The Beating Heart

 

By Veronika Sophia Robinson

 

In my early twenties, I had a flat mate who used abortion as a contraceptive. I accompanied her on two occasions to the clinic.

 

I personally know many women who’ve aborted their babies. Do I think less of them for having done so? Am I in judgment of them? No. Although I’m 100% clear about where I stand on the issue, I don’t feel I’m in any position to tell another woman how to deal with a pregnancy she does not want. I'm not in her shoes.

 

I recently posted a picture on the fan page for The Mother on Facebook. It had caught my eye, and I decided to share it hoping it might illicit the same response as it did in me. The picture showed an unborn baby and said that we "call the time of death" when a person’s heart stops beating, but why don’t we "call the start of life" when it begins beating? 

I found this quite a poetic question, but needless to say sharing this picture ruffled more than a few feathers (which was not my intention).

 

There was a show on TV recently (Panorama, I think) which showed just how easy it is (as spoken by the women themselves) to get an abortion in England. I guess it’s symptomatic of the quick-fix, band-aid culture we live in?

 

I’ve often wondered about an article I once rejected from a researcher and writer I greatly admire. It was about how when abortion is made legal in a culture, ‘good enough’ parenting increases. It wasn’t that I disagreed with his findings (and boy have I thought a LOT about it since reading his brilliant article ~ often wondering if I made a mistake by not publishing it), but that, as editor of The Mother magazine, my view has always been to make every baby a wanted baby (which is what the author was saying, in his way). My way is to educate and inspire others via conscious conception, rather than abortion.

 

Let’s create a generation where men and women don’t have unplanned, unwanted pregnancies but are actively creating ~ in mind, body and soul ~ a beautiful and conscious environment in which to bring a soul Earthside. Idealistic? Hell yeah, but why not? Humans are designed to excel and evolve, and it should be no different in this area of life.

 

As mothers, let’s teach our daughters (and sons!) not only about ‘safe’ sex (whatever that means), contraception and conception, but also about loving, wholesome and healthy relationships, self love, and the benefits of lovemaking only with people you’d be 100% prepared to raise a child with.

 

When I was 19, I became pregnant. My Lutheran boyfriend, fresh into college with big career plans, demanded I have an abortion. I’d recently witnessed my older sister become a single mother ~ indeed, I was babysitting for her most nights of the week so she could return to work, (and I had heard my mother’s story of starting her parenting life as a single mother in the 1950s) and I knew it wouldn’t be easy.

 

For the record, I was on the pill. Interestingly, my mother conceived two of her children while on the pill, too. NOT a guarantee of contraception!

 

I was scared. How would I cope? There were a million and one questions and insecurities, but the question of abortion was one I never had to ask myself, either then, or a few years later, when I found myself pregnant again.

 

As Nature would have it, I miscarried (both times). Regardless of the fear, the instinct to protect my baby overruled everything. I knew there was a beating heart inside of me.

 

The words ‘no heart beat’ were incredibly sad, even at 19 when I was little more than a child myself.