Pro-Life

You may remember that i mentioned a patient back on the first day of clinic--a girl who was here to consider getting an abortion. i know it is as prominent in the states, but i honestly haven't had many patients like that before. today, i had another similar patient.

i walked in the room and pi poo pah was with me to translate. the girl who was 19 years old was sitting with her boyfriend, also the same age. the boy had a nervous smile and laugh while the girl was sitting there expressionless. thai people usually do not express their emotions in the most obvious way. her chief complaint or reason for being there was "pelvic pain" bilaterally. then they proceeded to tell me that she was pregnant and that they were there because they wanted to talk to a doctor about getting an abortion. also in the room with us was ajan nui (she is learning to translate and is educated in ministry). i asked a few questions about whether she was having any more problems and then i said, "why don't we get Dr. Tom to come help us." the thai nurses were like, "yes!" we immediately went searching for him as if it was urgent. we couldn't find him, so we rushed to go use a phone to call him. he ended up being in a room at the clinic, so i went in and told him i had a similar case to our last girl who wanted an abortion, and i thought he might want to come in and share the statistics that he shared last time. he nodded his head and agreed to come in with us. i forgot to mention to you that she had already taken some type of medicine to induce a miscarriage. uhh, my heart sank. through the translation, i couldn't exactly figure out what she had taken.

dr. tom calculated out her pregnancy to be 12 weeks. this baby was fully formed! this baby had a brain and heart and was a true life. he gave the statistics of how much this can hurt the mom in the end. for example, statistically studies show that women who have abortions suffer more from depression, they have higher rates of breast cancer, and they are more likely to not be able to have future children b/c of scarring and blockage. everything was being spoken in thai, so i really could only read their faces. the guy kept smiling and giggling. it was strange. i really think he was nervous. the girl just still sat there without any emotion. finally, word was translated back to me that the boyfriend wanted her to keep the baby, but it was the girl who was insisting on the abortion. we had to explain to her that we do not condone abortions nor do them. we also explained that at this point she was killing her child and she was going to have to suffer the consequences of knowing that for the rest of her life. we shared, what if she had been aborted, she wouldn't be here today. nothing was getting through to her. at this point, the thai nurses took over and just kept the conversation going. ajan nui and i were silent for a while and it was very obvious with our bowed heads that we were praying for some type of miracle of conviction for this couple to let their baby live. with more conversation, i found out that the boyfriend and girlfriend are from two different tribal or people groups that do not get along. in fact, they are keeping their relationship a secret from her mom. his parents know. the girl said that if her mother found out, her mother would insist on an abortion 100%. why did i think that this was shakespeare's tragedy, romeo and juliet? it seemed like no one was going to win and that a death was inevitable. how horrible. then i looked around the room and noticed the irony in the dynamics of who was in the room. first of all, dr. tom is a physician who has adopted a child from romania to rescue an unwanted and uncared for child. the girl had mentioned that no one would be able to take care of it so she shouldn't have it. dr. tom said, "trust me there are plenty of people out there who will take care of your baby. if you only knew." i knew that hit home for him. the girl also said her excuse was that it just wasn't the right time in life. secondly, in the room was pi poo pah, who is 8 months pregnant and about to pop out a new life. the irony is that she was doing the translating and was someone who was excited to have a baby and about to literally have one versus the one she was talking to who didn't look pregnant yet but was not wanting it. then there was ajan nui who is married and will be having kids soon. then there was me, a single girl who would love to have kids one day. everyone appreciated life in that room except for the girl. it hurt to see how much people who want kids but miscarry, while this girl purposely is trying to miscarry. i am still praying for her conviction. anything is possible with God.