I am a 51 year old woman with 3 adult children. I am a minister.
For more than 20 years I have counseled women and their families who were facing a pregnancy that was not meant to be. I have held their hands as they prayed for wisdom. I have stood beside them as they walked through protesters who cursed them. I am a better minister and person because of them.
Here are a few women who have come to me:
• a 42 year old with a son in college whose husband had just announced he was leaving her for another woman
• a 30 year old who had been given the date rape drug at a party and had no idea who had impregnated her
• an 18 year old with physical and mental disabilities who was raped by a man who lived down the street
• a 34 year old excitedly expecting her first child who was told it had no brain
And the list goes on and on. These women are not exceptions to some “typical” woman who seeks an abortion. Every woman’s story is uniquely her own. No one else can tell her how to feel about her situation and what the most compassionate action is. There is not one right answer because every woman, every family, every situation is different. This is why the decision must belong to the woman and those whom she wants to involve in her decision. But it is none of the business of legislators, judges, and protesters who do not know her.
It is cruel to tell women in horrendous situations that every pregnancy is a gift from God. It is the ultimate misogyny for a man to tell a woman that she should willingly put her own life at risk for the sake of bringing a different life into the world.
I have counseled women who have chosen to have an abortion, those who have chosen to become a mother, and those who have chosen to give their child to someone else. None of these choices is easy and none of them is selfish. Each of them requires a sacrifice. Only a woman can know the most compassionate and wise choice in her situation.
The very first chapter of the Bible tells us that women were created in God’s image. By this we know that women are moral beings, capable of wise decisions that are good for themselves and the earth. God loves all women throughout all their difficult choices. Dr. Tiller taught us that “Until one understands the heart of a woman, nothing else about abortion makes any sense at all.”
I am Dr. George Tiller.
