The story line in the comic 9 Chickweed Lane continues. For those who have not been following it, the granddaughter (the one on the right) has an unplanned pregnancy. Her mother (the one in the middle) is the result of an unplanned pregnancy. The grandmother (the one on the left) became pregnant with the mother as a result of World War II love affair. Both the mother and the daughter have gone to visit the grandmother to ask her advice, since she is the one who has the experience of an unplanned pregnancy while unmarried, and all of its results.
You can see that the writer/artist of the comic is not revealing what his viewpoint on the matter is. However, he has shown himself to be quite sensitive to the nuances of human relationships. The grandmother is recounting her experiences of being pregnant. The granddaughter answers with all the brashness and rashness of youth. Of course she knows the answer, and the answer is that women should have had choice back when the grandmother became pregnant. However, the grandmother has much more life experience than the other two. In between the two is the mother, a child of an unexplained pregnancy.
The grandmother weighs her answer. Had she aborted, neither the daughter she love nor the granddaughter she loves and is now waiting for her advice would be sitting next to her. Even back then, I suspect that the grandmother was arguing with herself about bearing the child of a forbidden love, but a love nevertheless. Her answer, both with remembered pain and with current pain is that choice is not in any way the easier answer for almost any woman.
Sometimes we fail to communicate that we are aware of the pain and distress that go with an unexpected pregnancy. Or we communicate it only as a tool to explain why the correct stance is to be against abortion. Sometimes we are so busy telling a woman not to kill her baby that we fail to tell a woman that we will be with her through the pregnancy and beyond. Frankly, if we are honest, all too many of us simply want the woman to not abort and then are all too happy to tell her to, “be warmed and be filled,” while ignoring her needs and cries for help.
There is neither excuse nor reason for elective abortion. But, there is neither excuse nor reason for the attitude of all too many of us, who are happy to win the battle while leaving the wounded strewn on the battlefield. I sometimes wonder how many of us would have welcomed the thief on the cross into the Kingdom and how many of us would have simply told him that he deserved his fate and all that came with it.
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