Thursday, May 14, 2009

Raising Babies

I guess I never realized just how much it takes to raise a baby. Bringing several carloads of diapers, baby wipes, and baby bottles up to the clinic - and subsequently being told that those supplies would have to be stretched to last four months at our distribution rate - really opened my eyes to that fact. It was something to keep in mind as I counseled a 15-year-old girl, 4 weeks pregnant, who came into the clinic dead-set on having an abortion because, in her words, "I'm too young. I'm just too young."

As Liz, our clinic director, pointed out: "If you're too young to have a baby you're too young to have sex." It was a little too late for our young mother, but she definitely got the point.

Hopefully, some healing tears while watching our videos and some support from her boyfriend will help her get through this situation. She still wasn't thoroughly convinced to keep her tiny baby, but she said she would discuss things with her boyfriend.

If she decides to keep her little boy or girl, she will be just one of several mothers whose eyes were opened to the truth at our clinic today. Her decision, like theirs, will be life-changing; but, at the very least, she will not have to live with the regret and shame that comes with having killed her own child in the name of "choice."

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