Balance, please!

TheJournal.ie carried a heartrending story about a mother who discovered she was carrying a baby with an unspecified unfixable birth defect, and who chose to go to England to terminate the pregnancy. Written just three days after she returned home, grief poured out of her heart, carrying her deep trauma, including blame - blame on the Irish people for not allowing her to abort her sick babe in Ireland.

It is a tragic story, and one that deserved to be heard.

As a midwife, I think I may have guessed what the defect might have been, and if I'm right, it can inspire great fear, and up to recently, has been unfixable. But I feel that the mother made the decision in too much haste. She said she 'worked in the medical field'  but also speaks of a defect visible to even her 'untrained eye.' If it is the defect I am thinking of, it can be and has been fixed by Foetal Surgery. Oh God, didn't she have any counselling?

I feel wretchedly for this woman.

But her history was, of course, exploited to the fullest extent by the pro-choice lobby. I want to say to them there are tragic stories on the other side, that are not reported in the media. I have read hundreds of them. (and even witnessed a few during my time working in England) Testimonies of coercion, at being forcibly held down after changing ones mind, of delivering body parts later at home, of blaming and shaming by clinic staff, of harsh, rough doctors, of an abortionist's nasty rants against 'ugly (racial epithet) babies; of babies born alive and left to die cold and alone; of pathology students disturbed by the faces of aborted babies; strangled born-alives; Dr. Kermit Gosnell (ever heard of him? Abortion doctor and serial killer - serving life in the USA for murdering babies who survived). There are stories in plenty of mothers with perforated uteri, cervical incompetence leading to premature births later, of young women left sterile, of despair and suicidal feelings, of survivors who are now grown up and would like their stories heard - there are thousands of testimonies about how abortion harms women and children, and I haven't even started. But try to make them public, and one is met by a wall of silence, or accused of 'emotiveness' 'anti-choice' 'making it up' and even 'hating women'!

To TheJournal.ie, I would say 'Balance, please!' For every heartbreaking story on the prochoice side, let's have a heartbreaking one on the prolife side. I can supply you with sources and what we are to expect in Irish hospitals and clinics if abortion is liberalised here. Incidents as I described, meant to be kept secret, seep out from abortion hospitals and clinics in every country where it is legal and liberal. If that's what you want for Ireland...continue the way you are going. But do keep in mind that abortion is an Industry, and sees our little island as an untapped market.

For some of these sources, see www.clinicquotes.com, 'they said it' run by Sarah Terzo, athiest and member of PLAGAL, a US gay and lesbian prolife group.
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