Honoring Theresa Mary on the Anniversary of Roe vs Wade

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

(This is a revised essay about Theresa Mary & Roe v Wade from a year ago).

The following is about our fourth child and how she touched our lives. September 6, 1978, our daughter, Theresa Mary, was born and died. If she had lived she might have had children like her older sister, Mary Dymphna. Maybe Mary and her little sister would have been best friends and confidants. Their kids would have been cousins. We probably would have all gotten together and had a party with cake and ice-cream and sang "Happy Birthday" like we and all of you do on those occasions. However, like so many other families, we have those empty days of birthday parties that never were and Christmas mornings with missing presents under the tree.

The anniversary of Roe V Wade is here. What this decision has wrought is the incredible disregard for life that now exists in our society. Planned Parenthood, marketed and promoted as the bastion of women's health in America, performs more abortions than any other organization in the country. It receives over one-half billion dollars a year in government funding and in 2014 it came to light that it is nothing more than a "chop-shop" for human body parts. Theresa Mary was in her sixth month of development and could have fit their criteria for body parts perfectly.

At the beginning of Loretta's sixth month of pregnancy she unexpectedly went into labor. Bleeding profusely she was rushed by ambulance to the hospital and Theresa Mary was born. She also lived and died very quickly, within minutes. I had called ahead to Holy Trinity Catholic Church and a priest, Father Murray, was waiting for our arrival. Our baby was baptized and buried with my parents. She was our child, she was real and was a gift from God.

Theresa was not simply a "fetus". She was not "products of conception". She was not an "annoyance", or an extra pair of shoes to worry about or another potentially "sleepless night". She did not mean less money in the bank. No, Theresa Mary was worth far more than any of that multiplied a thousand times over. Nothing can change the fact that she did exist. In God's world there is no "time" as we know it. He lives in the "Eternal Now". Theresa Mary now lives there with Him.

As it is every year around this time, I once again contemplate what might have been in my own family's life. I also cannot help but wonder what differences might have been in millions upon millions of other families’ lives. How many millions of birthday parties have never been celebrated? How many doctors, scientists, priests, nuns, teachers, baseball players, carpenters and astronauts, surgeons, auto-mechanics, hair-dressers, waitresses, pharmacists and even trash collectors and hot dog vendors never made it past life in the womb? How many living children in-vitro, with their own DNA and their own legs, arms, hands and feet, kidneys and livers and hearts and lungs, have been destroyed out of convenience or maybe just for those body parts? Roe v Wade has been protecting this heinous behavior since 1973. Whatever have we wrought?

As I remember Theresa Mary I say to her, “Little one, you lived and died and the world will always know it. You were NOT a "product of conception" or a piece of "tissue". You were a living person. So many more like you were never given that recognition. It is a sad, sad, thing.

Addendum: Roe v Wade has a twin. It is called Doe v Bolton

January 22nd is the 43nd anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling known as "Roe vs Wade". Simply put, the court, by a 7 to 2 majority, said that abortion is a citizen's fundamental right under the United States Constitution. You are all familiar with how that ruling has torn our nation apart. What many people do not seem to be aware of is the other ruling that took place on that very same day. It provided the proverbial "double whammy" to the abortion issue. That ruling is called "Doe Vs Bolton". Once again, it was a 7 to 2 majority vote affirming the ruling. The US Supreme Court had given birth to the "Roe & Doe" twins.

The ruling in the "Doe Vs Bolton" case is summed up here: (The link supplies the details:

The Court's opinion in Doe vs bolton stated that a woman may obtain an abortion after viability, if necessary to protect her health. The Court defined "health" as follows:

"Whether in the words of the Georgia statute, "an abortion is necessary" is a professional judgement that the Georgia physician will be called upon to make routinely. We agree with the District Court, 319 F. Supp., at 1058, that the medical judgement may be exercised in the light of all factors-physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age-relevant to the well being of the patient. All these factors may relate to health."

Amazing as it is, if Roe vs Wade was ever overturned, Doe vs Bolton would take its place. Doe vs Bolton allows for abortion "after viability" for almost any conceivable reason. Read the excerpt above closely. According to Doe vs Bolton an abortion could be permitted at full term because the baby's crying when born might cause too much stress for someone in the house who has a psychological problem. Far fetched? Not really. Just get a doctor to sign off on it.

God help us today and tomorrow.

©Larry Peterson 2016 All Rights Reserved.