Minnie Goes to Heaven (96)

(a novel continued)

At the end of the fast, Minnie still didn’t know what to do. She had prayed about the abortion issue for three days. ‘What now Lord?’

‘Wait on me.’

So she waited. Two days later she heard, ‘Take it to the discipleship group.’

The discipleship group met faithfully every Tuesday. They hadn’t even missed the week Minnie and Mary went to the resort. That week the women prayed specifically for Mary. They were overjoyed when they heard Mary had opened up. 
The women were all growing in their faith. Some had even adopted a church.

The first Tuesday, after the three-day fast, Minnie brought up the abortion issue. “What should we do?” Minnie asked.

“What can we do?” Nan said.

“Some of us have had abortions,” Hannah said. “Some of us have children who have had abortions.” She looked around as she said it. “We didn’t know it was wrong—at least I didn’t. What do you do when you are not ready to have a baby and the doctor tells you an abortion is your best option?”

“I had an abortion when I was a teenager,” Melissa said. I had a steady boyfriend but we certainly weren't ready to get married—we were 16 and in grade 11 for Pete's sake. I was so depressed afterwards. My boyfriend and I broke up and I was down for months. If I had known what it would be like, maybe I would have had the baby and gave him up for adoption. At least then something good would have come out of it.”

“I was depressed too,” Hannah said. “The doctor told me it was a post-partum thing. He gave me some pills to cheer me up.” She smiled a big fake smile.

“So you girls are saying that if you knew what it would be like, you would choose not to have an abortion?”

“Well, I don’t know if that is completely true,” Hannah offered. “I mean sometimes having a baby is so totally inconvenient."
"How about all the time," Nan said.
"And, a baby isn’t just a baby," Hannah continued. "A baby grows up to be a teenager and there is so much to think about when you are responsible for bringing up a child. You think about how that extra person you are responsible for becomes part of your life—sort of takes over—and it’s so easy to say I’m not ready for the responsibility. Let’s just end this here. Being depressed for a few months doesn’t compare with being responsible for someone for the next twenty years.”

“But that little life starts way before it’s born.” Amie said. “When I felt my baby move inside me, I knew that wasn’t part of me. That was a little person inside me. That person has a life to live. There are things that maybe only that person with those genes can do.”
"Some of those things could be bad," Hannah said.