Prolife Kitchen Table
Join us as we share information and answer your questions about life issues from fertilization to natural death.
All of the materials used in this podcast are the product of four decades of work and research by Presbyterians Protecting Life – www.ppl.org. This isn’t just a podcast for Presbyterians – all of our materials are useful for anyone with an interest in protecting human life at every stage from fertilization to natural death.
We’ll use both scientific and philosophical sources, and for our Christian listener, there will be plenty of grounding in Scripture and a Biblical worldview. The show notes in each episode contain links to articles and scripture references. With the average 15 minute podcast length, and the addition of the list of scriptures and articles, each episode can be used for older student and adult Sunday Schools, group studies and personal study.
Most of the weekly topics will be available in hard copy from the PPL.ORG website and will cover a variety of subjects. We’ll talk about what it means to be human and how everyone is human from the moment of fertilization, and that our time in the womb is only a stage of development like being an infant, a toddler, a child, an adolescent, a mature adult and, if we are blessed with a long life, becoming elderly and how all those categories are categories of personhood and deserving of life and human rights.
Prolife Kitchen Table
Episode 27 - Watch and Pray - Baby Chris Week 26
When it comes to wrestling with the difficult medical questions surrounding abortion in cases where the life and health of the mother are threatened, what is the correct moral, medical and compassionate way to approach these conversations? Former PPL board member, Dr. Martha Leatherman, examines each potential difficulty and outlines the abortion alternatives and treatments that apply to each.
This links to an article originally published in First Things magazine about high-risk pregnancy management: Medicalizing Abortion Decisions
A link to a site with many sources for information on Successful Ectopic Pregnancy
Stand to Reason article: Are Prolifers Being Inconsistent if They Save the Mother's Life rather than the Baby's?
See also Baby Chris blog for Developmental Week 19 (Episode 18) "The Tree in the Middle of the Garden"
Scripture references in this episode include:
Matthew 20:23 John 9:6 Mark 23-25
Isaiah 35:5 Mark 10:52 Luke 7:18-22
Matthew 13:15-16 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 Hosea 4:6
Matthew 15:14 I Corinthians 2:14 Ezekiel 34:11, 16
Matthew 18:12 Romansa 1:20 I John 3:1-2
John 8:11-12
https://www.ppl.org/baby-chris
Abortion Pill Reversal https://abortionpillreversal.com 24/7 Helpline at 877.558.0333 Email: help@apr.life or Chat at the weblink above
Post abortion recovery for both women and men at https://www.rachelsvineyard.org
Life Training Institute https://www.prolifetraining.com
Charlotte Lozier Institute https://lozierinstitute.org
Guttmacher Institute https://guttmacher.org
Compelled by the gospel, PPL equips Presbyterians to champion human life at every stage. PPL.org
Welcome back to the table. I'm your host, Deborah Hollifield, and this week we're going to have a physician help us with the difficult medical questions we wrestle with about the issues associated with the health and life of a pregnant woman. Much misinformation is circulated that feeds into our sense of reasonableness and compassion and warps our understanding of the truth with confusion. This week's essay is prepared by Dr. Martha Leatherman, a former PPL board member, and it's entitled What About the Life of the Mother? There is little in the debate over abortion that galvanizes people and brings out our heartfelt compassion more than the situation in which a mother's life is endangered by continuing a pregnancy. As Christians, we love all the life that God has created and pray that the beautiful blessing of a new life will not threaten that of the mother who carries him. Presbyterians protecting life is committed to defending all life from fertilization to natural death, and that includes the lives of pregnant women. From this biblical position, we can examine the issues surrounding this difficult set of circumstances. First, what is abortion? Direct abortion is the deliberate killing of an unborn child. Treatment intended to save the life of the mother that results in the death of the child is not a direct abortion. So treatment in which the aim of the intervention is to save the mother, but that involves the unavoidable death of the unborn baby is not abortion. What are the life-threatening conditions? There are actually very few truly life-threatening conditions that would lead even to the consideration of killing an unborn baby. And with many of these threats, we can treat the mother and save the child. According to Dr. Alan Gutmacher of Planned Parenthood, today it is possible for almost any patient to be brought through pregnancy alive unless she suffers from a fatal illness, such as cancer or leukemia, and if so, abortion would be unlikely to prolong, much less save life. A recent study out of the United Kingdom found that between 1968 and 2011, only 0.006% of abortions were performed to save the life of the mother. Pre-eclampsia occurs in one in approximately every 12 pregnancies, 5 to 8%. This is a condition of swelling, elevated blood pressure, and protein in the urine. This condition