But in every pregnancy, at conception the entire DNA text for the child’s story has already been written and 40 days after conception there is a heartbeat and brain wave. There is no avoiding the clear fact that an abortion ends a human life.

Since 1973, there have been 53,000,000 abortions in America.

Each one of those abortions was a story untold, lost because the decision was made that because of the difficult circumstances and obvious obstacles being confronted, abortion appeared to be the logical or the most compassionate decision in that particular case.

But we will never know what stories have been untold, what lives the world has missed because of those 53,000,000 rational, logical, and often tearful decisions.

Consider the child’s life in the following story. Would an abortion have been the logical, compassionate decision for that family?

The precise date of the child’s birth is unknown.

It is known he was born in a cramped room in his family’s attic apartment, one year after his parents’ first child had died 6 days after birth.

His mother later had five other children, but only two survived.

His father was a violent drunk, coming home after the bars closed and then dragging the child from bed in order to “beat” lessons into his head.

The child went to primary school, but his years in school gave him little knowledge and he frequently appeared unkempt and dirty. At age ten, he dropped out, due to his family’s poor finances.

As a teenager, he went to the big city to try and make a life for himself, but news of his mother’s increasing illness from tuberculosis brought him back. After her death, the 17 year-old boy had to take over the family. His father’s drinking got to the point where at 19 the boy petitioned the government and received legal custody of his two surviving younger siblings.

Five years later, his father died from alcoholism.

A few years of peace and a bit of success ensued, but then in his late twenties his own medical problems multiplied and, as he lamented to a friend, “For two years I have avoided almost all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to say to people ‘I am deaf’.”

He never married. As one person said, “he was uncouth, small, thin, and not very handsome. He also had a violent temperament that frightened the ladies.”

He died 185 years ago on March 26, 1827 — and frankly, the circumstances of his birth, life and death have mattered very little to the billions who have enjoyed Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, 9th Symphony and his 200 other compositions ever since.

Beethoven’s life is one story that we can tell because he lived: his death occurred at the age of 56 years, not 56 days after conception.

Planned Parenthood’s research arm, the Guttmacher Institute, says that 22% of all U.S.
pregnancies end in abortion. Whose pregnancies end that way might surprise you:
82% of abortions every year are to women who are NOT teens.
61% of those who have an abortion are already mothers.
41.2% of women age 40-49 have had abortions.
Only 2.3% of women age 12-19 have had one.

But in every pregnancy, at conception the entire DNA text for the child’s story has already been written and 40 days after conception there is a heartbeat and brain wave. There is no avoiding the clear fact that an abortion ends a human life.

The circumstances surrounding a child’s conception may seem to present a bleak outlook for the child’s future, but abortion is never the most compassionate decision, and now is the time for us to honestly tell that to ourselves, our families, our community and our nation.

Mike Sharman, a resident of Foothills of Faith Farm in Madison County, Virginia, has served as an attorney and guardian for children for more than two decades. Mike writes a weekly editorial column published by the Culpeper Star-Exponent, which is used here with permission. You may contact him at [email protected]