Or an argument for adoption
It seems to me that there are as many reasons to be for or against abortion as there are people on the planet. Everyone has their reasons. What I'd like to do in this article is to explain MY reasons for why I'm against abortion.
It all started in November of 1974. Wait, check that. It all started about 9 months earlier. When my wife's mother conceived her. See, in the year after Roe v. Wade, her mother could've aborted her, without any legal repercussions. Instead, in November of 1974, down in Anderson, SC, she decided to give this darling little girl to a pastor and his wife to raise as their own. I shudder to think about where I'd be today if the woman who's been my best friend for the last 14 years wasn't around. I shudder to think of the loneliness that I'd be dealing with right now. I think about the last 10 years of marriage and all the happy times that we've been through. I think of the tough times and the sad times. I'd even miss them. Scratch that, they would've never happened, so I wouldn't even realize their loss.
Then I hear the slamming of the back door and the pounding of feet down the hallway. I hear the chatter of little voices, happily discussing the game that they're inventing among themselves. These four precious darlings wouldn't exist with out their mother. So, I would miss out on the antics of my oldest son, who's aspiring to be a writer and a singer. I'd miss out on the interesting conversations with my middle son, made all the more interesting because of his Asperger's Syndrome. I'd miss out on the rough and tumble antics of the youngest son, so tough and yet so tender. I'd miss the hugs and cuddles from my daughter (the youngest of the four). I'd miss the sheer exuberance and zest for life that she takes for granted. This joy is contagious, and my life would be so much less without it.
See, not only do I rejoice at the fact that my wife was put up for adoption instead of aborted, I have a profound belief that all children deserve a chance to live. There are a lot of families like my in-laws. Loving families, that for some reason not under their control, they cannot have children of their own. So, they adopt.
When people ask me why I take a stand against abortion, I could pull out my convictions that killing children (even unborn children) is wrong. I could state that it is against my religious beliefs (it is). It's more effective, and true to who I am, to point to the photo of my family on my desk at work and say, "There is the reason. 30 years ago, one abortion could have prevented all of that from happening."
Everyday, I thank God that a scared young woman made a courageous decision to spare one life, and in doing so, gave hope to so many more.