By Clay Smith, A Christian Manifesto.
I recently took care of a young woman who miscarried 15-week gestation twins in the Emergency Department. As I looked at the two tiny boys she delivered, there was a sense of loss and helplessness. There was no way to help them survive when they were so premature. Their eyes were still fused shut at this gestation, but they had perfect little faces, noses, lips, and fingers. I cloaked my feelings under professionalism and pulled myself together in order to be compassionate to this new mother who just lost twin boys. But it was a tough night, and the image of their tiny, bruised but perfect bodies remains etched in my memory. We were all sad that night: the expecting mother, the nurses, and me.
Unsettled
So as I watched the third video from the Center for Medical Progress, I was deeply unsettled as the technician sifted through body parts on a pie plate. This baby had been torn apart, “there’s a leg…a kidney…that’s neural tissue.” Not much rattles me as an Emergency Physician. I’ve seen it all, from gunshot wounds to the head to gangrene of the toes. But inflicted human suffering is disturbing and often makes it hard to fall asleep, even after a night shift. Sometimes I can’t turn my mind off. I can’t notremember the patients I’ve just seen and their injuries. Sometimes I lie there and ask myself, “How can people do these things to each other? How can one person take a baseball bat to another person’s head?” (Sadly, I’ve seen that too…several times.) The feelings of incredulity, injustice, and indignation are always there when I see people hurt by other people. It doesn’t go away or get easier just because I’ve seen the same drama replayed in our trauma resuscitation rooms 1000 times over either. I had the same feeling as I watched the third video. Something deep inside me is repulsed at this.
Related articles:
How to contact your legislators about Planned Parenthood, From the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
Liberal clergy praise Planned Parenthood ‘Doing God’s work.’ From Juicy Ecumenism, The Institute on Religion and Democracy’s blog