Compassionate abortion
There are certainly times when pregnancy involves suffering. To the secular world steeped in self-idolatry, suffering for one’s neighbor seems nonsensical. They often see pregnancy as a disease and abortion as its cure. However, we suffer as part of the love we show to our neighbor. God has given each mother a little neighbor, chosen specifically for her, formed from her body. The suffering involved in loving this neighbor is part of God’s good and gracious will for our lives.
As a physician, I have seen women heroically embrace the difficulties of pregnancy and then experience great joy at their children’s births. I have also treated situations where the mom’s life is threatened by her pregnancy. Sometimes — rarely — it is necessary to separate the mom and the baby to save the mother’s life. Most of these situations happen at gestational ages where the baby can survive the separation. But even more rarely, they occur at gestational ages where the baby cannot survive. In those tragic situations, physicians must still separate the mom and baby — otherwise, both will die. But good doctors understand that they must give parents a chance to hold their baby, whether alive or dead, and give them time to grieve. To do this, we separate in a way that maximizes chances of the baby’s body remaining intact. These separations are not done at abortion clinics. Abortion clinics cannot take care of mothers in life-threatening situations. Abortion clinics are designed to end healthy pregnancies for nonmedical reasons. In general, abortion procedures, especially after 14 weeks, produce baby pieces, not an intact, recognizable baby, and thus deny parents the ability to hold and grieve their child.
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Dr. Donna Harrison, M.D., is a wife, mother of five, grandmother of 10, board-certified physician and CEO of The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
