Abortion: A Woman's Right to Choose?

My brother and his wife are having twins. Identical twin girls, very rare. This is not a coincidence. God has His purposes, and He wants as many of His spirit children as possible to come to Earth to have a physical body. So when two righteous Latter-day Saint parents decided to welcome one more baby into their family of six, God decided to let them welcome two.

I'm devastated over the abortion battle, that there even is such a thing. Every time I think about it, my soul cries for those sweet spirits in Heaven who are waiting to be born, but the evil deeds of men prevent them from coming.

One of the lowest evils is the taking of a human life before it's even had a chance to begin. Our President-elect Obama wants to sign into law an act that will allow this to happen on an even more enormous scale than it already does. Abortions will be legal well into the pregnancy, babies from botched abortion attempts will be left to die on a sterile table in a doctor's office or hospital, and many, many babies will be denied the right to be born.

A woman's choice? Hogwash. Why on earth does her freedom of choice include the right to decide the fate of another's life? I’m appalled that so many people have been deceived and lulled into thinking that this is a matter of personal choice. How is another person’s life the matter of choice for someone else? In God’s eyes, abortion is murder, plain and simple.

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a medical doctor has made this perfectly clear:

Elective abortion has been legalized in many countries on the premise that a woman is free to choose what she does with her own body. To an extent this is true for each of us, male or female. We are free to think. We are free to plan. And we are free to do. But once an action has been taken, we are never free from its consequences.

To understand this concept more clearly, we can learn from the astronaut. Anytime during selection or preparation, he or she is free to withdraw from the program. But once the spacecraft has lifted off, the astronaut is bound to the consequences of the previous choice to make the journey.

So it is with people who choose to embark on a journey that leads to parenthood. They have freedom of choice—to begin or not to begin that course. When conception does occur, that choice has already been made.

Yes, a woman is free to choose what she will do with her body. Whether her choice leads to an astronaut’s mission or to a baby, her choice to begin the journey binds her to the consequences of that choice. She cannot “unchoose.”

When the controversies about abortion are debated, “individual right of choice” is invoked as though it were the one supreme virtue. That could only be true if but one person were involved. The rights of any one individual do not allow the rights of another individual to be abused. In or out of marriage, abortion is not solely an individual matter. Terminating the life of a developing baby involves two individuals with separate bodies, brains, and hearts. A woman’s choice for her own body does not include the right to deprive her baby of life—and a lifetime of choices that her child would make. (Ensign, October 2008)

There are rare instances when abortions are performed because the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the mother’s health is in jeopardy. It is being used today as a form of birth control. Despite this evil and disgusting practice, the work of God will not be thwarted. My brother and his wife are supreme examples of this. Instead of one baby, they will have two. I have so many friends who are raising righteous, good families who’ve been blessed with twins or multiples, sometimes more than once. I applaud these people and I truly believe that God, our Heavenly Father, is sending His precious children down in groups to families who will welcome them in order to combat this abhorrent man-made practice.

Having Gratitude

I'm a month behind in reading the Reader's Digest. This is one of the few "worldly" magazines that I can actually stand to read, mostly because in between all of the negative "we're all going to die of cancer because we eat too much junk food and the government is collapsing, etc." stuff, there are usually stories of hope and heroes.

In the September 2008 Reader's Digest, there's an article about the Herrin family of Salt Lake City, who, in 2002, gave birth to conjoined twins. Even after the medical community encouraged an abortion because of the possibility that the mother might die or that one or both of the twins wouldn't live beyond birth, this Latter-Day Saint couple prayed and fasted and decided to go forward with the pregnancy and birth. When the babies were born, they had a few medical problems, as conjoined twins obviously would, and it took several years before they were able to make the separation. When they finally did, they still had quite a few medical problems, but overall the surgery was a success and the girls are doing just fine.

I was literally sobbing as I read this article. It was very moving, and it brought to my mind a few of the issues I struggle with, one of which is gratitude.

Let's talk about gratitude. For some reason, just having gratitude about the things in your life can make you have a more positive outlook. After reading this article, I realized how much I have to be thankful for. While the Herrins had this experience that was probably faith-building and they are grateful for it, I am thankful that I didn't give birth to conjoined twins and have to sit through hours and hours waiting for the surgery of my precious children to be performed, all the while nervous of the outcome and wondering if I did the right thing, both by having them and by having the surgery done.

