Dear fellow Pro-Lifers,

Meanwhile, this coming weekend, 6th March is the 7th anniversary of the death of Baby X, the child who was sentenced to death by our Supreme Court because her mother was deemed to be suicidal. Please pray for that baby and pray that we in Ireland, supported by the prayers of Pro-Lifers around the world, resist the pressures which the E.U. and our own government are applying in their hope that baby-killing is legalized.

Greetings from the United States, and thank you for your kind comments! We have posted your letter on AbortionTV and added a link to both your site and CALL as well. It is clear that you are making a tremendous impact in Ireland. Keep up the excellent work, and let us know how we can assist you in the future.

Thank you for your letter. Your letter is not easy to respond to -- without us sounding as if we are in any way condemning you -- but there are many issues we feel the need to address. First, you are to be congratulated for finding God and deciding that abortion is not for you again.  We find it confusing, however, that a Christian could have an opinion that a woman has the right to choose to end her baby's life. After all, doesn't the bible clearly commands us not to murder?

You state that you were only five weeks along when you had an abortion.  Does this timing somehow "diminish" the abortion act or effect the outcome of your child? Is your baby at five weeks less of a human than at 8, 10 or 23 weeks or even 23 years? (you mentioned your Christian affiliation.  You may want to reference Psalms 139 13-16, Isaiah 46:3, and Jermiah 1:4-5).

You also state that you are better off now, having not had your baby, or are you in fact better off now because you are not raising your baby? It's clear that you felt that bringing up a child at that time was not "in your cards," but there may be some victim confusion going on here.  Is your baby better off for not living?  With 200,000 couples seeking to adopt, wouldn't the baby have been better off living under the care of loving parents?  We also agree that women should have the right to choose what to do with their body.  A fetus, however, is not part of a women's body -- in fact, it's classified as foreign tissue.   Finally, whether abortion is legal or illegal doesn't change the hearts of anyone.   The first step is understanding.  You are to be lauded for taking these first steps, although we believe that there is still more path ahead of you.

Our son...

This is a picture of our son, Shannon. This snapshot was taken at my mom's wedding on January 2, 1999. When I found out that I was pregnant, I was thoroughly disgusted. I already had two daughters from a previous marriage, and was within the mere act of selecting classes before starting college. Scott and I had discussed children, and I had told him in no uncertain terms that if he wanted a child of his own, then I wasn't the woman for him. I was 21, and the only reason my tubes hadn't been tied after the birth of my second daughter was that the hospital in which my OB-GYN practiced was a Catholic hospital. Tubals were permitted 1. after the birth of the 3rd child; or 2. only after a woman had reached the age of 30. I had been on the pill for almost 3 years, but as an added precaution we used two methods of over-the-counter birth control. My first reaction was shock. The second was anger. My husband and I were engaged, and saving up for a bigger apartment. There was no question that we were going to be married, regardless of the circumstances, but I didn't want another baby period, and my husband wasn't ready financially or emotionally to become a father to a third child. (I already had two...he had none of his own.)

We considered abortion, going so far as to schedule an appointment at a clinic. We had the money, and we felt it was right. Or we thought we did. Two days before I was scheduled, we both had the same dream. He was almost 45 minutes away, spending the night at his parents' house because his dad had taken ill, but we had the same dream. In it, all we could see was the light in an operating room. (He wasn't sure, but I knew because I'd had c-sections with both of my girls.) Neither of us had any knowledge of anyone else in the room, and neither of us felt as though we were even IN the room. All we saw was the light. Then, all of a sudden, there was a sound, like a vacuum cleaner, and it droned on and on. After about 30 seconds, the sound of babies crying came. Not just one baby, but more like a nursery full. Then the light went out, and hundreds of empty hospital cribs, the plastic kind, lined up where the light had been. I woke up in a cold sweat, and walked into the living room to the phone. Before I could pick it up, it rang. It was Scott, and he told me image for image the dream I'd just had.

That was the end of our abortion debate. We knew then that no matter how we felt, God intended for our child to see his birth. I was living in a rent-set-by-income apartment, and there was no way we could move AND buy the things that a baby needs. I'd long since gotten rid of all the girls' things, giving them to family members and neighbors who were pregnant. So we went on. We accepted the fact that we were going to have this baby, and by the time he was born, we knew that he was going to be a joy. We were right. He was born October 12th, 1992. He's in kindergarten now. Last year, Shannon was diagnosed as having Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, but we and his teachers are ready to throw that out the window. I have never seen a child more full of life and with such an imagination. He reads on a 4th grade level, does basic math, has the most unbelievable memory. And he is, just as all of our kids are, a joy. We just decided that God saw us, and made up His mind that Shannon needed US to be his parents. God gave him to us because He trusted us with him.