One life wanted and many others not

This past Saturday, a good friend of mine had to attend the funeral of his sister-in-law. He had to watch his brother say goodbye to his college bride, had to watch her parents bury their precious child, had to acknowledge that this member of his family was gone.

And this week while counseling I have thought many times about my friend and his family, the juxtaposition of his sister-in-law's life and death and the sort I see here.

She fought cancer for six years, gave everything she had to stay here, to steal more time, to absorb as much of this life and this earth as possible. They called her funeral a celebration, not a mourning that she died so young but a joyful time of remembrance that she touched so many while she was here.

Would a single person who knows her have preferred to have not met her at all than to have met her and had to watch as her light slowly faded out?

And every day I meet women who would so quickly throw life away. The stories vary, the situations are often less the ideal, but still -- to have to bargain, to have to cajole, to have to plead with a mother that she would save the life of her child -- I wish they could see what joy this child might bring them, if only they would open up to the possibility.

Every single day I watch women as they try to make this incredibly heavy decision, as they waver between the life and death of their child. I will never stop being surprised by their situations, I will never cease to be touched by their suffering and their tears. And I will never meet a woman for whom abortion would ease her burden or save her from pain.

To cast off the life of your child, it is a tragedy. No celebration of life nor mourning of death for these little ones -- and we will never know, how bright each life might have shined.