Freedom of Choice for Babies

Call me whatever you’d like, but I ache for a people that celebrate the decision to now make it legal to steal the lives of even full-term pregnancies, as long as they have not left the womb.
Back in the 1950s, New York City would actually light up the Empire State Building with the sign of the cross to celebrate new life and Easter. Now in 2019, we light up the Freedom Tower and call it a major victory for women that now they can dispose of their unwanted children literally moments before entry into this world. Who sticks up for their right to choose lives they don’t want to lose?
I read a courageous blog from one of our Lighthouse Church members named Michele. Michele and her husband, Joshua, serve with the United States Coast Guard based here in Cape May.
Like my wife and me, Michele shares the amazing story about her daughter Juli, who nobody gave much hope to. Today, she is a living and walking miracle.
I thought it would be good to hear from a mom bold enough to speak out against this absurdity we call “freedom.” Thanks, Michele, for giving me permission to share your heart. My prayer is that somebody who feels bullied into making a decision that will only lead to a forever of regrets will receive inspiration from this blog entry that there is another way. All we are saying is “give life a chance.”
Michele’s Blog
“My heart has been heavy over the recent events in our country, especially as our family and so many others are about to miss another paycheck. However, even that could not top the sadness from seeing the Freedom Tower in New York City lit up pink to celebrate death.
“Take note of the wording used in the bill, ‘Life and Health,’ because they know that in late pregnancy, abortion is never medically needed to save the life of the mother. Doctors do everything they can to save both and killing the baby beforehand is typically not needed.
“We have things in our country called neonatal intensive care units where micro-premature babies are treated and survive. They needed to add the word ‘Health’ which could mean anything, to eliminate any restrictions on when a mother can abort her child, which now in New York means even up to birth.
“Every Jan. 31, I post my Omphalocele awareness pictures to honor my Juli girl, the other O-Warriors and the precious O-Angels. I am one of those women, who found out at my 20-week ultrasound, that something was very wrong with my baby.
“I was given all of the worst-case scenarios, including ‘incompatible with life,’ ‘stillborn,’ ‘preterm labor’ and ‘low quality of life.’ Minutes after receiving the devastating news from a cold and calculated female specialist, who watched me cry without displaying an ounce of compassion, she told me, ‘It’s too bad you weren’t here last week or you could have just had an abortion.’ According to her, getting rid of the life growing inside of me would have made everything better, right?
“I put aside my own fears and emotions to give my daughter the best chance possible. I was going to cherish every second I had with her, whether she passed in my womb or outside of it.
“There are those in similar situations who say they could not emotionally handle delivering a stillborn or find it cruel to bring a ‘damaged’ child into the world and I sincerely ask you this, ‘Do you find it compassionate to lethally inject your baby with poison or to literally have them removed from your body with forceps, sometimes limb by limb? Do you find it humane the way they would handle botched abortions if that baby survives?’
“If someone can’t emotionally handle carrying a baby who may or may not live or decides ahead of time that they won’t be able to take care of a medically fragile child, I question whether you should consider even having children in the future.
“You will be faced with so many emotionally hard challenges as a parent. Kids get cancer, they get seriously hurt or have severe disabilities that push you to your absolute breaking point. And guess what? As a parent, you deal with it. Somehow, you get through it. All of this responsibility comes with being a parent. You are the reason that little one is here to begin with.
“Whether he or she is still growing in your belly or has just turned 2 years old doesn’t change the relationship. Even through the hardships, children bring love, joy and together you experience compassion, empathy, and sacrifice.
“I do not know everyone’s circumstances or the reasons why anyone would choose an abortion. I don’t think women jump up and down at the chance to get one and many facing it end up doing so because they feel that they have no other option. There are options.
“There are organizations that will help women through the pregnancy and adoption process if they aren’t ready to parent a child. They will come alongside of them and help however needed. Women don’t have to be alone.
“I have been blessed by listening to the countless number of women who chose life even in the midst of poverty, rape and whatever other challenge they were facing. I have heard the testimonies of adopted children who were so thankful their birth mom sacrificed nine months so they could have the gift of a life to live.
“I have witnessed the heartache of observing moms who lovingly held their baby as they passed in their very arms. As confidently as they sometimes speak, doctors aren’t always right, and while many of their diagnoses are right, some are very wrong. It is sobering to think how many women were encouraged to abort a completely healthy baby.
“I understand that many will disagree with me and even call me intolerant and judgmental, but that is not my heart. It’s about right and wrong. It is about basic human decency. It is about giving a voice to the most vulnerable.
“I don’t point my finger at anyone who has gone through this and wish upon you to live a life of guilt and shame. I know that because of Jesus, forgiveness and grace are available for all of us.
“However, I will never tell you that what is happening in our culture today is empowering me as a woman. I will never go along with the lie that society has deemed ending the life of the unborn a woman’s ‘choice.’
“It’s not and it’s tragic that so many have bought into this myth and worse yet that many now celebrate it. If New York State government can value the lives of criminals who have committed the most egregious crimes against another human being and find it immoral to institute the death penalty, then isn’t it logical for them to hold the same standard for a full-term baby? 
“As a society, we have reached a new low in the name of women’s rights. And to light up the Freedom Tower while they take away the freedom for an unborn baby to fight for his or her chance to live can only be defined as evil.
“The experts said that my Juli was ‘incompatible with life.’ The medical professionals counseled me to abort her. Today, Juli is our pride and joy and I am grateful that the greatest gift my husband and I gave her was the chance to fight and live. Oh, that every child had that choice. 
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.