Caring Before and After Birth
- Thursday, May 7, 2009, 6:31
- Battleground Iowa
- 593 views
- 21 comments
By Emily Geiger
I saw an awesome story yesterday, and it got me to thinking. I’ve heard a lot of criticism lately about how pro-lifers only care about babies before they are born.
I can tell you that that is 100% not true. There are a lot of Christian pro-lifers who donate to charities such as pregnancy centers that not only help moms before birth, but also supply moms with things like formula, diapers, baby clothes, etc. after birth.
Countess Christian pro-life families act as foster parents and often wait for years to adopt children. Countless others sponsor underprivileged children overseas, and some are even able to adopt foreign orphans.
I think some of the misconception that pro-life Christians don’t care about already-born children is because conservatives often don’t support government programs that are thought to help children. Conservatives are made out to be greedy, heartless meanies who just don’t care.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Conservatives just feel that charity should not be a function of government, but rather, is better and more efficiently handled by private entities and churches. And an added bonus, when charity is private, I get to choose which causes I donate to instead of being mandated to donate to causes I don’t approve of (i.e. my tax dollars going to Planned Parenthood).
Further, if liberals are so concerned about the welfare and education of kids after they are born, I have to wonder why liberals hate poor kids so much and why that doesn’t get more attention, but I digress.
But, back to that awesome story. You see, this story is about one of those little babies that pro-lifers cared so much about and how he’s doing now.
This was a photo that got a lot of attention about ten years ago.
It was taken during a pre-natal , in utero surgery when little Samuel Armas was only 21-weeks young… a time when abortions are still quite common and very legal. Samuel needed surgery to help repair some problems associated with a condition he had, spina bifida, which happens when the spine is not enclosed properly within the body of the baby as it develops. Spina bifida babies are often aborted.
Here’s how the photographer who took the photo, Michael Clancy, described what happened.
Clancy, who used to describe himself as pro-choice, now is a regular speaker at pro-life events.
And little Samuel? He’s now 9 years old. He wears leg braces and sometimes uses a wheelchair, but he’s active in Cub Scouts, loves swimming, and recently got first place in a 25-meter backstroke race.
And what does Samuel think about being famous even before he was born?
Samuel really believes that people seeing his fully-formed hand when he was only 21 weeks old has touched people and changed hearts and minds on the abortion issue.
Samuel is a shining example of how valuable every life is… before and after birth.
About the Author
Battleground Iowa has written 222 stories on this site.
Emily Geiger writes from a conservative perspective on everything from politics to religion to pop culture. Like the original Emily of Revolutionary War era, this Emily is delivering important messages crucial to winning the raging war of the time, but today, this is a culture war rather than a traditional one. And, like the original Emily, sometimes it takes a woman to do (or say) that which lesser men lack the courage and tenacity to do.
21 Comments on “Caring Before and After Birth”
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Amen!!!
Great Article!!
Emily, you are completely right that this is an amazing picture, and Samuel’s story is wonderful. I do have some disagreement with you on your comments about conservatives feeling that “charity” is best done by charities instead via government programs. I don’t think education and healthcare are charity. What I always have trouble understanding is how “pro-life” people consistently seem to rail against universal healthcare or SCHIP. If one is pro-life, it should be whole life–anything we can do to make sure that our brethren are not suffering unnecessarily from chronic diseases or conditions, we should do. I just don’t think Jesus would support the idea that we as a society let people suffer because they are poor and can’t afford health insurance. Sometimes it just seems that conservatives are short-sighted on that front.
“What I always have trouble understanding is how “pro-life” people consistently seem to rail against universal healthcare or SCHIP.”
This is a disingenuous argument. You make it sound as though Republicans are against helping the underprivileged which just isn’t so; we do however realize – and history tells us – that the government doesn’t do most things better than the private sector, and fraud and abuse are always a problem.
Republicans are just as compassionate as Democrats and certainly better at seeing the big picture and trusting individuals to decide how their money is best spent.
I couldn’t agree more that private charity gets it done better than govenrnment. I personally know of a situation in which a deadbeat mom was too lazy to fill out the paperwork for free healthcare from the state, so her kid was no logner able to go to the doctor.
The kid was lucky enough to have friends with good parents and other people in the community who stepped up to pay for needed glasses and other health care for the child in question. I think doctors also helped and discounted their bills some.
