Respect for Life Month

This October marks the forty-first year that our Catholic Church has observed Respect for Life month.  Beginning October 7th, Respect Life Sunday, we are called to renew our personal commitments to defend all human life.  From conception to natural death.  We honor this commitment through prayer, education, witness, advocacy, and helping those in need.

This year I am feeling called even deeper to the cause of protecting life.  Yesterday I found out that the precious life we were expecting was not to be.  Our sweet baby stopped growing a few weeks ago and now my body is trying to miscarry.

Many thoughts and emotions are cycling through me and it is hard to process how one day you are pregnant and expecting a baby and the next day you aren't.  Life moves quickly and circumstances can change in the blink of an eye.

I feel a sadness and cannot help but feel a guilt.  Did I do something wrong?  Could I have been more careful?  Healthier?  All these feelings are normal and on a rational and intellectual level I realize that it was not my fault.  When I have these thoughts I cannot help but think of the women that actually choose to end the life of their unborn child.  How sad and empty they must feel.  Society tries to convince us that life only matters for those who are chosen and that a first trimester baby is just a "bunch of cells."  I can tell you that an 8 week embryo has a heart and a brain and looks an awful lot like a tiny baby.

I feel such sadness for these Moms who feel so alone and confused or have bought into the idea that their unborn baby is not really a person.  I feel distressed by the pressure on women to take the life of a child so they can have a "better" one.

Studies show that abortion does not help women, it hurts them.  The risks are:  severe bleeding, future pregnancy problems, sterility, needing a hysterectomy, incomplete abortion procedure (damaging baby), severe infection, increased risk of breast cancer, increased risk of suicide, psychological issues, and death.  A non political study in Finland shows that a woman is 4 times more likely to die in the year after an abortion than in the year after childbirth.

Abortion is murder and it is wrong.  I say this not in judgement of those who have made such a profound choice but in defense of those that cannot speak for themselves.  I say this as one who has experienced a pregnancy outside of marriage.  One who has been young and alone and scared.  One who has had to endure the comments and thoughts of others and one who has lacked financial and emotional support.  One who knows that being a single parent is not easy but who recognizes that a baby is a blessing and not a curse.

During this Respect for Life month I pray that eyes are opened, hearts are softened, babies are protected, and mothers are cared for.  May God bless and protect all life upon this earth, from conception until natural death.  

Sweet Miss Musical sleeping in the womb.  Definitely a baby.