Unavoidable Thoughts

One of the things that truly bothers me about being so involved in the pro-life issue is the way it affects my attitude on other issues.

I first recognized this in 1987 when an 18-month old girl fell into a well in Midland, Texas. There was around the clock news coverage of the rescue attempt, hundreds of volunteers came to help, large corporations rushed digging machines to the scene, and hundreds-of- thousands of dollars were spent. From the start the outlook was bleak, but two days later our nation cried and rejoiced when tiny Jessica McClure was brought out alive on national television.

But the full joy of that moment would be denied
to me because I was also thinking about the
thousands of nameless babies who were aborted
during the 58 hours Jessica was trapped.

For them, there were no lights, no cameras and no reporters. There was only pain and anonymous death. I imagined these babies watching the heroic efforts being made to save this one child and asking, “What about us?”

It is a depressing comparison that I’ve made many times over many years about many issues, and I bet that the same thing could be said by a lot of you. But while we can acknowledge this phenomenon, we should not dwell on it. It’s simply the nature of what we do, and no one makes us do it or promised us that it would be easy. So do yourself a favor and remember that every baby saved is its own reward.

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