I do understand how a woman could choose abortion.
I worked at a crisis pregnancy center for three years before we moved to Indiana. When I started, I knew that abortion was wrong.
As I went through training, I learned that abortion is horrible.
I also learned that abortion is surprisingly common.
As I worked with women in crisis, I learned that abortion is extremely tempting.
To a woman whose picture of her future has just been shattered by a positive pregnancy test, abortion offers a way to put the pieces back where they belong.
Abortion speaks to her fears and offers a way to turn back the clock, to get out of the problem and return to the time when everything was normal.
It is a way to avoid poverty and homelessness.
It is a way to avoid divorce, or abuse, or parental abandonment.
It is a way for a child to have a chance to finish school. (yes, a child. I have worked with children as young as 12 considering abortion.)
I have never known a woman who choose abortion easily, or considered it light-heartedly. I understand, as Frederica Mathewes-Green famously said,
"No woman wants an abortion as she wants
an ice cream cone or a Porsche.
She wants an abortion
as an animal caught in a trap
wants to gnaw off its own leg."[1]
Not knowing what else to do, many girls and women choose abortion.
As I got to know many who did, I also learned that abortion hurts women.
Let us pray that God would use our hands to help those trapped, and those missing a leg.
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