What would you guess is being advertised?

Sometimes these ads appear on bus stop billboards.

Or on the backs of every seat on the bus.

If you couldn't read it, what would you guess is being advertised?

3 Minutes, Painless

Resolve Unwanted Pregnancy

Abortion is presented as a relaxing spa massage rather than what it is -- killing a small baby.

Smiling sweetly? And little pink hearts?

Every time I see these my sense of justice is ticked off. Ending the life of your child is not a spa experience. 

I really feel for Chinese women. Enforcement and observance of the one-child only policy is responsible for the killing of many children, even children conceived inside marriage but at the wrong time or in the wrong quantity. Intense cultural shame and socio-economic constraints mean zero chance of birth for a baby conceived outside of marriage. The acceptance and availability of abortion plus a tradition of infanticide has given rise to a cavalier attitude towards terminating a pregnancy. I know tons of women who have had an abortion or two. A younger friend has asked me for abortion money. A neighbor friend was seriously considering aborting her second-trimester baby when the doctors suspected the baby might not be "strong" -- she kept him, he's now two months old and perfect. 

I can't count how many times I've had this conversation with other mothers or grandmothers, usually while standing outside the preschool gates waiting to pick up our children:

mama: Why don't you have another baby, a daughter?

me: Well, I'm done giving birth. Besides, what if it's another boy? 

mama: Simple. Just have an abortion, hahaha!

Then I gently explain my perspective, with compassionate sensitivity to the fact that the woman with whom I am speaking has almost certainly undergone an abortion in her lifetime -- not at all because she is a bad mama but because of her cultural and political context. But I never compromise on sharing the message that abortion is killing one's child. It just is. It's not good for mamas, it's not good for women, it's not good for children, it's not good for families, it's not good for whole societies. 

My voice. I'm not expecting to change the predominant view of an entire civilization, but I hope that for those mamas with whom I speak their minds may begin to be expanded -- freed -- to consider all life as sacred.

counting the graces

thank you Father for

rain sounds and darkness

days together with my kids -- reading, learning, walking around, cooking, eating, praying, sharing ideas, working through conflict

fridge full of fresh vegetables and looking forward to eating all of them

sense of being exactly where you want me on the globe

insight and clarity forming from re-reading Transforming Discipleship

fridge fixed itself and so did the internet

shower's broken but bucket baths are fine in summer

routine