Just reading this article made me appreciate that my children are all healthy and have been since birth. I'm grateful that we aren't so steep in medical bills from something like this. I'm grateful that I had relatively easy pregnancies, compared to the one that this lady had to endure. The grass always seems to be greener, but really, when you take a good, hard look, you realize that even though other people seem to have it so much better, you really wouldn't want to have their little specialized package of trials at all. Then you really do become grateful for what you do have.

What is This World Coming To?

Sex education as the responsibility of the government-run public schools? Gay marriage being legalized in one state after another, with the very definition of marriage being between a man and a woman being challenged? Abortion being viewed as something that is the "choice" of a woman to do what she wants with her body, without regard to what she chose to do to get in that situation? Parents assaulting children, children subjected to pornography at young ages, etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on.

I have been popping on and off of different message boards online, and it never ceases to amaze me how immoral the world has become, how accepting of the most base and offensive acts people are. It saddens me deeply to think that my children will be subjected to these ideas and I will have to ward off these evil notions on a continual basis. That I might have to teach my children as young as 5 why being "gay" is wrong, when they do not even have an understanding of sexuality to begin with.

I'm grateful that I have the true gospel of Jesus Christ to guide me through this, but it will still be an uphill battle with all that we are facing, and the COMPLACENCY of the modern world on such issues. They give such a good reasoning behind what they accept that sometimes it's hard to explain our reasoning, other than saying "because it's breaking God's law."

Did anybody read that fabulous article by Elder Russell M. Nelson about abortion in the October 2008 Ensign? I read it and wept and loved every word he said. And to think that there are even people out there who claim to believe all those things but still think that Roe vs. Wade had a positive outcome. It's like they claim to understand the doctrine but they really don't, or they wouldn't have such a view.

I just don't understand how people who claim to belong to the church with the true gospel of Jesus Christ can accept such perversions on the basis that they believe them to be wrong, but people have free will and can do what they want. Of course they can! But legalizing such things simply allows Satan to win.

We truly live in a messed up world, and the more these things become obvious to me, the clearer it is that the members of the church need to take a stand and not be afraid of being different in our standards and beliefs.

General Conference and the Charge to Move Forward

Wasn't General Conference inspiring? Each talk seemed to be directed at me, at something I'm either struggling with or have been pondering about recently. It seemed that the message of hope was underlying all that the general authorities had to say, and I daresay that hope is what many of us need right now in these turbulent times.

I'm eager for the transcripts to come out online so I can reread my favorite talks, but I'm also anticipating the November Ensign, which I hope to really read and reread and study deeply. The thing is that we are going through some financial issues, so to be hit with such an economic crisis on a national level on top of that has really opened up a can of worries for me that I haven't really had before.

We are trying to move forward and do what we can to pick up the pieces of our situation. We knew it was risky to rent out our house, but we did it anyway, hoping that only good would come of it. It has and it hasn't, and we're trying to brush the bad under the rug and start over with a "perfect brightness of hope" that things will work themselves out as long as we continue to pay off debt, live frugally, pay tithing and do what the Lord has asked us in not postponing our family or Corey's education. We have seen many blessings along the way despite the hardships.

General Conference has stirred up some new hope in me, something that is especially hard for me to maintain. The future is uncertain, but there is still hope.

Parenting 101

I've been frequenting parenting message boards as of late. There has been some discussion about how you know if you're doing the right thing with your children and raising them right. Some of the commentators have said things like, "I try to respect my kids the way I want them to respect me" or "I just do whatever I feel is right for my children".

To me, that sounds like a very hopeless way to approach parenting.

It got me thinking how fortunate I am to have the gospel of Jesus Christ as my guide. I may not have all the answers, or solutions to some more trivial aspects of parenting, like how to get my baby to sleep through the night (though I have some definite ideas I've developed since this is my fourth baby), but I do have a sound and solid guide for the big stuff, like teaching my children about why abstinence is best and answer questions about where we go when we die.

I have the scriptures, the four standard works as a guide. I have the monthly issues of the Ensign that I can obtain online if I've already recycled my copy. I have General Conference twice a year, filled with discussion about teaching your children to walk uprightly. I have church on Sunday and Enrichment throughout the year.

