Karen Petersen: Abortion is wrong, all life should be protected

Yes, I protest the waste of the roughly 50 million aborted precious lives since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. Surely, we as a country will suffer the loss of their potential under this brutal law. And now, we “step up” to New York’s new full-term abortion law that is pure evil.

Ms. Gaines asked many questions of the reader. I’d like to answer from the side of those who wish to protect these babies.

“Does your opinion, your activism, actually affect you personally?” Yes! It does. Perhaps because I am older and can look back upon my loss of a baby I miscarried. I suffered through the process of having his tiny lifeless body suctioned from my womb. After all these years, I miss, wonder, grieve, the loss of that child and his potential and lost gifts to this world.

Perhaps those who choose abortion will one day question their decision to abort their living child and will grieve the same as I did. My heart goes out to them.

“Have you ever considered what happens to the woman who desperately seeks an abortion but is denied one, because of your enforced opinion?” Yes! I saw the consequences of unprotected sex while I was at the prosecutor’s office. I grieved the tortured bodies and those who died at the hands of their parents. As a homicide detective, my husband witnessed the autopsies of those murdered children and shared his grief with his family. A memory that is not lost over the years. On the other hand, I have known of unselfish women, laying the new life they created into the arms of adoptive mothers and fathers who begged for the opportunity to be parents.

Who willingly assumed the loving duties of caretakers for that “unwanted” life.

“Have you ever offered money, support and education for any of these children?” Yes! Our church in Washington has a group through which we support single mothers with “money, support and education.” We also do so in Oro Valley through Family First Pregnancy Care Center, where donations of diapers, formula and clothing are greatly appreciated. I believe because I have taken a pro-life stand, I must help those in need who made the decision to NOT kill their child. We have also volunteered care as foster parents.

I have questions for you, too, Ms. Gaines. Have you ever witnessed an abortion? Have you ever assisted with one? Have you ever held in your hands the tiny, aborted body? Have you ever dropped that wasted gift of life into a medical waste bin? If you have not, perhaps you should look a little deeper.

I will not shut up, but will continue to cry out for the millions of lives lost to legalized infanticide. I will shout out to help save the millions of future lives that may be aborted. I am for life — not death.

In Gaines’ words, “life happens.” And I believe it should be protected.