Her face expressed astonishment. With gratitude in her voice, she said, “I learned so much today,” and then, after hanging on every word that we had shared, she left.
She had come to Expectant Mother Care because she had had intercourse the night before. As soon as I heard her say that she originally came wanting, “Plan B,” a list of terms and brand names used to describe the hormones came to my mind, and how each one was deceptive in its own manner. Oral contraception, emergency contraception, the morning-after pill, back-up birth control, emergency birth control, and the brand names Plan B One-Step, Ella, and Next Choice. Had she walked into an establishment that financially benefitted from selling the drug, they probably would have sold her a mega-dose of hormones, without telling her that oral contraceptives are a risk factor for breast cancer. An abortion clinic might have even given it to her for free, knowing the statistics at which such contraceptives fail.
Thankfully, instead of arriving at an abortion clinic, she had come to EMC. Instead of being encouraged along an uninformed lifestyle of unhealthy choices, at EMC she learned “so much” to help her make truly healthy decisions.
After hearing that her son had repeatedly asked her for a brother or sister, I mentioned that by giving birth to her first child before the age of thirty, she had decreased her risk of getting breast cancer. I mentioned to her that, should any of her friends become pregnant, she should remember to tell them that. If she ever needs to verify that fact, it’s on the American Cancer Society’s website.
She had been shown how her risk of getting an STD could increase exponentially if she had multiple partners. She seemed to like the idea of living without the risk of getting an STD or getting pregnant outside of marriage. All of the facts pointed in one direction, and so I summarized them in a simple statement. “Wait until you get married…”
My prayer is that she will find a man whose love is selfless and a man who loves her like Christ loved the Church. Also that he would marry her before having sex with her. My prayer is that one day she will be able to announce the coming of a brother or sister to her son, and a son or daughter to her husband.
She had come to Expectant Mother Care because she had had intercourse the night before. As soon as I heard her say that she originally came wanting, “Plan B,” a list of terms and brand names used to describe the hormones came to my mind, and how each one was deceptive in its own manner. Oral contraception, emergency contraception, the morning-after pill, back-up birth control, emergency birth control, and the brand names Plan B One-Step, Ella, and Next Choice. Had she walked into an establishment that financially benefitted from selling the drug, they probably would have sold her a mega-dose of hormones, without telling her that oral contraceptives are a risk factor for breast cancer. An abortion clinic might have even given it to her for free, knowing the statistics at which such contraceptives fail.
Thankfully, instead of arriving at an abortion clinic, she had come to EMC. Instead of being encouraged along an uninformed lifestyle of unhealthy choices, at EMC she learned “so much” to help her make truly healthy decisions.
After hearing that her son had repeatedly asked her for a brother or sister, I mentioned that by giving birth to her first child before the age of thirty, she had decreased her risk of getting breast cancer. I mentioned to her that, should any of her friends become pregnant, she should remember to tell them that. If she ever needs to verify that fact, it’s on the American Cancer Society’s website.
She had been shown how her risk of getting an STD could increase exponentially if she had multiple partners. She seemed to like the idea of living without the risk of getting an STD or getting pregnant outside of marriage. All of the facts pointed in one direction, and so I summarized them in a simple statement. “Wait until you get married…”
My prayer is that she will find a man whose love is selfless and a man who loves her like Christ loved the Church. Also that he would marry her before having sex with her. My prayer is that one day she will be able to announce the coming of a brother or sister to her son, and a son or daughter to her husband.
No comments:
Post a Comment