Letter On Abortion

 

Dear Friend,

I have said on many occasions that I love to read the mail that is

sent to me by our friends and radio listeners. Most of it is warm and

wonderful and creative. Some is critical and harsh. But all of it is

beneficial, for the mail keeps us in touch with those to whom we are

accountable. You are among that number. This is your ministry and we

need your help in keeping it relevant to today's families. thank you for

sharing your lives with us in such a personal way.

Quite frequently, a letter will arrive that has an enormous impact

on our staff. The first administrator to read it will immediately

distribute copies to others in various departments for their reactions

and comments. That interchange is a meaningful part of our work.

In fact, that process occurred a few days ago when I received an

unforgettable letter from a physician in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His name is

Dr. Marvin Eastlund, and his letter was so important that I requested, and

received, permission to share his words with each of you. Dr. Eastlund and

I have now formed a new bond of Christian brotherhood--for reasons that

you will soon understand. this is what he wrote:

 

Dear Dr. Dobson,

I am an avid listener of your radio programs on WBCL-FM in Fort Wayne

and and equally avid reader of your books. I listened with interest to

your programs aired last month about abortion and the trauma suffered

by women after having had an abortion. I am an obstertrician and

gynecologist and have had many dealings with this very situation in my

practice. I fortunately see many of the abortion candidates before the

final decision is made, and even more fortunately have had the

opportunity to talk with these women and witness to them and share with

them the reality of abortion. There is an overwhelming sense of

accomplishment when a woman decides to keep her unborn baby and carry it to

term and give that baby a chance to live. I have rejoiced at the

opportunities to be used of God to help those who are struggling with this

decision.

I have had patients who have had abortions before coming to see me.

these people are the most miserable. My heart goes out to the woman who is

suffering so much from the decision she made years before. Many are

seeing me because they are now infertile.

The guilt they express is tremendous. In some cases they killed the

only baby they could have had and now th womb is closed. They grieve

when, if they do conceive and then hear the baby's heartbeat with the

ultrasonic instruments, they realize that the abortion they had previously

was likewise a tiny baby with a heartbeat. The trauma they experience is

overwhelming. the act of the abortion is not just he removal of pregnancy

tissue from the uterus. There is more, much more, to the procedure than the

pro-abortion counselors ever tell the person who is trying to make a

decision. Once done, the damage is very difficult to live with.

I had one 40-year-old patient who was not very well medically and had

undergone an abortion about six years earlier. she was in agony over what

she had done. She could not live with herself. She was drinking alcohol.

She was on various "nerve" medications from other physicians to help her

cope. She came to see me because she was desperate to have a baby and just

could not. In talking with her she unloaded the grief and burden she

was carrying about the previous abortion. Her main objective in getting

pregnant again was to replace the baby she destroyed. She felt if she could

only get pregnant and have a baby, the previous problem would be

canceled and everything would be fine. God used the situation that day to His

glory. He gave me the insight and words to say in the encounter that

changed that woman's life. I expressed to her that she did not need another

baby. She needed forgiveness. I was then able to share with her that true

forgiveness comes only through Jesus Christ. That opportunity allowed me to

share my faith with her and she then accepted Christ into her life and

experienced the forgiveness she was desperately seeking over the previous

several years. We both floated out of the office that day! She subsequently

conceived and had a beautiful baby from an uneventful pregnancy. I am

praising God for giving me a "mission field" right in my own office!

One other situation I wish to share with you was my own

experience with abortion. I had arrived at that point in my career where I

was faced with the choice of saving one life over another. I try to avoid

this predicament of at all possible. However, in the field of medicine,

occasionally one must make the decision of who to attempt to save and who

to let die. These decisions are very hard indeed.

The woman was a longstanding patient of mine who had had much

difficulty with infertility. After successfully conceiving, she was then

found to have a hydatidiform mole pregnancy. this situation is an abnormality

of the placenta that very rarely is accompanied by a living child.

It carries a high potential of malignancy, and once diagnosed, the

uterus should be emptied and the patient treated according to the findings.

