This I Believe

I believe in the power of life and in the pain of death. When I was a third year medical student I vividly remember a delivery I attended of a family who had had two prior children die within the first few hours of life. The family was extremely anxious about this birth because they had already been told this child had the same birth defect as the other two and would likely suffer the same fate. After she delivered it was apparent the child would not live long. As I watched that child die and the pain the family and I suffered I realized fully for the first time how much power is in life and how much pain is in death. I hadn’t experienced death in the same way before and it profoundly changed my thinking about it and I knew I wanted to do something in my career to make a difference. This is why I believe abortion is wrong but I also believe that it should be legal. I know these two statements are in direct opposition to each other but these beliefs took years for me to reconcile.

I will tell you why I believe what I do. I am now an obstetrician and in my daily job I see the miracle of birth and the excitement that new life engenders. I also see the pain of an unwanted pregnancy. Too often women come to me seeking advice about an unwanted pregnancy and it is my responsibility to discuss their options to include abortion. I try to remain unbiased in my counseling but it is difficult because I have seen the power new life gives. I want to eliminate abortion but not by making it illegal. The main issue in this fight should be women’s reproductive health. I want to give women access to effective contraception and make it inexpensive to maintain. I feel my role as a physician puts me in a unique position to make a difference before an unwanted pregnancy occurs. I want women to experience the power of new life and avoid the pain of death and because of this I make it my responsibility to talk to all my patients about their reproductive health and their contraceptive options. I want to prevent them from having to make a choice that no one should have to make. That being said abortion should be legal. If it is made illegal it will not prevent abortions it will only push them underground. This will place women who seek abortions in very dangerous situations where both her life and the life and the unborn child may be lost. Every time I think about abortion I remember the pain I suffered when that child died. I can empathize with women who need to make that choice and I want to help them so they do not have to.