Deciding Whose Life is Worth More

Someone told me that the young girl, probably around 17 years of age, had dropped someone off at the abortion facility. When she approached our vigil line, I asked if I could talk to her. She said yes. So, I asked about the mom in the clinic. She (let's call her Jane) told me that she was her sister (we'll call her Jill), that when Jill had had her first child, she died. Jane must have seen my perplexed look and went on to explain that Jill had a heart problem which was discovered when she delivered her first baby, and she almost died. This was her second pregnancy. Jill's doctor told her she couldn't risk having another child and advised her to abort this one. Jane said, "He's even paying for it!"

Jane went on to say that Jill was excited about having another baby but had to do as her doctor advised to save her own LIFE. To my horror, I discovered that Jill was 19 weeks pregnant, and that this was the second day of her abortion. I realized that it was too late for the baby who had been killed the day before, that as Jane and I were talking, the abortionist was removing, limb by limb, Jill's perfectly formed baby. I wondered how traumatic it must have been to Jill's heart for this unnatural, grossly intrusive procedure which was being done in an abortion facility. What about her fragile heart?

This experience was hard for me to shake. For hours, I kept thinking about Jane, Jill, and we'll call him Joe. I cried for all of them.

Later that evening, Joe Araipo's name came up in conversation. You know ... America's Toughest Sheriff. I was curious to find out more about him. So, I did a search on the computer. Did you know that he is 80 years old? That impressed me, 80 years old, still working full time, AND the toughest sheriff to boot! I thought, "He must come from good stock." So, I delved more. Did you know that his mother died while giving birth to him?!

Then, it came to me. How do we decide whose LIFE is worth more, mother's or baby's? We don't. How do we decide who should live, the mother or the baby? We don't. God does. What we know is that we can't kill the baby.

In ALL circumstances, we can't kill the baby.