‘Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sew or reap or gather into barns: Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?’ Matthew 6:26.
How many of us have to literally put these words into practice? How many of us are so destitute that we have to put total trust in our Creator to provide for our most basic needs - a roof over our heads and some food to eat.
One of the many reasons I admire the women I see is that in order to allow their babies to live they have to take a giant leap of faith. Faith that God will provide, through us. Faith that our benefactors will give us the financial support to enable that to happen.
'No one is really poor in this country. They can get housing, benefits etc' I hear some of you say.
Any professional person who works with young families will tell you that those who truly survive on benefits find it very difficult to do so. It only needs a broken washing machine, children who need new shoes, a family funeral to plunge that family into financial crisis often further exacerbated if they borrow from loan sharks charging high levels of interest. The hardship these people endure was vividly illustrated on television recently when some MPs tried to live on income support levels for a week or so and failed miserably.
But those who qualify for benefits at least get the minimum to survive.
Many of the women who approach us for help do not have any access to public funds and they are literally destitute. They have no money, no home, NOTHING.
Do I hear you say, ‘Why are they having babies then?’ ?
It takes a male, a female and God to create a baby! It shocks me that so many of the women we see have been abandoned by the baby’s father - usually after he has first tried to force the woman to have an abortion. The baby is generally conceived due to failed contraception and within a relationship where the woman thinks the man is committed. The women are very hurt, shocked and traumatised when they approach us for help. Most of these relationships have been going on from several months to three years, or even five years.
The women quickly find themselves alone. Their friends and the professionals they approach encourage abortion, offer no help and abandon them as irresponsible for not availing of what they see as a perfect solution. Several women have told me how shocked they were to be offered abortion immediately when they informed their GP that they were pregnant. They are disowned by their families and communities who see the pregnancy as a disgrace even in these liberal times. These same families and communities including sadly some religious communities would much prefer that they murder the baby, a hidden crime which won’t affect them so they can hold their head high, while the unfortunate woman has to deal alone with all the trauma and damage that killing her own baby will cause her in the future. These women are often castigated within our society.
Of course it would be best if they were married, to men who respected, valued, and loved them and who treated them not as sex objects to be discarded like rubbish when the time comes for sacrifice and commitment but as equal and valued partners within marriage.
Admire these brave women, and while you do so, contemplate on our society where life is not valued and where our young men are depriving themselves of the most precious gift of their own son or daughter.
Where is all this going to end and is there anything we can do to stop the tide of abortion?
Ronni O' Gara
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