Third District Rep. Marlin Stuzman is getting some attention for his revelation that his mother considered aborting him (see this National Review piece, for example):
On a cold December night in 1975, a 17-year-old girl sobbed on the bedroom floor of a neighbor’s house. Her own home had just burned to the ground, destroying everything she had. But that wasn’t the only weight she carried that night. She had just discovered that she was a few weeks pregnant with her first child. In the dark, alone and terrified, she decided to find a way to Kalamazoo, Mich., 40 miles away, to “take care of her situation.”
That young girl was my mother, and if she had gone to Kalamazoo that night, you wouldn’t be reading this today. I would have been aborted.
Painful stuff -- it's almost hard to fathom his mother's honesty in talking about all this, but it sounds like they're going to come out of it stronger people. This is an importatn element that shouldn't be left out of the abortion debate -- all the people walking around now who almost weren't born. It can be hard to imagine how the world would have been changed by all those who weren't born, but easy to understand how it would be different without some of those already here.
Stutzman again:
I talked to her about my speech on the House floor and then asked gently, “Mom, did you ever think about . . .” There was a tense pause, and then, through tears, she said, “Marlin, I’m so sorry!” As we cried together, I was no longer a congressman, but a son understanding for the first time the heartache and struggles my mom had gone through before I was born. As we talked about her fear of driving 40 miles alone, I had to think, “What if a ‘Gosnell‘ clinic was only four miles away instead of 40?”
She asked if I could forgive her. I answered, “Yes, with all my heart.”
