Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Prayer request for woman pregnant with spina bifida child — update

Sister Marie Regina writes with an updated prayer request for the woman I wrote about two weeks ago (see original post below). I believe the request is urgent because, the last I heard, the abortion is scheduled for tomorrow:

Just wanted to thank you for your beautiful responses to the abortion-vulnerable young woman in Canada who is pregnant with twins, one of whom has been diagnosed in utero with spina bifida.

Apparently, the CPC working with her has been literally overwhelmed with hundreds of responses ~ many families willing and desiring to adopt the child, multiple letters written from those who have special needs children themselves, offers of every kind of support imaginable...truly, the Church's faithful at their best.

To date, however, the young woman is still determined in her decision to abort the child. The CPC is beseeching all for prayers at this point ~ all practical, hands-on help has been offered; only our Lord can reach this precious soul and her little ones now...May her heart be opened by the tangible love of God she and her children have been shown by the Body of Christ, to love through all her fears and doubt...

The CPC has also requested that we update all whom we have forwarded the original request for help to, and that we refrain from any more outreach/calls now and simply pray (they don't have the manpower to respond to any more practical offers for help! Praise God!).
Here is an edited version of my original post:

Aid To Women, a crisis pregnancy center in Toronto, has been assisting a mom who is expecting twins next month.

Recently she found out, that one of the babies (a boy) has spina bifida. This is a birth defect in which the spinal cord has not developed properly. According to the doctors, this unborn child's condition is severe. He is probably paralyzed from the waist down and will need a shunt because of hydrocephaly (water on the brain).

According to the Spina Bifida Association, "Thanks to new medical treatments and technology, most people born with Spina Bifida can expect to live a normal life. People with Spina Bifida have many special challenges because of their birth defect, but their condition does not define who they are. People with Spina Bifida have careers, get married and have children just like people who don’t have Spina Bifida."

The mother cannot face this challenge and has booked to have a selective abortion of the spina bifida boy on February 2. If she goes through with it, the child will be aborted at 31½ weeks by Caesarean.

Yes, you read correctly. 31½ weeks. Abortion is legal and unrestricted in Canada until birth.

Aid to Women feels that if they can offer this mom a promise that a family will adopt the handicapped boy, she will carry him to term. They put out a call, including a mass e-mail, and have received interest from two families so far.

I received the e-mail and phoned the center to ask if they wanted me to put the request with on my blog. Center director Ann Wilson asked that I ask readers to pray for the mother. While the mother is Christian and opposes abortion, she is very distressed at the thought of giving birth to a severely handicapped child, and she is thinking that perhaps it would be better for both the boy and her if he were killed before birth.

Please pray for the mother and her unborn child.

Note: Because I have moved this post from its original spot, the first comments below are from when the request originally ran.