Here is part of an essay from Cynthia, DNP (Doctor of nursing practice), ACNS-BC, who is a registered nurse with 28 years of experience working in obstetrics and eight years with medical surgical and hospice nursing. For 17 years, she has taught nursing.
The story came from thetorchblog.net.
In her field, she has worked decades helping patients from birth to death.
“Life is precious and life is fleeting, and life should be respected,” she wrote. “I am pro-life.”
Her nursing students ask her if she is “pro-life” or “pro-choice.” (Being pro-choice means being pro-abortion and being pro-life doesn’t mean you are anti-abortion). She doesn’t ask her students where they stand because she fears they may think it could adversely affect their grade.
When she tells them she is pro-life, some respond that she has no right to force her religious views on others. But her argument against abortion is based on the anatomy and physiology of pregnancy, and on logical reasoning.
She wasn’t always pro-life. She previously considered herself pro-choice. In her worked, she assisted with abortions which were considered to be therapeutic, done through inducing labor, and frequently done for Trisomy 21, or Down Syndrome.
“It is my understanding of human biology and embryology as well as my own experiences with abortion and thousands of pregnant patients which have shaped my current position on abortion,” she wrote.
Her students ask:
• When does life begin?
“Growth and multiplication is exactly what is happening after the egg and the sperm join to form the zygote. Within twenty-four hours of conception the zygote is dividing rapidly into many cells which will differentiate to form different parts of the human body. Dead things do not do this. Dead cells do not replicate their DNA and multiply into more cells. They do not differentiate to become a brain, a heart, the liver, the skin, muscle and bone. Life begins at conception, when the fertilized egg begins to grow.”
• When can it be considered a human?
“When the egg and the sperm join, this is the beginning of a new human, with its own set of DNA which also includes hair color, eye color, skin tone, fingerprints, and a multitude of other individual characteristics. The baby is genetically different from the mother, having only half of the DNA coming from her, and half from the father; a distinct human being. So now we all can agree that we have established that abortion is killing a living human.”
• Why shouldn’t a woman be able to do what she wants with her body?”
“The woman has every right to be in control of and responsible for her body. She has the right and responsibility to use methods to prevent conception if she does not want to become pregnant. Being in control also would include not engaging in activity which is known to lead to pregnancy, which is sexual intercourse.
“However, once a pregnancy occurs, it is no longer only the woman’s body that is in question, as the baby is not a part of her body.”
• How do we know that the baby is not a part of the woman’s body?
“…the placenta and umbilical cord exist precisely because the baby has a different and separate circulatory system from the mother and their blood must not intermingle. If something happens, such as a traumatic injury, that causes their blood to mix, it can cause serious complications.
“If the fetus were not a separate human being but were only another part of its mother’s body, it would not need a placenta and umbilical cord to separate them. It could simply grow inside one of her body cavities like a tumor without any barriers between the two to protect each of them.
“…And even though the placenta is attached to the uterus, it is no more a part of her body than an earring or a watch is when you wear them. So now we have determined that the baby is a genetically distinct human, not a part of the woman’s body, and that it is alive, growing, and developing.”
• What about cases of pregnancy that result from rape?”
“According to research, 75-80 percent of women who become pregnant after rape choose to keep their babies rather than having an abortion. Abortion is the ending of a human life, a life which is as much the child of its mother as it is of its father. It is an additional trauma for the woman, and so it compounds rather than ameliorates the trauma of rape. Women who are pregnant from rape often choose to carry the pregnancy because they recognize that the baby is still their baby despite the circumstances of its conception. They also feel that having an abortion would be undoing the only positive thing (the baby) that resulted from the rape, as it cannot “undo” the rape. While abortion exacerbates the pain of the rape victim, many find that having the child is a source of healing for them.
“Additionally, many rape victims state that they do not want to punish an innocent baby because of the crime of the rapist. If they were to do that, they would feel like they were as bad as the rapist.”
• What about abortion in cases to save the mother’s life?
“There are statistics reported that less than 1 percent of abortions are performed to save the life or reduce health risks of the mother. This statistic is unreliable because it includes ectopic pregnancies which would not survive regardless because of where the placenta is implanted. The definition of an abortion is the termination of a human pregnancy to cause the death of a fetus, which is another reason why the removal of an ectopic pregnancy cannot be considered the same as an abortion. It is not performed for the sole purpose of ending the life of the fetus. This statistic also includes abortions done for the mother’s mental health, because she allegedly cannot handle the stress of a baby born with a genetic abnormality such as Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome). Subtracting ‘abortions’ to remove ectopic pregnancies and those which are performed for preserving a woman’s mental health, we find that statistic dwindle down to zero. As the Association of Pro-Life Physicians states, an abortion is never needed to save the life of a mother and this argument should not be used as a support for abortion.”
An incident changed Cynthia’s mind on abortion.
“One day, I witnessed a saline abortion,” she wrote. “I watched the baby through the ultrasound as the doctor injected saline solution into the uterus. Immediately the baby recoiled in pain as the saline started burning its skin. I started crying and had to leave the room. Later, when the doctor reprimanded me for my reaction, I told her that the abortion was barbaric and that I would never help with one again.
“I continued to care for the women who were having medical, ‘therapeutic’ abortions. With these abortions, the labor is induced and the woman delivers an intact baby which will then slowly die by suffocation. We wrap the baby in a blanket and the parents often want to hold the baby they are killing and bond with it while it slowly suffocates, believing the lie they were told that the baby is not suffering. There was one that was performed for what were dubious reasons, but the patient and her family were adamant that it needed to be done. I arrived to work after the baby had already been born and had died. I was supposed to take the baby to wrap it to go to the morgue, but I took the baby to another room and held it while I cried. I never helped with another abortion after that.
“When I tell my students this story, it is always with great difficulty and they can tell that it still upsets me to this day. I can still see that sweet little face of the dead baby. I am crying while I am writing this, because I helped kill babies.”
She said it is not logical to think that you should not “impose your opinion on others” by thinking abortion is murder.
“That is like saying that I think it is wrong to shoot the guy at the gas station, and I would not do it, but I cannot impose those beliefs on anyone else,” she wrote. “It’s like saying that even though I think it would be wrong to hold a pillow over the face of the stroke patient in the acute care facility, I shouldn’t impose my beliefs on anyone else.
“Who do we think we are that we can decide that the preborn baby matters less than any other living human? Is it okay to kill a person for convenience? Is this really the kind of society in which we want to live?”
At hospitals where she worked, there have been many patients who come to the ER, hemorrhaging and infected after having abortions in clinics. Abortion is not about improving patient safety or abortion clinics would be have to meet the same standards as outpatient surgical centers.
It’s about making money, she wrote.
“Our friends and family members and coworkers are listening, so it’s time we start offering a different message than the one that the media bombards them with,” Cynthia wrote.