Partial-Birth Abortion Defined

When my wife was pregnant for the first time, she had complications. Her water broke, leaving the child (at that stage of development) with no chance for survival. We were living in Germany at the time, and under German law, they could do nothing, but wait for the unborn child to die, and miscarry.

As traumatic as that was (it took a week in the hospital), I don’t know that having the fetus aborted would have been better. I think my wife believes it would have been less traumatic. Physically, it would have been. But taking that into our hands, even though we knew we had lost our child, may have been worse. I really don’t know.

We are both against abortions, but I do understand medical necessities for abortions.

9 years later we were again expecting a child (real rough pregnancy). The hospital advised amniocentesis (spelling?), and explained that the test carried minimal risk for the fetus. When we declined, we were counseled that the child could be born with downs syndrome, and the test would give us time for “options”. Options were defined as:

1. Abortion
2. No option, but you have the knowledge of the test result

We declined. Anyway, what struck me was the pro-abortion stance taken by the hospital. I don’t understand why an unhealthy child’s life would be considered less valuable than a healthy child’s life. I think we both left the doctors office feeling sick that day.

Anyway, we have a healthy baby boy (13 mos. old).