The Texas Abortion Rodeo
Ya Gotta Wonder!
Given the recent goings on in Austin with Texas politicians treating the abortion issue as nothing more than a rodeo event, I feel the need to share two true stories about abortion from my book Stories from a Global Cowgirl.
Abortion is a serious issue. Choosing to have an abortion leaves skid marks on a woman’s life forever, and the issue deserves a solution perhaps only Solomon can offer. At the very least, we need Grace-filled discussions between folks on both sides of the issue. It’s not about the side that can stay on the bucking bronco the longest getting to be the winner.
Story #1
Illegal Abortion
“Get yourself pregnant and I’ll kill you and the baby in your belly.”
Josie’s daddy doesn’t mince words, and he’s also a man of his word. Eighteen years of living under his roof taught Josie that. So, when she gets pregnant before saying “I do,” Josie rightfully fears for herself and her child. Even if she manages to keep her condition secret until late in the pregnancy, she wonders, “Can doctors save the baby after its soon-to-be-granddad beats me to death? And who will take care of the baby?”
It’s the sixties. A time when the law seldom takes the side of a female against an irate father, husband, or any other man. Josie feels cornered into having an abortion even though it’s illegal and not every “helping hand” is a clean one. Fevered and weak from a raging infection after the abortion, Josie searches for a doctor to kill the infection before it kills her.
“I’m sorry,” every doctor in her small East Texas town says. “It’s illegal for me to save you. It’s only legal to let you die. The state will take my license for any participation in an abortion. Even after the fact. Helping you puts me in the same bucket as the butcher who did this to you.”
Josie goes to a big city hoping to find help. Finally, a doctor says, “Without help, you’ll die, and pretty quickly. I’ll do what I can here in the office, but don’t tell me your name, and please forget mine. After I’m done, don’t come back. You’re on your own.”
Josie’s daddy never found out about her pregnancy, never saw the need to kill her for getting pregnant before getting married. I guess you could say that abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother.
Story #2
What Sophie Chooses
Women of a certain age sometimes turn to the miracles of science when they want to get pregnant. This is the first choice Sophie must make, and with that choice she finds herself pregnant with triplets.
“Would you like to abort one? It’ll be an easier pregnancy and much easier raising twins rather than triplets. Which one would you choose?” says Sophie’s doctor, who believes in practicalities and practices medicine in a country where such an option is legal.
Sophie, equally believing in a woman’s right to choose, looks at the sonogram. Now she must make her second choice. Which unborn child should she choose to abort?
Sophie makes her choice. She is now the harried and proud mother of triplets.
The abortion issue seems greater than a woman choosing to abort her unborn fetus. The US doesn’t do itself proud compared to other nations when it comes to our infant mortality ranking in the world.*
Ya Gotta Wonder why Pro-Life politicians in every state don’t raise as much hell about improving America’s standing in its infant mortality ranking in the world as they do about the abortion issue. Being born in Texas, I know it’s a state that prides itself in whipping the competition. In being #1. So why aren’t its politicians throwing down the cowboy gauntlet to be #1 in quality of life for newborns and making sure each child gets to celebrate their first birthday?
And I’d ask all the Pro-Choice politicians the same question. Why aren’t you raising a ruckus about this country’s poor standing in the world on our poor infant mortality rate.
I get the abortion issue is a tough one to come together on, but surely both sides can agree that no child should be left behind in its fight to celebrate the first birthday that eludes so many of the children born in America.
https://www.americashealthrankings.org/learn/reports/2019-annual-report/international-comparison
