I am pro-life, but I do not believe we should outlaw abortion.
I believe we need practical solutions to the problem of abortion. Outlawing abortion will not be effective, just as prohibition was not effective in eliminating use of alcohol. Instead we need to focus on practical solutions to reduce abortion, including:
- Universal Access to Health Care
- Affordable Child Care
- Effective Sex Education
- Jobs that pay a Living Wage
- Quality Education
- Eliminate the Marriage Penalty in Income Taxes
I want to reduce the number of abortions and the best way to do that is to reach out to women in crisis with effective support. We need to ensure that no woman feels that having a child will ruin her life forever.
Let me explain what I mean when I say I am Pro-Life. I am the fifteenth of seventeen children. If my parents had stopped at a dozen children I would not be here. But that says more about my parents than about me. As for me, two of my three children were high risk pregnancies. When I say “high risk”, what I mean is that when Whitney was carrying our child, her water broke when she was four months pregnant. Of the eleven OB-GYN doctors in Frederick at that time, ten refused to provide any treatment other than terminating the pregnancy. They said that the pregnancy was not viable, and Whitney’s life was at risk. The one doctor who would continue treatment said the odds of the child being born alive was less than one percent. My wife was on bedrest for three months. She had placenta abruptio, which caused bleeding. She eventually got an infection, and our baby was born pre-mature, weighing three pounds, ten ounces. Our son, Brandon, is now alive and well at the age of 24.
When I say I am Pro-Life, it is not simply a political position. Whitney and I have been there. Faced with difficult decisions, my wife put her life on the line for the potential of another life. When the choice was up to us, we fought for our child. Having been through that experience, I do not trust that decision to be made by anyone other than the family involved. This decision should not be left to a government bureaucrat, or to a judge. It is the family who must make this decision, not the legal system.
