Firstly, I just want to say thank you to everyone out there. The show of support from friends, family (and soon to be family) and the people I work with has been overwhelming and its very much appreciated. Everyone has offered their support and their time to try and help me get back on track and get through the hard parts and I genuinely am humbled by it all. I find it completely amazing that so many people put more value on my life than I do myself. But then again, that can’t be too hard given I put no value on my own life at all.

Which is partly what I wanted to talk about today. The value of life. Or, more to the point, the value of an unborn childs life. Something that Brooke and I argued about a few times. Something, that until recently, I’ve never really considered.

A viewpoint that changed, partly as a result of a recent CNN article.


According to the suit, Williams, then 18, discovered while being treated for a fall that she was 23 weeks pregnant. She went to a clinic to get an abortion on the morning of July 20, 2006, after receiving medication and instructions the previous day.

Renelique was not at the clinic, however, and Williams was told to wait for him. She was given two pills and told they would make her ill. When she complained of feeling ill, clinic staff members gave her a robe and told her to lie down in a patient room, the suit says.

Renelique was still not present when Williams “felt a large pain” and delivered a baby girl, according to the suit.

“The staff began screaming and pandemonium ensued. Sycloria watched in horror and shock as her baby writhed with her chest rising and falling as she breathed.”

A clinic co-owner entered the room and used a pair of shears to cut the baby’s umbilical cord, the suit said. She “then scooped up the baby and placed the live baby, placenta and afterbirth in a red plastic biohazard bag, which she sealed, and then threw bag and the baby in a trash can.”

Staff at the clinic did not call 911 or seek medical assistance for Williams or the baby, the suit said.

Renelique arrived at the clinic about an hour later and gave Williams a shot to put her to sleep. “She awoke after the procedure and was sent home still in complete shock,” the suit said.

Police were notified of the incident by an anonymous caller who told them the baby was born alive and disposed of.

“The complainant [Williams] observed the baby moving and gasping for air for approximately five minutes,” according to a police affidavit requesting a search warrant for the clinic.

Two search warrants found nothing, but officers executing a third warrant “found the decomposing body of a baby in a cardboard box in a closet,” the suit said.
Doctor loses license in live birth abortion case - CNN.com

I have never really been involved in the whole “Pro-Life vs Pro Choice” debate. It infuriated Brooke that I wouldn’t really take a stand and that my lack of any sort of a stand effectively meant I was Pro Choice. Something she does not agree with or believe in. I personally didn’t see it that way. I have always been more of a fence sitter in this debate. I can see the viewpoints of both sides and I can understand the viewpoints of many. Do you definitely murder a life that has yet to be started? Or do you potentially destroy a life that is years in the making?

I understand why this girl might have gone for an abortion. She was 18 years old and completely unprepared for it. To get 23 weeks into a pregnancy without knowing has to have been a major shock for her. I’m sure there are many women who wish they could have gone the first 23 weeks without knowing the side effects of pregnancy first hand.

But the actions of the abortion clinic are beyond horrific. To deliberately murder a baby AFTER it has been born, even if they were intending to kill it while it remained within the girl… That just … words do not even begin to express how horrified and sick to my stomach that makes me feel. That anyone could take a newborn baby, a human being in the most vulnerable and dependant stage of its life, throw it in a plastic bag and toss it with the rubbish as if it were no more than any other piece of trash…

For years it has always amused me that the older I get, the more conservative I seem to become. I’ve always been to the centre right of the political spectrum, but it moves further right as life teaches me more and more about how things work in this world. I don’t think I’m jaded. For example, I do believe that Obama was the best choice for the US and that his actions so far have been good. Just as I do believe that John Key is most definitely the best choice as Prime Minister for New Zealand and his actions so far have been completely outstanding.

But I think that this is the final evidence I needed to push me into the camp of Pro Life. The simple fact of the matter is that anyone that shows such a complete disregard for the life of another human cannot in anyway be someone I could agree with. Even slightly.

A number of my friends, including some of those closest to me, have had abortions themselves. And I understand why they did it. I don’t hold it against them in any way. But I do not believe I could support any of my friends doing so in the future unless giving birth was truly going to seriously endanger the mothers life, or that of the baby, as the NZ laws originally intended.

This is not an easy stand for me to make. The majority of my friends are very liberal. But it is one that I have not come to lightly.

I remember, not that long ago (maybe a couple of years,) reading an article of a woman who was brutally murdered while pregnant. She was still in her first trimester yet the baby was born and lived. I remember the discussion with Brooke about it. It spent a long time in the ICU, but it survived. I think, for me, that was when the change in viewpoint started.

All life is precious. All life has value. Even an unborn child. There is no point at which it “becomes human”. A fœtus is human from the moment of conception. The moment that one lucky sperm joins with that tiny little egg, human life exists. I think every mother who has given birth to and loved a child will agree with me on this one.

( Of course, my own life is exempted from value status :-P )