My first response to this story Betsy posted earlier this week about “Twin Reductions” at IVF clinics was to be appalled. But as I have reflected on it, there is more to the story than the outrageousness of it all.
To be sure, twin reduction is intrinsically appalling. Fertility doctors routinely implant multiple embryos in a woman’s womb, in the hopes that at least one of the babies will survive. “Selective reduction” is routine in the fertility industry, if “too many” babies survive.
“Twin reductions” is the next step in the process of killing for convenience. Women abort one of a pair of twins, not for medical or health reasons, but for “social reasons”, that is, for convenience. There is no particularly terrible risk to carrying twins. These mothers just can’t quite imagine taking care of two babies. They feel like they are too old to handle twins.
And by and large, doctors perform these abortions. The procedure itself is slightly creepy.
The procedure, which is usually performed around Week 12 of a pregnancy, involves a fatal injection of potassium chloride into the fetal chest. The dead fetus shrivels over time and remains in the womb until delivery. Some physicians found reduction unnerving, particularly because the procedure is viewed under ultrasound, making it quite visually explicit, which is not the case with abortion.
The mother carries a dead baby around with the live baby: the living baby shares the womb with a deceased sibling.
Let us be clear about what is happening here. The doctors manufacture multiple embryos and implant them in a woman’s womb, with her consent. The doctor and the woman then decide to kill some of the embryos that they themselves brought into being, for the sake of the health of the mother and the health of the surviving baby. But the doctor and the mother are the ones who created these health risks, by implanting multiple embryos in the first place. It cannot possible be just, that one of the infants is arbitrarily targeted for death.
Some months ago, I observed (here and reprinted here) in an analysis of the West Coast Walk for Life, that the pro-life movement today is a youth movement. “Every person under the age of 38 is in some sense a survivor of the abortion regime. Any of them could have been killed. And some of them realize that.” I believe this is the core reason why support for life is so great among the young.
Now we have this even greater and more tangible moral nightmare: many of the children of IVF have aborted twin siblings. They could have been the one killed in the womb. Had the doctor’s needle of death moved just a few centimeters, they would be dead instead of their twin. What in the world are their parents going to tell them?
Some of the women interviewed for the article claimed that they would tell their children when the time was right. But when will the time ever be right for such a revelation? And what if they never tell their children about their siblings? Psychologists told us long ago to beware of family secrets. And what a secret this is! What a strain on the family, the mother and the father, to keep a secret of such magnitude between them. And if they do tell their children, will it be a strain for them to keep it as a family secret? Or will they blast it out into the environment, trying to brazen it out as if no one has any feelings at all for the lost baby?
Speaking of revealing, it is surely revealing that none of the women who had had twin reductions wanted their names to be used in the article. (I note that the woman who wrote the article elected NOT to do a twin reduction. And though she is often exhausted, she can’t imagine her life without both babies.) Are they afraid that people like me will judge them? I don’t think so. If they cared about my opinion, they wouldn’t be at an IVF clinic in the first place.
Their own consciences judge them. They have to work overtime to keep their stories straight in their own minds. The baby I killed was just a blob of tissue. They baby I kept is my precious child. Yes, I went to enormous trouble and expense to become pregnant. But the thought of having two babies is overwhelming and frightening. It was my choice, from beginning to end, my choice. I’m afraid, so I killed one or two of them. But I love the baby I kept. And so on.
They are going to have to keep all that clear in their minds, not just on the day they elect to do the abortion, but for the rest of their lives. Will there never be a night when they wake up with cold sweats? Will they never have visions of their living child’s lost twin? Will they never wonder if their reasons were good enough? There are many days and nights remaining to most of them over the rest of their lives.
Post-abortion counselors will tell you that the women who come to them could not maintain these stories forever. They make the decision to abort in the midst of a crisis. But when the crisis subsides, the conscience returns.
I wonder if anyone will help these women who have secretly and selectively “reduced” their IVF babies. Any feeling person who read this article can read between the lines and see the anguish these women feel. Our society’s solution is not to offer support, or love and encouragement for motherhood, or a culture that encourages stable and secure marriages. Rather, our society offers them more abortion options, and a cultural ambience that makes them feel all “consumerish” about motherhood, as one of the mothers put it.
Who knew in 1973, that this is where the abortion regime would take us? Those of you who supported and still support Roe v Wade, is this the sort of “choice” you think is worthy of women? Are there no limits on a “woman’s right to choose?” The full brutality of the abortion regime, the “choice” regime, has only become clear with the passage of time.
And to the pro-lifers among my readers: the IVF clinic is a whole new field of pro-life evangelism, a whole new opportunity for sidewalk counseling. A lot of death-dealing is going on inside those places. Be on the look-out for women who have ‘selectively reduced’ their multiple pregnancies. They may need our help. I doubt that anyone else will take them seriously.
For information about post-abortion healing, contact Rachel’s Vineyard.