Life ain’t saved by killing another

by: Lian Nami Buan

Have sex, abort later? It’s the same as eat unhealthily now, get a liposuction tomorrow. In a night when two people seemed to have ignored all the responsibility that a relationship entails, saying “no” would’ve been a much easier decision to make than, “should I keep it?.”

St. Margaret of Castello was born blind and disfigured, but disabilities and abandoment from her parents wasn’t a hindrance to becoming a woman of God. In the modern times, defective fetuses can be detected by ultra sound examinations. By all means, a mother can give up a disabled child even before she can give the child a chance to live. Had her parents not let St. Margaret be born, the world would have never been able to witness her miracles.

This was among the words of Ms. Jeannine Delos Reyes towards the gift of life that she and Prolife Philippines have been trying to preserve for 30 years. Prolife Philippines is a non-profit organization that offers counseling help to women going through pregnancy problems.

“Immediately, we tell the women that abortion is out of the question.” Instead, they send women who are in no well condition to get through pregnancy to maternity homes where they would be taken care of until delivery. Prolife can also take the child and put her in a foster home to give the mother a chance to redeem herself in preparation for the time that she will take her child back and take care of the child herself. “We offer alternatives to abortion, we can refer them to adoption agencies,” where mothers has to give their babies away if only to give the child the life that she deserves to have.

“Life is a gift from God and its an expression of his love to us. Life begins from conception, when an egg and sperm meet, its already a life. Destroying such little cell would already mean killing,” delos Reyes said.

She could go religious about it, one can go philosophical and sometimes even political. Too many insights on a matter that is actually as simple as the word ‘love’.

Love for the parents who wanted their daughter to be women of dignity, love for partners who deserve a bright future, and love for God who gave us life and expects us to give them in return.

Prolife Philippines are more concerned to the integrity that a woman should maintain amidst a crisis more than the shortcomings that condemnded her. They don’t go around rubbing in to their poor faces the divine law that they have defied. No, they take them in and welcome them into a family that would help them be better people when everyone has stopped believing that they would ever be.

Who are ‘they’? The ‘they’ that we don’t even have enough grace to acknowledge through a word. Teenage mothers presents a conflict because teenagers aren’t suppose to be mothers. Sinners is not even a word we have the right to use. “Children of God,” delos Reyes offered, “they, too, are children of God just like the rest of us.” This imposed equality is something that no act could ever dislodge. Besides, its not the men who are sins, its the behavior. Prolife Philippines never fail to promote chastity before marriage, but they also never fail to promote love and acceptance as the solution once its broken.

“We make them (teenage mothers) feel loved, accepted and special,” delos Reyes said. Pregnant women get depressed not because of abandonment but rather of the fear of being abandoned . Getting an unwanted pregnancy often makes women feel scared, of possible rejections, or that it might mean a failure.

At the end of the day, when asked about what all of it has come into, they can proudly say that they have saved lives, both of the mother and the child. “We hold counselling sessions to give them enough courage to come out to their families, and the strength to believe that they are capable of supporting a child’s life.”

This sense of fulfillment is shared by the mere 10-man staff that mans Prolife Philippines, excluding the volunteers that they get once in a while. Fortunately, they get help too from insitutions and individuals who believe in the same passion as them. “Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office gives us grant of 500,000 pesos a year,” she said, citing one of the supporters who has kept Prolife’s heads above waters. In that list of good people would be Senator Aquilino Pimentel and Lito Atienza, Prolife Philippines’ first President.

See, life is that sacred to be given all this fuss. Fuss that convinced the Virgin Mary to give birth to the savior. Now we ask, God’s sakes, how can one be so careless?