Think Again

The Joy of Children, Part 3

So many abortion candidates protest that pregnancy is not in their plans right now. Either it gets in the way of a career or upsets your plans to finish your master’s degree or to take a skiing vacation in the Alps. That could be. But who says that you’ll get another pregnancy when it is convenient for you? Hashem could very well throw your own words right back at you and say, “Before, it wasn’t convenient for you; now, it’s not convenient for Me!”

Anybody with emuna won’t say that a child is not in their plans. King Solomon says (Proverbs 19:21), “A man has many thoughts in his heart, but the counsel of Hashem shall arise.” In other words, we make all kinds of plans, but Hashem decides what’s going to be. Yes, the pregnancy might be shocking, unexpected, and the last thing you would possibly dream of, but if it happened, it’s exactly what Hashem wants.

A sixteen year-old girl here in Israel discovered that she was pregnant. Her mother went ballistic and threatened her, “Either you have an immediate abortion, or get out of my house!” The young lady went up to her bedroom and soaked her bed with her tears. She already felt an emotional bond with her unborn baby. She didn’t want to terminate that pregnancy. Anyway, I don’t know where she mustered the emotional strength from, but she packed a suitcase and left home. Ultimately, she married her boyfriend and together, they adopted a lifestyle of Orthodox Judaism. Today, the young lady’s mother has the cutest blue-eyed two-year old with these irresistible blond pigtails on her lap.

I wonder how the happy and proud grandmother would react if we reminded her that she wanted to kill that child. That’s why you have to think two times, three, times, four times and more before you make the rash and irresponsible decision of terminating a pregnancy.

The Gemara says that if a religious court sentences a person to death even once in seventy years, then it’s considered to be a harsh court. So what can we say about someone who takes a life with one fell swoop? So what if the life is yet unborn? Does that mean that it doesn’t have a beating heart and a thinking brain?

Having been through two wars and more armed conflict that I care to remember, I’ve seen some gruesome sights in my three decades of military service. Yet, nothing was so shocking as seeing a video of an abortion. I saw a fourteen-week old embryo panicking to escape the sharp metal instrument that was about to terminate its life. It was more than I could handle. It’s not a pretty sight and it’s something that could make a person lose sleep for a long time to come. This defenseless little embryo was actually bending and contorting itself in every possible way to avoid the knife. It lost. I had clammy palms and a cold sweat on my forehead. I don’t know why, but this jolted me in a way that no combat situation or terror aftermath ever did.

I have yet to meet a woman who regrets giving birth to her baby. On the contrary – once she gives birth, she’s willing to die for her baby. Any normal woman will sacrifice virtually anything for the welfare of her child.

On the other hand, I’ve yet to meet a woman that’s truly happy about having an abortion. Maybe some will give you a plastic smile, but any woman who aborts feels like a part of herself has died. Abortions often haunt a woman for years to come.

A 43-year old expectant mother came to me crying, telling me that the medical board of her hospital reviewed her latest tests and came to the conclusion that she must abort. Is there no limit to arrogance and callousness? Who are they, the Elders of the Sanhedrin? Do they think they’re above The Almighty? I asked the woman if she felt good and she answered strongly in the affirmative. After consulting with Rav Shalom, I told her that our committee has decided opposite to her medical committee. We sent her to a different hospital and to a G-d-fearing gynecologist and she gave birth to a beautiful and healthy child.

I have loads of stories like this and for every one of mine, Rav Shalom has ten. The doctors told a young Kollel student in Tiberias that his wife was about to give birth to a monster with one body and two heads. The woman was beside herself in worry and grief. Oftentimes, unthinking doctors adversely affect unborn babies by scaring expecting mothers with erroneous test results. In short, the woman gave birth to two healthy twins. The doctor simply read the sonogram wrong. Whatever you do, don’t submit to needless tests and extraneous sonograms without consulting a qualified rabbi with experience in these issues.

Do the doctors on those stuffed-shirt hospital committees care about your future? Do they care about the soul of that unborn baby? Ask any honest G-d fearing doctor about the dangers of abortion. Thank G-d, here in Israel, we have some wonderful emuna-oriented physicians that you can rely on. Ask them about the dangers of abortion. Here’s a small sample of them:

One of the most common affects of an abortion is inflammation of the cervix. Although this may sound like a very harmless, insignificant side effect, the truth is that it is not. In fact, the results of this side effect tend to be very severe. One of the things that it can lead to is Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, which can eventually permanently damage your pelvis. It can also lead to Cervical Cancer later on in life. It’s estimated that more than three thousand women die from Cervical Cancer in the United States each year.

Infertility is another very common affect of having an abortion. This is especially something that you might experience if you decide to have more than one abortion. In fact, abortions can be held as an accountable problem for at least thirty percent of women who are experiencing problems with infertility. Another thing that having an abortion may cause is complications during a later pregnancy. Some of the things that you may be faced with if you should decide to get pregnant after an abortion include premature births, an increased chance of having a miscarriage, low infant birth weights, and even infant death. If having children in the future is something that you are looking forward to, chances are that you might want to reconsider having an abortion because of these dangers.

Hold on, we’re not finished: many abortions, especially the illegal ones, are performed in less than optimal conditions. Infection is a big risk and the slightest slip of the surgeon’s hand could do irreparable damage to the uterus. Some abortions cause a massive loss of blood that an inexperienced doctor will find difficulty in stopping. Hemorrhaging could continue for a long time and a woman’s menstrual cycle could become insufferably sporadic. We haven’t even mentioned the emotional side of an abortion.

Feelings of guilt, anger, hurt, and so much more can linger for years. Many post-abortive women end up seeking psychiatric help, which results in a tremendous loss of money and personal productivity.

Those doctors and clinics that try to persuade you into making the decision as soon as you possibly can are  just interested in having you go through the procedure in order to earn their money – they could care less about you and they only care about their greedy selves. Again, whatever you do, don’t make a hasty decision. And if you’re a teenager, don’t try to do a secret abortion behind Mom and Dad’s back. A doctor who would perform an abortion for a minor without parental consent is a criminal in every single state except one in the entire USA. Complications are ever so frequent in teen abortions, so if you have a complication, and you come down with a fever or excess bleeding, your parents are going to find out anyway.

To be continued…