Dad, What is Abortion?

Yesterday morning, as every weekday morning, I drove my two boys to school. On our way, we pass a short street that leads to an abortion mill. Sometimes there is someone visible on the main road who is protesting abortion. Yesterday, my boys took note of a woman doing just that. They asked about it. I told them she was protesting abortion.

"Dad, what is abortion?"

Let that sink in for a second. And while it is sinking in, ask yourself how you would answer a 7- and 8-year old who asked that question.

I thought it was a good time to delicately expose them to one of the very dark sides of our nation and world. I asked them if they understood what it means for a woman to be pregnant. Then I asked them what would happen if a baby was born too early and helped them think of the possibility of the baby dying. They have a friend in school who was born very prematurely, so I was able to relate this matter to that situation. Then I said that sometimes, accidents happen where the baby in the mommy's tummy is killed, or sometimes for reasons we don't understand the baby is born too early and cannot live. Then I said that sometimes a pregnant woman has people take away the baby out of her tummy so the baby dies. (I hesitate to call the "people" by the title "doctors" since they don't follow the Hippocratic oath.) That is what an abortion is.

The conversation was not more than a few minutes. But with it, another level of childhood innocence and ignorance was shattered. I hate that this sin-cursed world makes that innocence depart with age. But there is nothing stopping it.

My older son then thoughtfully said, "Dad, I don't understand why someone would want to do that."

I don't either, son.