by The Real American

Created on: March 06, 2010   Last Updated: March 07, 2010

As a man who has [factually] faced this problem, I fully realize the philosophical and logical arguments on both sides of this socially sensitive issue! Just 17 years and 10 months ago, my first wife and I were suffering a significant economic and financial crisis of our own…. I was then unemployed and she was working part time for state minimum wage!

In the Kansas City, Kansas metropolitan area, the rent on an apartment [or home] runs very high… nine hundred dollars a month for us – at that particular time. After exhausting my retirement funds [from a previous job], we were sinking faster than a stone thrown into the ocean! Meanwhile, we already had two very small children….

With an uncle nearby - who practiced “tough love” - and a widowed mother over a thousand miles away, all hope seemed lost… and yet, I knew [beyond all doubt] that this situation was even harder emotionally on her! There were days, when we were beyond certain, that there was no way for us to actually make it. As our baby grew inside her, even I questioned the wisdom of bringing another unplanned child into our situationally troubled home….

Like most married couples – in that situation - we discussed the possibility of actually having an abortion. We disagreed on this subject, most profoundly… and even my own mother called me a damn fool! Afterwards, I thought perhaps maybe, in some ways, I truly was…. And yet, that wasn’t the end of it.

Two days later my wife told me her final decision… and I was completely aghast! Didn’t I, have any say in the matter? She told me that, according to Kansas, I assuredly didn’t. As we drove those twenty miles: I argued, I pleaded, and I begged… and, finally as we got out, I dropped to my knees and I cried! My anguish was near total and complete.

I had failed as a husband, provider, father, and man! I had failed to meet my wife and my family’s true needs! Nothing could have shattered me more! As she entered that office, I begged and pleaded with God… I made every promise that a man could… I swore that I’d do anything for Him… and I collapsed prostrate on the parking lot unglued.

I don’t, honestly, know how much time went by like that. I can tell you, it was awhile, because the sun had long since fully gone down. When someone finally grabbed my arm, and then spoke, it turned out that it was actually my wife….

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