The malignancy that occurs is very virulent and usually the patient is dead

within a year. The fortunate aspect, however, is that the cancer is very

treatable with chemotherapy with almost a 100% response rate. thus, the

cancer is curable with aggressive treatment.

This placed us, my patient and myself, in a real dilemma. How do we

treat this situation? To allow the pregnancy to continue would allow the

cancer to continue giving the mother a certainty of death in a few months.

To treat the cancer would possible abort the pregnancy and most certainly

cause gross deformities if the baby survived.

To abort the pregnancy would allow further treatment but also kill

the baby. We did not know what to do. She felt, as I did, that abortion

was wrong. We struggled together about this issue. I obtained

several consultation opinions from experts around the country. All

agreed that abortion and more chemotherapy was the route to go. Medically, I

likewise agreed that this was the most logical step.

However, my personal convictions really wrestled with science at this

point. The patient and I turned to prayer and asked for divine guidance.

We both came away with the peace that, in this situation, her life took

priority over the baby's. I then tried to refer her to someone who would

handle the abortion. I look back on that as a way for me to settle the issue

in my own heart. She thwarted that attempt by asking me to do the

procedure. She did not want anyone else operating on her. Here I was

going against my own principles by doing an abortion! That was very hard to

deal with. I then realized that I had already done the abortion when I agreed

with the go-ahead plan. I again prayed and received the peace of mind that

this was the proper step. I scheduled the procedure and remember vividly

standing at the scrub sink just before the surgery, agonizing over this

decision. Just a few hours before, I had obtained an ultrasound of the

pregnancy showing a live fetus with a beating heart and what appeared to be

a normal pregnancy in progress. The very thought of destroying that

unborn child nauseated me. I prayed in earnest while scrubbing. I

probably prayed more earnestly than I ever have before. I prayed to God to

forgive me of this sin I was committing.

I asked Him to stop me if this was not in His will. I offered my life

for that baby's. I told God to take my life right at that moment and not let

me take the life of that baby. Nothing happened and I finished scrubbing.

I went into the room and began the D & C procedure. All the time,

I was very uneasy about doing the procedure and wished I were somewhere else

at that moment. Before inserting the dilator, I asked once again for

guidance from God. If this were not to be, please stop me now. Nothing

happened. I proceeded to dilate the cervix and explored the uterine

cavity. To my relief and, I must admit, surprise, the uterus was

empty! Just hours before there was undeniable proof of a live pregnancy

there. Now there was nothing! I first thought I might have perforated the

uterus by accident and was not in the right place. However, I carefully

retraced my steps and was convinced I was in the right place. I was then

able to remove a small piece of tissue that looked like degenerating placenta.

After a careful exploration of the uterus, I was still

dumbfounded. I called one of my partners who was very familiar with the

case and explained the findings to him. He likewise was not sure what to do.

We agreed to stop the procedure at this point and obtain another ultrasound.

That ultrasound showed an empty uterus! The pathology report confirmed

that the tissue I removed was degenerating, "burned-out" placental tissue.

I witnessed a miracle! God heard my prayers and intervened and took

that baby home with Him, thus freeing me from the act of destroying

that baby. There was no other explanation for that finding.

Even some of the nonbelieving physicians who were familiar with this

case agreed with me. I had never felt so close to God before. He answered

the petitions of my patient and me and saved us both tremendous guilt

by doing the abortion. He led us along the path to the point where we could

only receive the quidance from Him after we fully submitted to Him. He

then took control and performed in such a way that no human could obtain any

glory from what He did.

The patient then underwent the remainder of her chemotherapy and

experienced a very successful recovery from her cancer. We both grew

immeasurably in our faith through this whole experience.

I apologize for this very lengthy letter. I have been wanting to share

this with you for some time. Your recent broadcasts on abortion gave me

further stimulus to put these thoughts and episodes in writing. I

support you fully in your Christian witness to the world and especially in

your stand on abortion. Your message is heard by many, many people, and

you are being listened to. There is a difference in hearing and

listening. Let me tell you, people are listening and lives are being

changed by your testimony. God is being glorified through your efforts.

