I love babies. I always have. Even when I was a little kid I was drawn to the strange little creatures with big heads and tiny bodies. Every once in awhile I'd get lucky enough to hold one for a couple minutes, and smell that unique beautiful smell that only exists on the top of a baby's noggin. I always wanted to kiss their little cheeks, but of course, it's not very socially acceptable to kiss other people's babies unless you're a dirty politician for some reason.

I've always dreamed of having one of my own, and now holy crap I do! She's now a little over 4 weeks old, and I must say the most beautiful, incredible, joyous, sweet thing that I am absolutely addicted to. I can kiss her cheeks thousands of times a day and she seems to be OK with it! I can just hold her and stare at her for hours and listen to her little noises and watch her cycle through facial expressions like she's practicing to be a tiny actress. She was perfect in the womb, she came out perfect, and she remains perfect... a constant reminder to me of innocence, purity, helplessness, God's love and design. She has helped me understand new spiritual truths already. She has opened my heart to new levels of love I didn't know were inside of me.

I started taking her out in public on her 6th day after birth. I was nervous to at first as she had never yet been outside of my house (we had a home birth). But something magical happened and keeps happening every time I take her into the world. She changes the heart of everyone who sees her. She is a more capable minister to mankind sleeping than I've ever been in my waking hours. I'm serious. I've taken her grocery shopping, to restaurants, to work, big retail stores, etc... and 99% of people that see her just absolutely light up like candles around her. She can take over a whole building in minutes. One day as I carried her around Target in San Antonio and watched as this two-week-old, eight pound sleepy head worked her magic on hundreds of shoppers, I began to think to myself, "How could anyone see the miracle of this child and not be Pro-Life?" The question weighed heavy on my heart and seemed unfathomable to think otherwise.

I feel it is very important for me as a new father to just lay out what's been on my heart regarding this issue.

Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice so often gets turned into this shrill, hateful, political, academic, theoretical debate about where life begins, what women's rights are, what if scenarios about rape and birth defects, etc... Trust me I've heard them all, but I feel like all those arguments are missing the core and heart of the matter. The fact is that we live in a country where, if Melissa and I had decided that this perfect child was an inconvenience to us, we could have legally taken her life; striking her future from Earth's history. Pro-choice friends, I want you to stop running through what if scenarios about things that happen 1 in a million births, and just let the weight of that statement sink in.

I could have driven my cute little pregnant wife to a clinic with a beautiful girl inside with hands that waved at us in our ultrasound, a four-chamber beating heart, a perfectly functioning brain etc... and free of charge, had her murdered and removed from my wife's body. This fact has never bothered me more deeply than it does today. Keep in mind if a stranger had mugged Melissa, assaulting her and causing her to miscarry, he would go to prison for life for murder. But yet we can willingly do the same thing with a pat on the back afterwards. That is a double standard to the highest degree!

I just wish Pro-Choicers would stop thinking, "Well I love babies too, but there are times when a mother's health is at risk (0.001%), a father rapes and impregnates her daughter (0.0000001%), etc... and if you ban abortion, think of what hypothetically bad things could potentially happen to those poor women!", and instead take a few minutes to deeply meditate on common sense facts that you know are true, like:

-99.9% of abortions are done because of embarrassment, inconvenience, irresponsibility, laziness, lack of money, or some combination thereof.

-Every responsible parent that has had a child has chosen to overcome the same obstacles. Heck when we found out we felt absolutely unprepared to bring a child into the world (squeaking by renting a friends basement while working jobs completely incompatible with baby life), but we made the necessary changes and sacrifices and never looked back. That's what people are supposed to do.

-Parents of children with birth defects, special needs, etc... seem to love their children and cherish them even more, and I've NEVER seen a special needs parent REGRET the decision to have their child.

-You are reading this blog because someone chose not to kill before you could defend yourself.

-My baby had to be pricked with a needle the day she was born and screamed bloody murder. I know in my heart that if she hated that so much, she would have definitely voted to not be brutally killed had SHE the choice.

-There are waiting lists and high competition for adoptions. The cost and headache to be able to take an unwanted child into your home are absolutely appalling and assenine. Plenty of people are ready to care for children in our country that are unwanted.

-We can find answers that treat women respectfully and value a mother's life and health without just erasing babies and pressing the "undo" button on children.

-There are many women that if they could go back in time, they would not have had their abortions, but I've never met a mom that would go back in time and have an abortion if they had the choice. Seriously, think about that one.

I'm going to step off my soap box now and go kiss my sweet daughter. I will never picket a clinic, yell at a pregnant girl for considering abortion, or act like a damn fool because someone disagrees with me. I just humbly ask you to consider these things and know they're sincerely from my heart. This is not a political or academic issue to me. This is right vs. wrong morality stuff that is much more important.

Lots of love,

Clint

Tags: abortion, parenthood