| OCTOBER 5: Today my life began. My parents do not know it yet, but it is I already. And I am to be a girl. I shall have brown hair and brown eyes. Just about everything is settled though, even the fact that I shall love flowers. And thus begins the anonymous letter titled “Diary of an Unborn Child” published in Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s AWAKE! Magazine in 1980. The haunting and soul-stirring narrative continues from the voice of the unborn child. OCTOBER 19: Some say that I am not a real person yet, that only my mother exists. But I am a real person, just as a small crumb of bread is yet truly bread. My mother is. And I am. In the September 1st issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry following a study analyzing data on 877,000 women – 164,000 of which had had a abortion, “Results indicate quite consistently that abortion is associated with moderate to highly increased risks of psychological problems subsequent to the procedure.” The women who had experienced an abortion were “34% more likely to develop an anxiety disorder, 37% more likely to experience depression, 110% more likely to abuse alcohol, 155% more likely to commit suicide, and 220% more likely to use marijuana.” (Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018) OCTOBER 23: My mouth is just beginning to open now. Just think, in a year or so I shall be laughing and later talking. I know what my first word will be: MAMA. In an article from a physician in 2016 she recalls volunteering as an abortion counselor in 1973 as an undergrad. She remembers being told that abortion was “risk-free”. It was many years later she learned about abortion-related distress. Distress such as severe depression not unlike PTSD, nightmares, thoughts of suicide and self-harm, insomnia, substance abuse, anger, and feelings of guilt and worthlessness. More – relationships with abusive partners, and various self-destructive behaviors. And these stresses are long lasting and relentless. Dr. Shuping says, “In my clinical experience, I have worked with women ranging in age from teens to more than eighty who continued to have distress they attributed many years later to the abortion.” (Shuping, M. (2016). Counterpoint: Long-lasting distress after abortion. (pp. 153-177). NOVEMBER 2: I am growing a bit every day. My arms and legs are beginning to take shape. But I have to wait a long time yet before those little legs will raise me to my mother’s arms, before these little arms will be able to gather flowers and embrace my father. And what about the father? “In a national web-based study of 135 men who have experienced an abortion, 48% of men stated that they opposed their partner’s abortion and 69% reported moderate to very high stress following the abortion (Rue, Coyle, & Coleman, 2007). Yet no state requires a husband or boyfriend to be informed of the impending abortion.“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.”— Billy Graham DECEMBER 13: I am just about able to see. It is dark around me. When mom brings me into the world it will be full of sunshine and flowers. But what I want more than anything is to see my mom. How do you look, mom? No woman can forget the child within her womb. No woman truly wants to have an abortion. And no one woman is ever the same following one. The profound effects of an abortion fill her heart and mind. Sometimes loud and garish causing every movement to be harsh and tiresome. Other times quiet and isolating. An endless frost. DECEMBER 24: I wonder if mom hears the whispering of my heart? Some children come into the world a little sick. But my heart is strong and healthy. It beats so evenly: tup-tup, tup-tup. You’ll have a healthy little daughter, mom! The heartrending end to this poem I am sure you know. According to various sources some 619,591 abortions were performed in 2018. There is no readily available data up to the present at this time. That is not only the approximate number of precious blood spilled but also the number of souls torn in half and left empty and broken from having taken the life of their child. She still needs us. Our prayers. Our compassion. Our help. Pray for those whose lives are damaged by this horrific crime and pray for and help bring about her the healing she needs. Support Pregnancy Care Clinics and our efforts to “Love them Both”. ~Heather Vasquez |
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