Lesson Learned

I married Andrew for many reasons, but one of the things that I liked about him was his awareness and caring of what goes on in the world. He's not obsessive mind you, but especially working in the news field he's very much aware of the news and how that will affect our lives. Call it personal responsibility I guess. Anyway, I loved and admired it. I still do, I just have to know when to walk away and let him be informed by himself.

Take Saturday night for example. The U.S. House of Representitives was discussing multiple amendments and then voting on the ever infamous "health care bill". Which I have issues with the name alone because EVERYONE in this county has access to health care. Not everyone has health insurance. Two VERY different things. But I digress.
We, even though we don't have cable, have an abundant 13 or so free channels through the VHF/UHF *I don't remember which* stations in town. Including C-SPAN, which growing up, I always thought was pointless, who would watch people talk and vote? My husband, that's who. So I spent my Saturday evening watching the House discuss the abortion amendment and then eventually, like way late at night, vote on the bill.
While all this "discussion" was going on, I made Andy change the channel at least once, because I was in tears.
Now, I will note this in the beginning, because it's not really my point of argument for the day, the abortion amendment was good, and it was bad. Good, because it's right and moral and Biblical. Bad, because it being added to the bill caused a lot of on the fence Democrats to vote in favor of the bill which they might not have without it because they are actually pro-life. So yes, if the bill is going to be passed, it needs the amendment, but without it, the bill might not be passed. It's kind of a win/lose situation. Just a thought. Anyway...

The main problem that brought me to tears wasn't the screwed up "health care" bill (I know, politics, don't even go there) or the fear of what kind of nation we're bringing our son into, it was the female representitives discussing the abortion amendment. I about died listening to all these women discussing how horrible it was of all these people to try to take away their "right" to have an abortion or their "right" to buy supplemental insurance that paid for abortion. "Women have the right to control their bodies, they have the 'right' to pay for an abortion if they want to". Putting aside the illogicalness of that "rights" argument, it was devastating to listen to. All I could think about were the lies these women had been told, the lies they are speaking, and the countless lives ruined as a result of them. First of all, we don't have a "right" to our own bodies, but that's another Biblical discussion.
Secondly, abortion is a lie!! I've always been strongly pro-life, but I admit, being pregnant has changed how passionate I am. When I was 8 weeks pregnant (so really, 6 weeks from conception) we saw our little son's heart beating on an ultrasound screen. We heard the incredibly fast beating over the speakers. I heard my son's heart beat, and I was in awe. He was so small, not even recognizable as a baby, except for the precious heart beating. You could see it beat and pumping and hear it's rhythm. And you want to tell women that at that point it's still all "tissue"?!!
I was in tears because if only we could have an ultrasound machine in every crisis-pregnancy center, or planned parenthood. If only women would have to have one before they had an abortion. Because really, it might not change some women's minds, but it would show the truth instead of speaking more lies to them. So many women know, and understand what an abortion is, and don't care, but so many women don't know or understand that their baby is alive!!

And so my heart broke, because all these female representitives were selling the lies and doing so it so passionately. And I cried, for all those babies who feel pain and hearts beat, and never get to be held or loved. And I cheered for the passage of the amendment to ban abortion funding, but I cried for the loss of lives and the destruction that this "health care" bill will cause. And I pray, for women who don't know what it is they carry, and how quickly they could love those babies, or of how many people who are willing to love them for them.

So lesson learned, don't watch emotional politics while pregnant. And yet, maybe it's good, because it gives me more to pray for and care about.