's time for a new generation that knows better - to do better. (Anyone looked at 3D ultrasounds - or a furiously beating heart in a baby just weeks in the womb?) - All life is precious...

i noticed that some of my "pro-choice" friends had responded by posting harrowing articles about the rates of maternal deaths in the years before abortion was legalized in America.
Those articles didn't change my mind. 
& it's not because i closed my eyes and refused to read them, it's not 'cause the numbers have been found to be fudged on the other side of this debate, it's not even because the picture of a mother, lying dead in a pool of blood after an illegal abortion didn't break my heart, nor is it because i didn't feel for those girls who thought they had no other alternative than to visit a crack pot doctor for an illegal abortion when they had already been abused, sometimes raped - or found themselves in one of life's many 'corners'...
It's because in each and every case cited... there was another person involved.  That little person always lost it's life - in each and every story... the ones where the mother died, the babe died too - first torn limb from limb... the ones where there was a creepy doctor who performed what they paid him to do with horrible bedside manner - the babe died too.  The stories of young girls scraping together the money and convincing friends to help her out of her jam?  The baby was killed in those stories too...
i want to argue something in naivete, if you'll allow me today.  So often the things we want to say aren't culturally acceptable, are they?  You're not allowed to impose your beliefs on another.  If someone wants to dye their hair purple, they can, if someone wants to abort their child, who should tell them to carry it?  If someone wants to drive drunk... we should let them... right?  It's all about free choice, isn't it?  Um... maybe not... But today, i want to ignore that cultural acceptance & i want to naively offer up a suggestion that i think would make the world a better place. 
Pregnancy is 9 months... give or take.  Ladies, mamas, women... would it be so hard to give that?  Yes, there's nausea, exhaustion, hormones... there are vitamins to take, risks to be avoided and weight to be gained, but in all honesty, according to statistics, most women who have an abortion want to have a baby some day, so those things are obstacles they're willing to tackle at some date in the future... What if it was now?  Now i'll admit... i love being pregnant.  i love the feeling of life inside... i know my baby hears the sound of my voice, the beating of my heart... & responds.  i don't like being tired & homely & achey... but i sure do love the miracle unfolding on the inside...
Right now... those little ones growing inside... they have no human rights, they're unprotected, naked, vulnerable.  Those same creepy doctors who were performing illegal abortions before roe vs. wade, just continued doing them after... that horrible situation that you were in before your abortion?   You'll still be in it after, only you'll know... you'll know... that you didn't protect someone who was worthy of their mama's protection....
It's 9 months...
Give or take...
9 months till that little person can be independent, crying and naked and wet from the womb.... into the arms of someone who would weep with gratitude if you still thought you couldn't parent after all that... 9 months of growth, and development... 9 months till baby can live in this new environment... Only 9.
Sure, there would be childbirth, one of the most amazing things the human body can do... there would be the embarrassment of being pregnant when you didn't intend to be, there might be increased vulnerability because of your state...
But there's another life at stake...
You can be a hero... to that little person.  Give them a chance at a gasping breath & allow the life that has already begun - to continue...?