can be effectively treated either by delivery after 36 weeks or by bed rest prior to 36 weeks. Delivery can also be attempted after 24 weeks with reasonable assurance that the fetus will live. In some cases, delivery prior to 24 weeks may be necessary, although the likelihood of the child's survival is reduced. In all of these cases, the doctor's attempts to deliver the child and care for her after birth and are not to perform abortion with the deliberate intention of killing the child. Ecclampsia, toxemia with seizures, occurs one in approximately 2,000 pregnancies, or 0.05%. This condition is marked by seizures that are caused by pregnancy as opposed to some other known factor. Treatment is the same as for pre-eclampsia, but this condition is more severe, usually requiring delivery either naturally or by C-section. Placental abruption occurs in one in 100 pregnancies, 1%. The placenta detaches from the uterine wall. If not treated, this can harm both mother and child. Again, abortion is not the treatment in this case. When the placenta has detached from the uterine wall, the child is already at grave risk of death. The treatment is designed to prevent further detachment from the uterus. In very rare cases, massive bleeding occurs when the placenta detaches, in which case, if the placenta is not surgically removed along with the baby, both mother and baby will die. In such cases, the decision is made to try to save the life of the mother, understanding that there is a risk that the baby will die, and that this is preferable to both mother and baby dying. Distosia. Prior to the turn of the twentieth century, one type of dystosia, any case of abnormal or difficult labor, when the baby's head is too large to pass through the mother's pelvis, presented pregnant women in developed countries with an agonizing choice to save her child by undergoing a dangerous and probably lethal cesarean section, or to save her own life by undergoing a craniotomy operation that crushed the baby's skull. Even today, this choice may still be presented to some women in developing countries where C-sections are not routine. The position of Presbyterians protecting life in such situations is that first, this is not an issue in the United States or other developed countries where the majority of elective abortions take place, and second, that our efforts should be to improve improving maternal care in developing countries rather than promoting abortion. Ectopic pregnancy. In an ectopic pregnancy, the newly conceived human being implants on the wall of the fallopian tube or some other tissue instead of on the wall of the uterus. As the embryonic human being grows, the fallopian tube will rupture, causing severe blood loss and probably death. In these cases, there is no way to save the child's life. If we do nothing, both human beings will die. Because we believe it is better to save one life than to lose two. We remove the child, which causes his death, and save the mother. The death of the child is an unintended, although foreseen, consequence. It should be noted that there are some, albeit rare cases, where a mother has successfully delivered an ectopic pregnancy. Placenta previa occurs one in 200 pregnancies, or 0.5%. The placenta covers all or part of the cervix. Although this condition has the potential to be life-threatening, with proper medical management, usually bed rest, but sometimes hospitalization, both mother and child can be protected from harm. In the case of an early placenta previa, sometimes the baby does not survive because of a miscarriage, but that is a natural occurrence, not caused by deliberate abortion. There is no moral wrong here. This is simply a specific case of miscarriage in which no person causes or intends the child's death. Other cases. In most other cases of life endangerment, we can treat both the mother and the child. For example, a pregnant woman with cancer can be treated while the baby tolerates the chemotherapy given to the mother. There is an excellent article by Thomas Murphy Goodwin that was published in First Things magazine that I will link to in the show notes. And there is one final key distinction of life versus health. Should we allow abortion for a threat to the health of the mother? If so, we are placing the health of one human being, the mother, over the life of another human being, the child. This seems clearly wrong. There is no other circumstance in which we would allow someone to kill an innocent person to protect herself from a health threat. We don't allow those who are exposed to disease to kill those who expose them. When someone's health is threatened by the existence of another, we attempt to remove the one threatening and treat the one threatened. We can do this in the case of the pregnant woman whose health is affected by her child. We can remove the child as soon as possible for him to live and treat the mother's condition. Well, that is a lot of good information. You may want to listen to this again because I think that this information offers great relief to those of us who want to take a firm stand to protect children while at the same time protecting women. And now it's time for our stretch break. I'm going to go off and take the vitamins that I forgot to take this morning until I just reminded myself with all this talk about health, and then come back to learn about Baby Chris's 26th week of development in the womb.
