What Happens When We Jump To Conclusions

Way back in my youth (1983 to be exact) I was newly married and very ill. I spent Thanksgiving and Christmas that year doubled over in pain. It turned out that I had a cyst on my ovary that was wreaking havoc with my system. At first, the doctor thought it would dissolve on its own, and when after several months, the pain became worse and I began to become anemic, he decided I needed a procedure to get my system back in order.

Two weeks after New Year's 1984, I went into the hospital for a dilatation and curettage or uterus scraping. Afterward, the doctor told me everything was fine and that I would be able to have as many children as God would bless me with. A relief for me as I had always wanted a big family.

In 1985 I became pregnant for the very first time. It was a difficult pregnancy; I was on bedrest for the last 4 months, and my oldest son was born in February 1986. The two of us caught a staph infection in the delivery room of the very same hospital I had been in 2 years earlier. The first week of his life was scary but with God's grace we made it through. Two years after his birth, I was expecting again, but sadly lost my second child in a miscarriage.

In 1989, I was again expecting. Early in my second trimester the doctor told me I had to quit my job or it would put my third child's life at risk. After I left the doctor's office, I went to work to give my supervisor the news and then, returned home.

Once home, I retrieved the mail from the box and noticed a large envelope from the Respect Life Committee of our local church. I opened it as I walked up the driveway to the house. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw what was inside!

In the envelope was a horrifyingly graphic color picture of an aborted baby...ripped from it's mother's womb. Across the top was the accusation that that was what I had done to my children(?) when I had aborted them in 1984 and 1988!?! Also in that envelope was paperwork telling me how disappointed Christ was in me for having had abortions!?!

I was alone, confused, and inconsolable. Here I had just returned from a doctor's visit telling me I could lose the child I was carrying if I was not careful, and THIS is what I found in my mailbox. When I was able to compose myself, I called the church whose address was on the envelope. The secretary was as appalled as I was that I was accosted in this way in my own home...and WRONGLY so at that!

After listening to my story, the secretary told me she was going to make a call or two and get back to me. Honestly, I didn't believe her. If someone could send a pregnant woman a horrific picture like that, accusing her of committing acts she never had, lying about returning a telephone call didn't seem all that impossible to believe.

Well, the secretary DID call me back later that day. She told me that one of the vounteers on the committee that had sent me that diabolical picture (at a time when I was trying to keep my own child alive in my womb) was an employee of the hospital where I had the curative d&c five years earlier, and after the miscarriage four years after that.

This employee, over zealous in his/her desire to stop abortion took it upon themselves to send this picture out to every woman whom it APPEARED to him/her had had an abortion.

TO HELP THEM SEE THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS!!

I was appalled that my personal medical records would be used to attack me in such a horrific and erroneous way; and, that a hospital employee would abuse their position in such a way in "Christ's Name."

To her credit, the parish secretary was appalled as well, consoled me as best she could, apologized, and impressed me immensely with her honesty and compassion.

The moral of this story?

IN ALL THINGS...COMPASSION.

We will NEVER win the fight against abortion if our motives and our methods are not PURE. I never felt comfortable in that church EVER AGAIN.

Like Christ, I was wrongly accused and persecuted by someone who believed only what they wanted to believe, despite the TRUTH!

Sadly, in their zeal they forgot one important, indisputable fact: someday they, too will be judged...not by me...but, by God.