The woman, Cynthia, told me that in 1966, her mother had become pregnant with her in what was a decidedly unwanted pregnancy. Although abortion was still illegal, Cynthia was not safe. Her mother decided to attempt an illegal abortion, consuming enormous amounts of drugs to end her pre-born life. When that failed, her mother tried to abort by inserting a coat hanger inside herself. The coat hanger missed Cynthia’s heart by a centimetre. Her mother passed out, and Cynthia’s father found her unconscious on the floor. He rushed her to the hospital, but the situation was so serious that they were air-lifted to Toronto. They spent seven months in the hospital.
While I listened in shock, Cynthia told me that in spite of her mother’s attempts to kill her, she had survived until birth, needing fifteen surgeries in the first two years to keep her alive. Her mother dropped her off at her aunt’s house, wanting nothing to do with her. Several years later, her mother was dating a new man and regained custody of Cynthia. However, her mother then tried to finish the job she had started while Cynthia was in utero, attempting to kill her three more times. Instead of a coat hanger, a knife was her weapon of choice this time. When she was fifteen, her mother put a knife through her bedroom door, and she and her brother escaped for good.
...
It was wrong for her mother to target her with a coat hanger. It was wrong for her mother to attempt to kill her some time later with a knife. And it is abhorrent that we have responded to stories such as those of Cynthia’s mother by legalizing a more efficient way of killing. As Cynthia told me, “I wish that if my mother didn’t want me, she should have just given me up for adoption.”
The unborn child is not the problem.
The mother's problems, are the problem.
So solve the mother's problems.
Don't kill the child.