Part of the problem I have with free government healthcare for everyone is that 1) quality always goes down (that’s exactly what’s happened in Canada and England), and 2) a lot of the uninsured people out there right now are uninsured because of their own choices and priorities. Most of them are young people early in their careers who don’t have insurance in their starter job and don’t bother to get themselves even a major medical plan (which isn’t that expensive).
I’ve been in that exact position, and I went down to the local private insurance agent, joined Farm Bureau, and got myself a health plan. Yes, it was a few thousand post-tax dollars I would have liked to have spent on something else, but I prioritized.
Right now, if you are actually poor and need health insurance for yourself and your kids, you can get it. I think anyone earning around $40K or under in Iowa qualifies.
You just have to not be too lazy to fill out the paperwork.
yes, lydia, everyone is just too lazy, the poor really doesn’t want healthcare. You can’t pick out one bad example and try to apply to everyone else. Plus, i would like to think america can come up with a little better system of healthcare for everyone than canada or england. It is inexcusable that in a country as great as ours, thousands of people don’t have access to healthcare.
Silence
Peggy, you are one of the least compassionate posters here, you have repeatedly stated we shouldn’t help poor people with housing, healthcare, food, particularly those evil single moms.
Silence
Prove it!
Good luck.
don’t have to pegster, you will do it for me. Keep posting.
Silence
I’m all for helping people out. I’m not arguing to take down social security, disability, or the health programs we already have. There are also a lot of private charities and fundraisers that happen that help fill in the gaps. The problem is that people who make enough money to pay for health insurance should take the initiative to go out and get it like I did.
At some point, people have to take responsibility for themselves.
Well, lydia, I would agree, if it is available and they qualify, then it is on that person to get the healthcare benefits for their kids and themselves. FYI, in many instances like the one you mentioned, the application for benefits can be retroactive, many times medicaid or medicare will be backdated and pick up old bills and will certainly cover preexisting conditions. Just something to keep in mind if you run into a similar situation. It is great people stepped up in this case, but hope people got the children signed up for the proper benefits, that is ultimately what needed to be done. Private charities can be great but i don’t think they can fulfill the primary need for help, as you said, a gap filler but that is about it. there are people who honestly need the government’s assistance.
Silence
Seriously, Silence, cite comments of mine that prove I “repeatedly stated we shouldn’t help poor people with housing, healthcare, food, particularly those evil single moms.”
Not sure how you’re going to pull this off but it will be fun to watch.
Peggy, I am not going archive searching, as I said, keep posting, you will prove me right eventually. I don’t actually understand why you don’t admit, you post complaining you don’t want taxpayer money going to single moms and the poor because it just perpetuates a “cycle”. You jump on my comments about helping single moms with programs that will help influence them to have children instead of abortions. You have the “not with my money” response. Just own up to it.
Silence
“you post complaining you don’t want taxpayer money going to single moms and the poor ”
Silence, you’re not going to get away with just making stuff up. Put up or shut up.
I do love when Peggy gets all hypocritical.
Silence, just do what Peggy does. Say you’ve already posted evidence and complain that she is too stupid to understand it. That’s page one of the Pegster debating handbook.
I know steve, she can even keep track of the crap she has posted, or she just doesn’t like it when it is put into blunt terms. there is a bit of difference I guess steve, she posts that she has already posted evidence and we are too stupid to understand it (like with how marriage increases political fredom and limited government) in this case, I guess I can say she has already posted the evidence and she is too stupid to understand her own posts.
Silence
Blah, blah, blah.
Still no proof of your personal accusations. You are a true amateur.
Again, pegster, this is like being peyton manning and being called a crappy QB by rex grossman.
Silence
Where’s your proof, Silence?
For a lawyer, you sure don’t try very hard.
peggy, why do you deny it? At least have the guts to admit how you feel.
Silence
Still nothing.
Peggy–you are so right. Compassion isn’t about throwing good money after bad. Your posts make great sense. From the start. govenment aide has flourished. It’s part of human nature to take what you can get for free. I know of 3 people I used to work with who were laid off and chose not to look for a job when unemployment benefits were extended. Why work when you can get paid not to? The same is true of health insurance. Why pay for it if you can get it for free? The story of Samuel is awe inspiring. It supports how advanced medical technology is, proof in itself abortion most often is a convenience for women. I will never understand how people can be proabortion, willing to take the life of the innocent, and be against the death penalty, willing to exhonerate the guilty. It’s a mystery…