Every time we have announced a pregnancy since then, regardless of how "well off" we were financially or socially, we have been met with as many disgusting comments as we have had genuine congratulations.
Somewhere between the time of the patriarchs and the present day, society (as a whole) stopped viewing children as the heritage and blessing they are and started believing that they are a burden--a curse upon freely expressed sexual appetites. We have removed the safeguards of morality from the God-given purpose of sexual intimacy, and of course the devaluing of its natural product was swift to follow.
Currently, pregnancy is either celebrated or viewed no differently than a sexually transmitted disease--something that needs to be treated as a detriment to proper female health. The only thing that differentiates these two diametrically-opposed points of view is whether the child is wanted. The baby growing inside a woman who is financially unable to provide for a child or mentally unstable or unwed or abused or just plain doesn't want a child is NO DIFFERENT than the baby growing inside of the woman who has desperately longed for and is looking forward to a child to hold and love.
The problem is not the pregnancy. The problem is how we perceive that baby's worth. The problem is that our depraved society values personal comfort over the sanctity of life.
I have been a teen mother. I shouldn't have been, but I was convinced of the lie that a "little" sin had no consequence. Our first three pregnancies came about in spite of three different means of prevention. We have two live adult children to attest to the fact that sometimes, birth control just doesn't work. It's incredibly difficult, but it's not an insurmountable task to accept responsibility when you view new life as a blessing.
I have a friend whose child was conceived in rape. She was encouraged to look at that baby as her reward for surviving something brutal--and she did. That child became her reason for healing and creating a victorious life instead of surrendering to victimhood.
I have several dear friends whose children were born with life-limiting challenges; some were even "incompatible with life". Ask any of them if they would trade a single second of that sweet child's life for all the comfort in the world; those precious lives, no matter how short or challenging, brought such joy to their families!
I have had three pregnancies that threatened my life near the end of gestation. One put me in the hospital for a week as they strengthened her for life outside the womb. The last three had to be delivered early because my body was just not capable of sustaining both of us simultaneously. My experience is not uncommon. But you know, I could never even fathom the thought of anything other than delivery as the remedy for my body's failings. I will gladly endure the battle with my health for the rest of my life, because my children's lives are worth far more to me than my own.
I won't dare force my own desires for a large family on ANYONE. Our choices are our responsibility as individuals to handle. Why in the world would we ever expect innocent babes in the womb to be forced to give up their very lives just so we can be free of responsibility? We wouldn't dare punish a young child whose parents do not provide well for him, would we? No--we would tell his parents to grow up, act like adults, and take care of the responsibilities they've got, or to surrender him to someone who will!
To think that I bore a child in the very state that has celebrated the option to kill an unborn baby up to the point of birth makes my blood run cold. This slippery slope needs a full stop before it gets any worse. The next step will be what other nations have allowed--infanticide and euthanasia of the "burdensome" elderly. If we let this continue, it will only get worse
The days of allowing blood to be shed on the altar of personal freedom needed to be ended. The days of slavery had an end, and abortion is a far greater atrocity. It's beyond time we stop allowing this evil to be celebrated as "health care".
