Over the last few days three very different abortion stories have come to my attention.

I saw the first one linked to from Crystal’s about a woman who found she was expecting triplets and decided to abort two because,

“I worked freelance; and I would have to go on bed rest in March. I lecture at colleges, and my biggest months are March and April. I would have to give up my main income for the rest of the year. There was a part of me that was sure I could work around that. But it was a matter of, Do I want to?…When I found out about the triplets, I felt like: It’s not the back of a pickup at 16, but now I’m going to have to move to Staten Island. I’ll never leave my house because I’ll have to care for these children. I’ll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise. Even in my moments of thinking about having three, I don’t think that deep down I was ever considering it.”

She went on to say she is afraid of getting pregnant again because of the possibility of conceiving multiples again, and that if she was pregnant again with triplets she would again abort one or more of them. A note at the end of the article says this woman is an abortion rights advocate who has no regrets over her decision.

I felt both sick and sad after reading this article. Any honest parent would admit that yes, babies don’t always come at convenient times, and, yes, they do change your life — especially when they come three at one time. This mother didn’t feel as if she couldn’t handle it. She didn’t want to. Aside from the religious and moral implications, how sad that two lives with all their potential for who they could have been and what they could have accomplished were snuffed out with a shot of potassium chloride to the heart — an act that would be legally murder done to someone outside the womb — just because they were an inconvenience to the one who gave them life. How sad that life is only valued if it is wanted. There used to be some measure of self-sacrifice, of putting aside one’s own wants and pleasures for the sake of another’s life, even among non-Christians. Those are foreign concepts these days.

I have to admit the thought of triplets would be jarring. The thought of such a sudden and drastic life change would be unsettling. When I found out I was pregnant with my third, I’ll have to admit there were mixed emotions, just for a little while — my other two were older, and though we hadn’t decided on a certain number of children or a certain time frame for having them, there was a feeling as if we had moved past the baby stage of life, and entering it again was daunting. Maybe that’s part of the problem — we as Christians never talk about these things and we make it seem like parenthood is all bliss. It’s not. It’s wondrous, it’s fun, it’s beautiful. But it is hard. But there is help. By God’s grace I knew that He is the author of life, His timing is perfect, He has a plan for every soul (Psalm 139:13-17), and He gives grace to help in time of need, and therefore I would never have considered abortion. I wish this mother knew these things as well, and I hope she would have been accepting of them if she knew them. I am so glad He brought Jesse along when He did. he’s the sunshine of our family. I can’t imagine life without him.

The second story was one I saw linked to at Amy’s. For the past day or so I had been thinking about blogging about this one under the title “Doctor’s aren’t always right.” “When doctors found that Gabriel was weaker than his brother, with an enlarged heart,and believed he was going to die in the womb, his mother Rebecca Jones had to make a heartbreaking decision. Doctors told her his death could cause his twin brother to die too before they were born, and that it would be better to end Gabriel’s suffering sooner rather than later.” ”

Mrs Jones said: “They told us that if he died, it could be life threatening for his brother. We had to decide whether to end his life and let his brother live, or risk them both. They said it would be impossible to keep him alive afterwards as he was so poorly. It would be kinder to let him die in the womb with his brother by his side than to die alone after being born.” (That’s rather strange logic to me). “That made my mind up for me. I wanted the best thing for him.” (The best thing?)

Mrs Jones decided to let doctors operate to terminate Gabriel’s life.

Firstly they tried to sever his umbilical cord to cut off his blood supply, but the cord was too strong.

They then cut Mrs Jones’s placenta in half so that when Gabriel died, it would not affect his twin brother.

But after the operation which was meant to end his life, tiny Gabriel had other ideas.

Although he weighed less than a pound, he put up such a fight for survival that doctors called him Rocky.

Astonishingly, he managed to carry on living in his mother’s womb for another five weeks – until the babies were delivered by caesarean section.

Now he and Ieuan are back at home in Stoke – and are so close they are always holding each other’s hand.

When Mrs Jones reached 31 weeks doctors carried out a caesarian to deliver the twins. Ieuan weighed 3lb 8oz and Gabriel 1lb 15oz. Both were kept in hospital, but since going home they have thrived. At seven months, Ieuan weighs 15lb and Gabriel 12lb 6oz.

Mrs Jones said: “The boys are so healthy, they have huge appetites too. Ieuan is the noisy one, while Gabriel is always laughing, it’s like he’s just so happy to be here.

“There is such a strong bond between them.

“They are always holding hands and if one cries, the other reaches out to comfort him.”

“Doctors tried to break their bond in the womb, but they just proved it couldn’t be broken.”

I am so thankful for the outcome, thankful this little one lived and is thriving. And I can sympathize with the mother’s thought that she was sacrificing one child to help the other survive rather than lose both. But I wish the mindset among people in general and the medical community in particular was geared toward giving life a chance rather than thinking a fatal intervention is needed.

The last story was one I read just this morning about God’s amazing grace to a woman who had had three abortions. I don’t want to just quote pieces from it — go on over and read the whole thing. I pray that anyone reading this who is considering abortion or who has had an abortion would read this story and find the same amazing grace.