I want to tell you from a medical perspective that it is very, very rare that a physician would need to choose between the life of the mother and the life of the child. There is almost always something that can be done for both. This has always been traditional obstetric practice.
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The overwhelming number of abortions done in South Dakota and across our nation are done for expediency or convenience. They are done on perfectly healthy babies and perfectly healthy mothers. They are not done for rape, not done for incest, not done for fetal anomalies, and not done to save the life of the mother. They are done because a pregnant woman feels hopeless or helpless. We as a society and especially a Christian community need to seek out these women and be instruments of God’s grace and compassion.
I have in my practice now a 16 year old mother who was raped by her brother. So here we have in one case the two stumbling blocks that most people have with HB1215. She decided that the only innocent person in this unfortunate situation besides herself was her unborn child. What a brave decision for anyone to make, much less a traumatized 16 year old. I have great hope and faith that if a 16 year old can get it right so can the rest of South Dakotans.
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I have also over the years had the privilege of caring for many malformed, abnormal children whose lives were cut short or handicapped in human terms. Perfect in God’s plan, but not in our clouded viewpoint. NONE of the families that I have served, in these situations, have regretted their child’s life.
My pastor reminded me recently that Moses, David, and Paul all had something in common. They were each guilty of murder. Our Savior once had an encounter with a woman caught in the very act of adultery and deserving of stoning. Our savior did not condemn this woman for her sexual sin, in fact He specifically said I don’t condemn you, go and sin no more.
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