Families are stronger when all members recognize that every life has value from conception to natural death. In a society where the political agenda is abortion-friendly, it is sometimes difficult to know where to draw the line. Is every abortion wrong? What should be done with pregnancies that began in incest or rape? Is abortion essential health care?
There are many tough decisions
involving abortion. However, pro-life advocates worry that the political agenda
about abortion is now affecting the medical specialty of obstetrics and
gynecology. Nevertheless, OB-GYN medical professionals who are also pro-life
are upholding the sanctity of life as they oppose the idea that abortions are
part of essential health care.
Dr. Christina Francis is the
chairwoman of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and
Gynecologists (AAPLOG). Francis spoke about the situation with Virginia Allen
at The Daily Signal and made this statement, “The fact that 85% of women’s
health care specialists don’t perform abortion, to me, tells you everything you
need to know that abortion is not essential health care because if it was, you
wouldn’t have only 15% of OB-GYNs performing it.” Francis continued by saying
that AAPLOG “has submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in defense of our
members’ conscience rights and on every major abortion case since 1973.” Most
Americans know that 1973 is the year that the Supreme Court legalized abortion
with its Roe v. Wade decision.
Francis considers helping women and
children as her mission in life. She enjoys being a part of women’s lives from
their teenage years to their menopause years. However, her mission is to take
this message to the women and girls in this nation and around the world: “abortion
is not good for them.” Francis stated that she was “always” prolife. Her family
is Christian, and her parents taught her about the sanctity of life and that we
are all children of God and valuable to Him. In addition, her mother works for
a [National] Right to Life affiliate in Southern Indiana. However, she did not
know why she was pro-life for a long time, and she did not know how to defend
her position beyond her Christian faith.
This changed one day after her best friend
studied abortion during the 40 Days for Life. She called Francis and said, “We
need to talk.” Then she enlightened Francis: “Well, you’re a woman, and you’re
an OB-GYN, and you say that you’re pro-life. But what are you really doing
about it? I think that you could be doing so much more.” Francis thought about
the challenging words of her friend and decided, “She’s right.”
And I find myself in this position where I’m
a woman, and so regardless of whether this is correct or not, I think that
people tend to listen to women a little bit more on this issue. Even though I’m
of the opinion, certainly, that men have just as much of a say about whether
abortion is right or not. But I’m a woman and I’m an OB-GYN, and so I see these
preborn children from their very earliest stages, the earliest that we can see
them.
And I see them throughout pregnancy, and I
see them when they’re born. And I see all of the emotions that go along with a
pregnancy, whether it be a wanted pregnancy or an unplanned pregnancy. Because
of that, and because of my medical training, maybe I am really uniquely
positioned to be able to address this. So it really was just kind of a
searching of my heart, of totally shifting my perspective….
And so [I] just did a lot of soul
searching. And I’ll tell you that the moment that I think I knew for sure that
this was what I was supposed to do was: I was in Washington, D.C., for national
March for Life and I went to the Holocaust [Memorial] Museum there…. I was in
one of the rooms in the museum that talks about kind of the lack of response to
what was going on to this Holocaust, this slaughter of millions of innocent
people that was going on.
And the lack of response from the U.S. and
other Western countries. And I just remember thinking when I was sitting in
that room and I was reading some of the news articles and listening to the
audio commentary. I just remember getting very indignant and thinking, “Man, if
I would have been alive back then I would have done something, there’s no way I
could have been quiet about that.” How could people know that millions of
innocent people were being killed and not do anything about it?
The irony of that thought hit me in that
moment. And I just thought, there’s a holocaust going on right now. There’s a
holocaust of preborn children who are being killed every day for the sake of
convenience. And not only are preborn children being killed, but women are
being harmed. And they’re being lied to about abortion and about what abortion
can, quote unquote, accomplish for them or help them to accomplish.
I know better and so why am I not saying
anything or doing anything about it? And so that really was kind of my defining
moment, I would say. I’d always considered myself pro-life, but [that’s] where
I just thought, “OK, I can’t be silent about this anymore.” …
… I was very lucky and blessed to receive
some pro-life apologetics training from Scott Klusendorf with Life Training
Institute. And just really for the first time, I think ever in my life, [I] saw
that yes, being a Christian informs my stance on abortion. But also even if I
wasn’t a Christian I would still be pro-life, because it just makes sense when
you look at true human equality. And when you look at the fact that science
tells us beyond a shadow of a doubt that those preborn children are
full-fledged, whole, distinct, and living human beings from the moment of fertilization.
Francis said that her “duty as a
physician is to protect that life as well as the life of the mother.” Once her
eyes were opened to her mission, she gradually met other pro-life people and
was introduced to the CEO at AAPLOG. She had another eye-opening experience
when she attended her first AAPLOG conference.
We hold an annual educational conference
every year for physicians and other medical professionals that provide
academic-level presentations for continuing medical education about different
aspects of abortion and the pro-life movement and conscience protections in
medicine….
But I was blown away at the level of the
presentations that were given, the science that was presented. And realizing
that science really is on the side of the pro-life movement. Not only when you
look at the fact that these preborn children are in fact human beings and
deserving of our protection, but also when you look at the overwhelming
evidence that exists, that abortion is harmful for women. Not only does it end
the life of an innocent human being, but it also sometimes permanently harms
the life of that woman who has made that abortion decision, oftentimes under
duress, or just in a moment of panic. Not realizing and not being told by the
abortion industry, that this is going to harm her lifelong.
And so that was another life-changing
moment for me to say not only should I be defending the rights of these preborn
children, but man, in my practice and in my interactions with colleagues, I
need to be passing this information along. That really, if we’re recommending
what’s best for our patients, that’s never going to include abortion.
There is much more to Francis’
story. The bottom line is that she wants to arm other physicians and people in
the medical field with information on how to oppose the political agenda of
abortion. That information is contained in this idea:
I’m opposing abortion because it’s bad for
my patient. I’m not just opposing abortion because I have a moral objection to it;
I’m opposing it because it’s bad for my patient. And it’s bad for me as health
care provider to violate my conscience, to violate what I know to be best for
my patient, just to give into this cultural narrative.
Just
as Francis uses her knowledge as a Christian and as a physician to oppose
abortion because abortions are bad for both the child and the mother. We can also
use our knowledge to oppose the abortion political agenda. We know that a
pre-born baby is more than just a clump of cells as we were once told because
we can see the baby in a sonogram. We can oppose abortion on demand because it
is bad for child and mother, and we can strengthen our family, community, and
nation as we do so.
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