When Good Counsel was only a few months old, we were open on our first New Year's Eve. A young couple came in, saying they were set on abortion and wanted to talk through just one last time before going ahead.
We spoke with the young woman first, and got a completely different picture. She was a career minded young woman, from well off background, but not so well off now she was starting off her own independent life.
Her boyfriend was a man from a poor, working class family. He was very chatty and friendly but also very anxious, especially about the baby.
Ultimately, they felt that if they had the baby, it would be a struggle financially to afford a place to live and raise the child. She felt very willing to engage in the struggle - and if she couldn't afford it, realised she might need to accept some benefits for a short while until she could resume her career. She had been paying her taxes for awhile and felt that having to claim a little help with rent would not be the worst thing that could happen to her.
Her boyfriend, however, had grown up on benefits. He had worked hard to get out of that life and thought the most humiliating thing for his child would be to be born into a family on benefits.
The woman asked to see the developmental stage her baby was at, so we showed her some accurate images from medical textbooks. She cried out as if in terrible pain when she saw the images of a baby at 8 weeks. Her cry brought her boyfriend - well over 6 foot and a very tough looking character- running to her defence. But when he came in and saw her looking at these images, he turned to us and laughed, "I've lost, haven't I?". His girlfriend answered him "Yes, you have lost. I can't do it!"
They. walked off together hand in hand. I couldn't help but feel, from what they had told me, that if they put their minds together, their baby would be born into family that managed to avoid poverty, and maybe even managed without temporary recourse to help from the state.
In any case, better to be born into family on benefit than not to be born at all!
Help us to be there for families like this one. Every donation really does make a difference.
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