Why?

We went to the Life Chain this past Sunday. We knew that it would be an interesting experience because this is the first time we've gone since our boys could read. Our signs read, Abortion Kills Children and Abortion Hurts Women. The inevitable question came up as they read our signs: "What is abortion?"

It saddens us to have to explain this to a child. We want to protect them from evil. And I was very concerned about opening up a can of worms with the whole topic of reproduction. But fortunately, Providentially I'm sure, I had just heard a caller ask this question of Dr. Ray on his podcast (The Doctor Is In), and I thought his advice was very good. So, we explained it something like this.

Sometimes when a mommy has a baby in her tummy, she doesn't think she wants to have a baby. So she lets a doctor take the baby out before he is ready. Then the baby dies because he is not ready to live outside yet.

I was explaining this to Bubba while MommaLlama was explaining it to Bobcat a few yards away. Both of them asked immediately, "Why?"

Why, indeed. I remember that being my first thought when my mother explained it to me. It seemed so obvious that you can't just let a baby die. It still does. I still cannot imagine how some people do not understand this. But, while I am angry that I had to expose my children to this cruel fact, I am glad that we had the opportunity to explain it to them gently, and to make an impression that will hopefully stay with them for their entire lives.

So, to answer the question of Why... We said that sometimes the mommy doesn't know that the baby is already alive in there. But he his. He is very tiny, but he is alive. We are here to let everyone know that the baby is already alive and that we can't let him die. And sometimes a mommy doesn't think that she can take care of the baby so she doesn't want him. We are here to let everyone know that we can help them. If they need help to take care of their babies, the people who love God and love babies will help the mommies and their babies. Or if the mommy isn't ready to keep the baby, there are lots of families that can adopt the baby and give him a good home.

It really wasn't as bad as I thought. As you can see, you don't have to go into "birds and bees" stuff regarding how the baby got in there. All they need to know now is that people have babies after they get married. We can fill in those details as they mature. But for now, I was glad to know that it is possible to explain the sanctity of human life to a child, without scaring or horrifying him, or violating his sexual innocence.