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Fred Pieper’s Personal Thoughts on Abortion and Right to Life
The abortion issue is one that is usually in the back of people’s minds until they are directly impacted. When my wife was 25 years old, she found herself in California, alone and pregnant. When she received the pregnancy results from the local Planned Parenthood, they immediately gave her a list of abortion clinics. She was distraught. Her family down south at the time seemed to be not supportive of her keeping the child. She was alone. The father of the child was suddenly out of the picture. She chose abortion out of desperation. She traveled to Stockton for the procedure, not knowing that her family was frantically and fervently praying for her not to go through with the procedure. In the waiting room, another woman was there, getting ready to get her third abortion. My wife realized this woman was using abortion as birth control. Again, she felt a sense of desperation. It was her turn… she was on the table. The procedure began. The tears were flowing down her cheeks as she knew this was wrong, but did not have the courage to say “STOP!” But… the doctor did stop. He said she was too far along and would have to undergo a three-day saline procedure. My wife knew at that point that this was a baby, a real person. With the support of her brother who lived nearby, she made the decision to keep the baby. When she arrived back home to her local doctor, he examined her and told her “you are not as far along as they told you. You could have had the abortion.” My wife felt that God had stopped the procedure. Today her son, my stepson, is a strong 23 year-old on fire for God. He is recently married and has impacted the lives of so many others through his mission work and personal ministry. This one life is enough to impact my beliefs about every unborn’s right to life.
But, there’s more. Another member of my wife’s family is here because over 50 years ago, after being raped, a teenage girl chose life. Out of privacy to the family, I’ll not go into detail.
During this short campaign I have been asked to fill out many surveys from right-to-life groups. It is easy to simply check “yes” to their questions. But for my wife and I, it is personal. -- Fred Pieper |
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