Guest Commentary | Women and the abortion issue will decide the 2024 election outcome
by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator
A woman has never told me she felt good about her abortion. For 39 years I served in pastoral roles in different places. I had numerous women tell me they felt like they had no choice. Some said they felt pressured to abort. Many were medical emergency situations and it was life or death for the mother.
A dear family I’ve known for a few years lost their daughter and the baby in what was supposed to be a delightful day of bringing a new baby into the world. Things went terribly wrong and they both died. Twenty-five years after that event the family still grieves that day. They would give anything to have their daughter and her baby back.
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One of the hardest days of my life was when we had a full-term baby who apparently died about a day before the scheduled birth.
My late wife was very sick when she gave birth to our second son. She and he made it but it was a very treacherous night. Thankfully we had good medical care.
On too many occasions to count, we lost numerous babies. The pregnancy would start failing often times about two to three months into the pregnancy and the doctor would have to do a D and C. The babies had stopped growing or there was some other kind of internal malfunction.
One of the hardest days of my life was when we had a full-term baby who apparently died about a day before the scheduled birth. There was some kind of kink in the umbilical cord that had cut off oxygen to the baby. I was on cloud nine watching the birth of my two prior sons. I walked through hell the day I watched them deliver our dead son. For hours I sat in a room holding our him and weeping like I had never wept before.
I put my hand on that baby’s face and begged God to let him wake and start breathing. What I wouldn’t do today or give to have that child Jesse Caleb Mollette in my life.
The pain of losing that child was devastating to my wife.
The point of all this is most women and men are not crazed baby killers, although abortion statistics indicate we have had a problem in this nation. In 2020 there were 639,898 abortions in America according to Pew Research org. Were all of those performed to save the life of the mother? Were many of them performed because rape or incest had taken place? I do not have the statistics to answer that question, if really good statistics are even available.
The hard reality is that sometimes a medically necessary abortion has to take place to save the life of the mother. Often, the fetus stops developing or begins to abort on its own and medical care is necessary. Women should never have to leave their state to obtain the care they need. Our local and federal government should never put women’s health in these kinds of dangerous situations.
Federal and state governments must take a realistic look at what they are expecting of women and try to put themselves in their places. I think we have too many 75-year-old men determining what should or shouldn’t be for young adult women. Or, maybe we have some older women politicians who have never been through a traumatic pregnancy.
If I go to my doctor for an appendicitis procedure, I don’t what him having to involve the Attorney General or state supreme court in my healthcare. It should be between my doctor and me. The same should be so for pregnant women. Their care should be between them and their doctors. Keep the politicians out of it.
If one of these old politicians is going to have their hemorrhoids cut out, they must likely don’t want the county attorney or judge up there too.
It’s a touchy issue. I’m for life all the way. I’m also for common sense. Something to keep in mind is that regardless of your party affiliation, religious beliefs, or who you know the best person for the job is, women and the abortion issue will decide the 2024 election outcome.
He is the author of 13 books including UncommSense, the Spiritual Chocolate series, Grandpa's Store, Minister's Guidebook insights from a fellow minister. His column is published weekly in over 600 publications in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization. We welcome comments and views from our readers. Submit your letters to the editor or commentary on a current event 24/7 to editor@oursentinel.com.
