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Pastor Jay's Blog

A Pro-life Clarification about Mothers Dying

 

 

The pro-life cause is making gains that are unprecedented.   This is tremendous and we should pray for more of the same.  We should not be surprised that there is also a growing outcry coming from the pro-choice side.  Many of the pro-choice arguments are being repainted and sent out for duty again.  There are also newer arguments gaining momentum.  None of this is too surprising.  What I find surprising is the blazing accusations of what is equivalent to murder.  From those who are willing to kill the life of a child in the womb flows the accusation that pro-lifers are willing to let women die.  There is an irony in that.  Nonetheless, the accusation is vehement.  It says that if you pass laws against abortion you are passing laws that will get women killed.  And if that happens, their blood is on your hands.  back and think about pregnancy and death.  It must first be acknowledged that pregnancy is not abnormal.  It is not a disease to fix.  Actual life-threatening conditions are rare. The US maternal mortality rate is 18 women deaths for every 100,000 live births.  This is about .0002%.  For 2015 that was around 720 women.  That is 720 lives we care about.  But compared to abortion, where hundreds of thousands of babies are put to death every year, maternal mortality is not the biggest problem.  However, it may be argued that the number is low because abortions are available.  That could be true, and that is what we need to address. 

So, what are the ways that pregnancy and birth get women killed? There are a variety of ways.  Women have died in back alley type abortions they have performed themselves.  Young girls have died trying to give birth they were too young to physically accomplish.  There are a variety of medical conditions happening within women that can become life-threatening.  The CDC gives the following report, “The leading cause of death was cardiovascular conditions, such as heart disease and stroke, which accounted for 33 percent of pregnancy-related deaths. Infections accounted for nearly 13 percent, and obstetric hemorrhage accounted for 11 percent. A cause of death could not be determined in nearly 7 percent of the cases.” There are medical conditions like ectopic pregnancies, where the fertilized egg embeds somewhere other than the uterus, normally the fallopian tubes, and if left to grow it will end the life of the child and mother.  Also, if a miscarriage occurs and is not addressed it can kill the mother.

These things do happen and women have died.  Should pregnancies be terminated to save the life of the mother?  Before we look at each situation, there is one key feature you should understand that will guide our treatment of them all.  What we are against is the intentional killing of innocent life.  When lives are on the line, killing some to save others must not be done.  If you and another person are on a raft in the ocean with only enough water for one of you, you do not kill the other person to survive.  That is intentional killing.  If a helicopter comes but can only take one person, that is not intentional killing, it is an incidental death.   We must never solve problems by killing innocent people.  In those desperate circumstances, you save all you can knowing some might die.  This is not intentional killing, it is incidental death that is deeply regrettable.  We always strive to save baby and mother.  Everything possible is done to save both baby and mother.  If the baby does not survive a life-saving procedure, it is deeply sorrowful, but it is not the intentional killing that abortion is. 

Back alley abortions – this is where the iconic coat hanger is waved before us.  If abortion bans are upheld women will die when they try to self-abort.  Does this put blood on the hands of the pro-lifers?  No.  The logic is flawed.   Just because women may do this to themselves is not proof that pro-life people are ok with this.  We are not.  Do not do unsafe abortions.  Pro-life people are arguing for the end of all abortions, “safe” and “unsafe.”  Consider the analogy of illicit drug use.  If people use illicit drugs and are hurt by what they use or how they use, this is not an argument for rescinding all drug bans.  The laws against those drugs are also against the foolish or desperate use of those drugs.  Anti-drug people are not guilty of the blood of dead drug users.  For the woman who does not want the baby, please do the difficult thing: deliver the baby and put him/her up for adoption. 

Young Girls – In 2012, a 10 year old girl in Columbia gave birth to a child, making her the youngest girl to give birth.  While puberty can start as young as 9, but most often between 12 and 13, this does not mean pregnancy is the same for them as it is for older women.    The main danger comes from the fact that the pelvic floor has not developed sufficiently for typical birth.  The pelvis is still widening through the teen years and if it does not develop enough babies cannot be pushed through, causing death for mother and baby.  While the death of the baby and mother does happen, what is more common is damage to the surrounding tissue, causing problems that can last through the years.  To be painfully clear, a pregnant 12 year is already a tragedy.  This has come about from a rape.  And if there was some kind of child marriage at play, this is also a tragedy of sinful cultural customs.  But we must say, in all of this tragedy, we must never allow the solution of a problem to be the killing of innocent people.  So what about the pregnant 12 year old?  Are the pro-lifers going to kill her with their abortion bans?  No.  All of that death and damage mentioned above happens in places where there are no medical options outside of traditional birth.   Thankfully, C-sections are a common procedure in the states and they bypass the potential danger of a normal birth.  A C-section is how the 10 year old mentioned above gave birth. We do not need to kill the youngest girls to save the older girls who are pregnant with them.      

Medical conditions – This would be the most common situation we encounter when thinking about life-threatening pregnancy.  What happens when a woman has been pregnant for 6 months and she develops preeclampsia and the low blood pressure puts her life in imminent danger of death?  In that situation you do not kill the baby.  Remember, we must not intentionally kill an innocent human.  Yet if nothing is done both mother and baby will die.  In this case the baby must be removed.  Everything that can be done for that baby must be done.  Will the baby die?  Sadly, it is probable.  That frail life is too small.  But that death is not intentional killing.  It is an incidental death that occurred during life-saving procedures.  This is not abortion.  This is not banned, and women’s lives are not being denied life-saving procedures.  There are a host of other medically threatening scenarios, and yes, risk is a part of life.  But children should not be killed due to risk.  Remember again, we should never kill innocent people to solve problems.  Yet, when death is imminent and action must be taken, doctors do everything they can to save baby and mother.  If the baby dies, it is not the intentional killing of abortion, but the unintended consequence of life-saving procedures. 

Miscarriages – it seems some think that doctors will not remove dead fetuses due to fear of violating the abortion ban.  Not removing a dead fetus can be life-threatening.  But this whole question doesn’t touch on what the problem is.  The problem is the intentional killing of innocent life.  A miscarriage is an unfortunate reality of life, but it is not intentional killing.  Dealing with fetal corpses is not a key part of the abortion debate. 

Abortion bans do not carry the guilt of killing women.  Abortion bans are seeking to end the rightful guilt of intention murder.  We must do everything we can, in our relationships and in our laws, to eliminate the destruction of life, and conversely to promote the life and flourishing of every person made in the image of God.  The death of the innocent will happen at times, but it must never be done with intentionality. 

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