Thank you for your time and your friendship through the medium of radio.

Sincerely,

Marvin E. Eastlund, M.D.

 

I thank the Lord for physicians like Dr. Eastlund who have taken an

unflinching stand against the killing of unborn children. In fact, it is my

hope that doctors who are "on the fence" will read his letter and be touched

by the truth of its message. Each one who comes to this understanding can,

of course, help preserve the lives of precious little babies who would

otherwise be lost. As for the rest of us, let's pray that the Giver

of Life will open their eyes to the significance of this issue that

confronts us.

You might be interested in knowing that Focus on the Family has

recently developed a new area of service to women facing unplanned

pregnancies. It is our belief that many babies are aborted because young

mothers are confused, frightened, and lack the resources to carry to term.

If they only had access to medical care, Christian counseling and a place

to go, they would follow the dictates of their hearts. That's why local

Crisis Pregnancy Centers are so vital in this battle to spare the

lives of unborn children. Unfortunately, CPCs are usually underfunded,

overworked and short on educational materials. I wish more churches

would provide financial aid to these centers of life, but, for whatever

reason, most are threatened with bankruptcy.

That's why we are developing a support mechanism for the more than

500 CPCs with whom we are in contact. We will be providing free literature,

audio cassettes and video tapes to those that need these materials. A budget

of $15,548 has been designated for the next few months with more to

come. I wish we could allocate ten times that much to this worthy cause.

Your help in this and related pro-family activities would

especially be appreciated again this month. March was difficult for us and

April always brings a tug of war with the tax man. Anything you can do

to defray our expenses would be like manna from heaven to us. We will receive

it with thanksgiving and grateful hearts to our Lord and to His generous and

loving people.

And remember! Let us hear from you when you feel like writing.

Without your response, this ministry becomes a vacuous conversation with

ourselves. Dialoge with you is much more interesting!

Your friend in Christ,

James C. Dobson, Ph.D.

(Sysop Note:)

If you would like to write to Dr. Dobson, you can write to:

Focus on the Family

P.O. Box 50

Arcadia, Ca. 91006

Downloaded from the Goodnews BBS MI

313-459-8375

---

Index of Articles of Interest    Home

  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 135 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151 | 152 | 153 | 154 | 155 | 156 | 157 | 158 | 159 | 160 | 161 | 162 | 163 | 164 | 165 | 166 | 167 | 168 | 169 | 170 | 171 | 172 | 173 | 174 | 175 | 176 | 177 | 178 | 179 | 180 | 181 | 182 | 183 | 184 | 185 | 186 | 187 | 188 | 189 | 190 | 191 | 192 | 193 | 194 | 195 | 196 | 197 | 198 | 199 | 200 | 201 | 202 | 203 | 204 | 205 | 206 | 207 | 208 | 209 | 210 | 211 | 212 | 213 | 214 | 215 | 217 | 218 | 219 | 220 | 221 | 222 | 223 | 224 | 225 | 226 | 227 | 228 | 229 | 230 | 231 | 232 | 233 | 235 | 236 | 237 | 238 | 239 | 240 | 241 | 242 | 243 | 244 | 245 | 246 | 247 | 248 | 249 | 250 | 251 | 252 | 253 | 254 | 255 | 256 | 257 | 258 | 259 | 260 | 261 | 262 | 263 | 264 | 265 | 266 | 267 | 268 | 269 | 270 | 271 | 272 | 273 | 274 | 275 | 276 | 277 | 278 | 279 | 280 | 281 | 282 | 283 | 284 | 285 | 286 | 287 | 288 | 289 | 290 | 291 | 292 | 293 | 294 | 295 | 296 | 297 | 298 | 299 | 300 | 301 | 302 | 303 | 304 | 305 | 306 | 307 | 308 | 309 | 310 | 311 | 312 | 313 | 314 | 315 | 317 | 318 | 319 | 320 | 321 | 322 | 323 | 324 | 325 | 326 | 327 | 328 | 329 | 330 | 331 | 332 | 333