One example of sad but justifiable abortion

Because people are so polarized on the subject, many cannot understand how I can believe that abortion should be considered a "legal" medical procedure, but how it is morally wrong and virtually no one should have an abortion. Here is an example, to help you to understand, of where I feel that it is a rare but justifiable case where the couple has no choice but to have an abortion.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-hospital25-2008may25,0,1940964.story

snip

Wang Xiaohong's leg was crushed when her house collapsed. The 23-year-old is two months pregnant and the fetus is injured. Her husband touches her leg lovingly. "We'll accept the doctor's advice and have an abortion," says Jiang Donghai, a 24-year-old factory worker, sitting on his wife's bed. "It's devastating to have the earthquake take our baby."

The couple got married just two days before the earthquake. She had quit her job, their house was destroyed, and now they've lost their baby. "But there's a nice open window there with sunshine and fresh air," he says. "And we feel lucky to be alive."

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This is a personal tragedy of epic proportion, but this couple is blessed because they are not "rationalizing" that "it's not a life, it's just a fetus." They have a baby who has been injured by the earthquake and is thus a victim of the earthquake. They live in a country that allows only one child per couple. The mother is severely injured and the baby that she is carrying is injured. They are not Americans with access to surgeons who may be able to operate on a fetus, and they certainly have no resources to care for a severely crippled child should the baby even survive the remainder of the pregnancy and the treatment that the mother must have (her crushed leg) if she herself is to survive. So they really have no choice and should be viewed with loving compassion in this most difficult choice, and prayers that the mother will recover and that she will be healthy enough to bear a child in the future that this couple so clearly desperately want and would love. In this case the doctor is using ethics and understanding in his or her recommendation to give the mother the best chance for recovery and to be pragmatic about the odds of the child's survival in the context where a couple has only one opportunity to be parents.

I hope you find this example of my logic and feelings on this subject helpful and join me in prayers for this couple and all others who face painful loss of their children due to the earthquake and its aftermath of medical injuries and complications.