Day Seventeen

March comes in like a lion! I went to the hospital today at noon. Things were going along well, a few waves here and there, a nod or two, the usual bunch refusing to look in my direction. I was feeling pretty complacent. So I prayed that God would send me someone to talk to. And He did. Oh boy, did He ever.

She came riding by on her bike and looked me in the eye. I said hello. She slowed her bike to a stop and asked me what this 40 days stuff was. I told her I was praying for an end to abortion. She started shrieking at me that there were 12 year old girls in this town that were pregnant. I tried to respond but she was already riding away as she had zero interest in hearing what I had to say.

If she'd stuck around I would have told her that if a 12 year old is pregnant then something is really wrong. Somebody is breaking the law here and it's probably an older guy/man, not a 14 year old boy. And when you abort a baby conceived via incest or rape then you are hiding the 'evidence' of this man's wrongdoing. He just got away with molesting an innocent young girl.

This woman said a few things to me which I don't remember at all but I kept thinking about her screeching "12 year old girls are pregnant". This is an irrational reason to keep abortion legal - laws are not made to deal with exceptions (most abortions are requested by women aged between 20 - 30), it's an emotional reaction - let's throw out science and depend on the most dramatic thing you can think up, and killing another human being is not going to turn back the clock and make a 12 year old (or anyone else) UNpregnant.

A few minutes after the angry woman sailed off on her bike I saw a lovely couple from my church exiting the hospital. They waved at me and it was like a little hug from God.

I wish I had been able to address this woman's problem. I think I only succeeded in making her angry and she's probably digging her heels in more firmly to the abortion side. Or today could have been Step One in a multi-step conversion process...let's hope it's the latter.