One Quiet Birthday among Millions of Unwanted Birthdays

By Larry Peterson

Meet a pro-life couple from 1978

This is about a pro-life couple and an incident that took place 46 years ago. The exact date was September 6, 1978. But I cannot preface that story without mentioning the new law taking place in Florida. It is as follows:

On May 1, 2024, Florida will enact the new abortion ban that was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis last year. The law had been on hold until the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments pro and con regarding the bill. The Court upheld the bill.

So, starting on May 1, 2024, abortions will be banned in Florida after six weeks of pregnancy. Amendment 4 is on the ballot in November. This will give Floridians the right to vote abortion back into the state constitution with the 24-week ban.  Florida Amendment 4 Nov.2024 

 I am Pro-Life---from Conception

 I am pro-life, and that is because  I do believe that life begins at conception. What prompted me to write this is the 24-week mark. That number represents the time our daughter, had spent in her mom’s womb before something went terribly wrong. What followed was an unbending, unmovable blanket of courage that seized the mother of that child turning her into a woman who fearlessly risked her life in an effort to save the baby inside her.

 Our daughter, Theresa Mary’s birthdays would have been on September 6. That is the day she was born. It is also the day she died.  Every year as the day approaches, I do experience  melancholia. I cannot help thinking about “what might have been?”

 She might have had children like her big sister, Mary Dymphna, who would only have been a year older than her “baby” sister.  Maybe Mary and her little sister would have been best friends and confidants. Their kids would have been cousins and maybe they would have been friends too, hanging out and being family together.

 We probably would have all gotten together and had a party with cake and ice-cream and sang "Happy Birthday" like we and many of you do on these occasions. However, like so many other families, we have those empty days of birthday parties that never were.

 Planned Parenthood—performs more abortions than anyone

 The incredible disregard for life that permeates so much of our society leaves no explanation except one; that  self-centerdness has consumed countless numbers of people who are absorbed in themselves.    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, we are all aware of the “body-parts” scandal. 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. It was about 6 a.m. I had just left for work and never heard her or saw her banging on the window and hollering for me to STOP! I drove away clueless as to what was going on. Fortunately, her mom had been staying with us for a few days and hearing her daughter’s cries for help hurried to find her bleeding profusely and covered in blood, She called 911.

 She demanded to be taken to the Catholic Hopsital;

 The ambulance arrived quickly and prepared her for transport. This is when she began thinking of the child still inside her. “Take me to Holy Name Hospital’ she demanded. The paramedics refused, saying it was too far and she was losing so much blood that she might not make it. They told her they were headed to Pascak Valley Hospital, ten minutes away.

 Loretta, fighting her ever-weakening self, yelled at them to go to Holy Name Hospital. She was so determined they gave in. (She signed some kind of release form).Holy Name was 30 minutes away. Why did she insist on going there? Foremost, she wanted her baby baptized.. She also wanted herself anointed by the priest should she die.

 This was long before the cell phone era. My first stop was 20 minutes from the house. Sal, the plant manager, was waiting for me and hurried over as I pulled up.”Your mother-in-law called. They took your wife to Holy Name Hospital.” 

 Using Sal’s office phone, I quickly got the church number from information. It was not even 7 a.m., but Father Murray, the Pastor, answered the phone. He told me he would be there.

 Father Murray began anointing her immediately

 I arrived five minutes before the ambulance. Father Murray was already there. He put his arm around my shoulder, and we watched together as they pulled the gurney out. Loretta was unconscious, and blood was up to her neck and on her face. Father Murray began anointing her, and I will never forget how the paramedics let him do his work while they still did theirs.

 The nurses and doctors took charge and started hurrying the gurney to the emergency room with my almost dead wife and our unborn baby as their passsengers. I watched as they disappeared through two shiny, silver doors at the end of the corridor. Father Murray said to me, “I will be back shortly. Please wait here.”

 Father Murray returned and, placing his hand on my shoulder, told me that the baby, a girl, was born and lived a few minutes. During that time he baptized her. Loretta was unconscious, and the doctor would be out shortly to talk to me. He told me they had begun giving her blood transfusions. The doctor came out and told me that she was responding to treatment but it would be “touch and go” for a while. They were still treating her so I was asked to wait in a nearby room until they were finished. I simply did as asked.

 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.  

 I often wonder what “might have been”

 So, as I contemplate what might have been in my own family's life, I wonder what might have been in millions upon millions of other families. 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, servers,  pharmacists, and even trash collectors and hot dog vendors never made it past life in the womb?

 How many  living children in-utero, 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 had been protecting this heinous behavior for more than fifty years. Now the power to abort refers to the states where the act is approved. What ever have we wrought? The womb has become the modern day Auschwitz. Depending on the choice of the one in charge, a person will either live or die.

 Every September 6 I quietly sing Happy Birthday to Theresa

 Every September 6, I grab a few moments alone and I quietly sing "Happy Birthday" to Theresa Mary. She lived but for a few moments but unlike so many others, she was acknowledged.. She was buried with my parents in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla, N.Y.  Her name is on the headstone. She was our child and part of a family. She was real and she was a gift from God. Nothing can ever change that. So many like her were never given that recognition. That is a sad, sad, thing. No matter, all are God’s individual creations and HE knows them all.

Never forget---God loves us all, no matter what. HE wants to talk to you. It  is your choice.

 To all the moms and dads who have lost their little ones to miscarriage or premature birth, you are never alone. Your pain is real, the life you carried was real, and you have the right to lament what might have been. If you have terminated your own pregnancy and are deeply pained for doing it, God loves you and is there for you. Reach out and seek forgiveness. He loves us all. Remember, every new born is one of God’s personal creations. But never despair because God has your back and he has your child. He or she is safe and at peace, protected by His angels. Seek forgiveness and one day you will get that big hug and kiss from them and then you will understand. God bless you all.

Copyright©larry Peterson 2024