Announcer:We have answers to your questions, referrals to specialized care like abortion pill reversal and post-abortion recovery, current statistics and information, discussion starters, and devotionals to help you think about and share about pregnancy and abortion, adoption, foster care, and even suicide, assisted suicide and end-of-life challenges. Visit ppl.org to learn more.
Host:And now join me for week 26 of Baby Chris's Development in the Womb. This week's devotional is titled Watch and Pray. Hear the word of the Lord. "They said to him, Lord, we want our eyes to be opened." Matthew 20, 23. Thanks be to God. At 26 weeks, our baby Chris is now growing longer and laying on more fat. His eyes now open and close, and like most newborns, he will be born with a wide open gaze. Baby's eyes begin to develop during the fifth week of pregnancy, and at four months gestation, their eyes are nearly fully formed. From 26 to 28 weeks gestation, babies keep their eyes open a lot. They can detect light shining directly into the womb, such as when the mother is sunbathing. By the 33rd week of pregnancy, their pupils constrict and dilate, which allows them to better detect light. Many babies are born with their eyes open as soon as their head clears the birth canal, ready to make their first eye contact with mom and dad, and begin taking in information about their new world. Even so, it will be a few more weeks before their visual development is complete, and another few months to fine-tune things like focus, tracking, depth perception, color distinction, and facial recognition. Scripture has a lot to say about sight. The healing of physical blindness was a messianic sign prophesied by Isaiah and fulfilled by Jesus during his ministry. Jesus offered the restoration of sight to the blind in response to John the Baptist's question about whether he was the expected Messiah. Before God gives eyes to see, humans are spiritually blind. The unbelieving carnal human suffers from spiritual blindness sourced in Satan. Pride, ignorance, following blind guides, caring what others think, and more. The spiritually blind are unable to discern the truth of Scripture and the truth about Christ. Their failure to understand the information they take in through their mind's eye is distorted because of their inability to see clearly with the spiritual eyes of Christ. Yet God does not leave us in darkness. Helen Keller became blind and deaf at the age of 19 months. Unable to take in information about or communicate with the outside world, she was isolated in dark silence. When Helen was six, her parents hired the daughter of a Presbyterian pastor as her teacher. After a long struggle, Annie Sullivan broke through Helen's darkness, teaching her sign language and opening up her world. Later, in a letter to Episcopal Bishop Philip Brooks, Helen described learning about Jesus from Annie. He related that Helen had always known about God even before she had any words. Even before she could call God anything, she knew God was there. She did not know what it was. God had no name for her, nothing had a name for her. She had no concept of a name. But in her darkness and isolation she knew somehow she was not alone. Someone was with her. She felt God's love. And when she received the gift of language and heard about God, she said she already knew. God seeks out his sheep, the scattered, the broken, and the lost. God prepares us from before birth to begin to see our parents' loving gaze as our first sight, equips us to take in God's power and nature and all creation with our natural eyes, seeks us out to heal our spiritual blindness and give us the eyes to see and understand the truth of God and God's Word, and promises that one day we shall see Him as He is, because we shall be like Him. See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God. Hear the word of the Lord. "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life. " John chapter 8, verses 11 and 12. Thanks be to God.
Announcer:We hope you enjoyed this week's reflection. We encourage you to share it and join us next time on Pro Life Kitchen Table. May God bless you.