I subscribe to one parenting magazine, which I still subscribe to because several years ago, I paid for about 5 years worth of subscription. When I compare the advice I get from that to what I read in the Ensign, it seems so materialistic and fake-sounding. Sure, some of it is okay, like tips on toddler-friendly snacks or how to get a baby on a sleep schedule, which is important too. But the real stuff, the good stuff, on how to have quality family time and how to work together to build a home and how to be a family, that stuff I can only get from the gospel. The way the world teaches it is too amoral. The way the world teaches it leaves out important principles and reasons for doing certain things.

I am grateful I have the gospel as my guide.

The Parents' Role in the Education of Their Children

Have you ever wondered why the problems in the education system in America are so widespread? Why some schools have all sorts of extra-curricular programs while others can't even allow their students to have a copy of the class textbook for their own use during the school year? There are good and bad schools in all socioeconomic settings, I realize, but I firmly believe that the education level of the parents, and the income level, play a big role in the quality of education that the children receive.

It seems that the more education the parents have, which often contributes to how large their income is, the better the schools are in that area. Take a college town, for example, where many of the parents are professors and work for the university. Often, the schools in the neighborhoods where these parents live are some of the better schools in the city and sometimes even state.

Parents with higher education are more apt to realize the value of education and place a high emphasize on it than parents whose education doesn't exceed high school or even less. I don't know that the less education a parent has necessarily means they don't value a sound elementary, junior high and high school education for their children. I think many of these parents are overworked and tired and have very little energy to contribute to trying to better the schools their children attend.

However, the biggest contribution a parent can make, besides becoming active in their child's school, is probably to support their students from home. They can look over homework, make sure the child is behaving in school and support the school's discipline plan, get their children to school on time and make sure they don't miss very many days. They can talk about what their kids are learning and use local public libraries to possibly support interests the children have--like checking out extra books about space when that child is learning a space unit and fascinated by it. Even if they feel they don't have a high enough education to help with homework, say a high school student's trigonometry assignment, they can still encourage and support by making sure the homework gets done and talking to teachers on behalf of their student if that student is struggling.

Parents can determine how good the education of their child is simply by being supportive and doing as much as they can, whether it be joining the PTA and becoming president or just checking that homework was done and put in the backpack to turn in.

Large Families Spur Hatred?

I admit that I frequent a website known as Yahoo! Answers. If you are unfamiliar with this site, as I'm sure you all have WAY better things to do with your time than to ask and answer questions to total strangers, many of whom have a huge chip on their shoulders, basically, people ask questions and you can answer and then they pick the best answer. You get points for answering questions and for getting picked as the best, kind of a game. It's just kind of fun, but sometimes controversial issues are stirred up and also issues that are close to my heart and my beliefs are often criticized. Here is one that came up today that still has my blood boiling:

The Question (grammar and mechanics edited--you know I can't stand those types of mistakes!):

What do you think about families having over a dozen children?
I think it's crazy and irresponsible. I mean, one family has 18 kids...the Duggars...they might have had one more. I think it's irresponsible. How can a parent be attentive to each kid...it shouldn't be the responsibility of the older kids. Also, what would happen if one of the parents died? Then it's going to be really hard, at least for awhile.

I understand her not believing in birth control...but there is such a thing as getting the tubes tied.

And with the money crisis in our country and how it's ALREADY effecting average families, things are probably triple worse for those types of families.

So my question is what do YOU think about families that are over a dozen? You have heard my opinion.

And those of you who say it's none of my or anyone else's business, don't answer...cause in all honesty, anyone and everyone CAN be effected by it."

Can you believe this? I mean, seriously, how exactly does someone else having 18 kids affect the economy all that much? Really, get serious. And the whole thing about what if one of the parents dies? What if I have one child and I die? That child still is without a mother too. It will just be a hardship that family has to face if that happens.

The nerve of some people, really. I can't believe how anyone can be so selfish and stupid and blame the economic problems in this country on families with more than 12 kids! How ridiculous!

You should have seen the answers. People agreeing and blaming all of the nation's problems on this type of family. Talking about how selfish and irresponsible those parents are. The last time I checked, having children, especially a lot, is the furthest thing from selfish. Those people should win an award! I have trouble handling my 4, I can't imagine how difficult 18 must be! And to be pregnant that many times! Ouch! Pregnancy is miserable. I still plan on doing it as many times as I can handle, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to be 18. I say, kudos to those parents. They are probably raising those kids with some good, old-fashioned values of hard work and integrity and having fun without all the worldliness. What a bunch of morons on the Yahoo! Answers to criticize them!