#whywemarch

Today is the 42nd anniversary of the legal travesty that is the decision in Roe v. Wade. That means that today was the March for Life in Washington, D.C., which is a mere metro ride away.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend because I have a three-and-a-half-week-old baby who nurses every half hour or so and who obviously couldn't be out in the January cold (although it was a relatively mild day today, it's still January in the mid-Atlantic region). This year marks, I believe, the second March for Life that I've missed since something like 1996. (I missed one year in college when I was attending winter session and had an exam that day.)

So instead I stayed in, nursed continuously, did some preparation for Declan's baptism this Sunday (dear Jesus, please take it easy with the snowstorm that's predicted for this weekend so that his godparents can actually get here!), and found some stuff on the Internet to share with y'all.

Here's a news story on the March that's actually complimentary!

Here's a moving testimonial from one of my favorite journalists about his own adoption, three months before the Roe decision, which also touches on the failure of Congress to follow through on their promise to pass a 20-week abortion ban because they are USELESS and SPINELESS.

Another perspective on the USELESS and SPINELESS.

An explanation of the ways in which artificial birth control is REALLY not good for your body.

Finally, I spent a while today thinking about planned and unplanned pregnancies. Both of my pregnancies were planned to heaven and back, and longed-for, given my struggles with infertility and need for Clomid assistance to achieve said pregnancies.

I was my parents' first planned pregnancy after two surprises. My sister just found out today about her second surprise pregnancy, several months before she intended to start trying for another baby. (Hooray!)

As a person who has struggled with infertility, I take abortion to be a personal insult. There are so many people out there dying for a baby. Adoption waiting lists are long and can feel insurmountable. We hadn't yet reached the point of seriously considering adoption when we achieved our own pregnancy, but I was dreading it because it's so expensive and potentially heartbreaking. And yet, so many women just throw away the precious gift of a baby.

On the other hand: I've prayed for friends who were dealing with pregnancy scares, I've had family members go through teen pregnancies, I've endured my own nightmare pregnancy moments -- hyperemesis gravidarum is no picnic, y'all. On some level, I can actually understand women who abort. This is awkward for an unequivocally pro-life person to admit, but if I'm being honest I must: if I had been as sick as I was with a baby I didn't want, I can understand the impulse to make it go away.

But if I had been dealing with a crisis pregnancy and had an abortion, I would have missed out on so much. A two-year-old and an infant are quite a bit of work (I can hear the laughter from y'all parents of seven or eight), but I wouldn't give them back for the world. I wouldn't even lend them out to someone else for a weekend because I would miss them too much (much to the displeasure of my mother-in-law, I must admit).

Babies are awesome. That is #whywemarch. And I intend to be back marching again next year.