fbpx

Children’s Tough Questions (A True Story)

This story about children and their reaction to abortion was submitted by Andrea from Aurora.

Mini VanI was on my way home from our annual back to school shoe shopping trip to Fox Valley Mall and surrounding shoe stores when I remembered that there was a Planned Parenthood being build along New York street. I had past the intersection of New York and Eola about 1,000 times in my lifetime and could not picture where the building would be located. I had my four children with me: a fourth grade girl, a kindergarten boy, a preschool boy and a two years old boy and I decided to take a quick detour and drive by to see where the Planned Parenthood building was. We turned onto Oakhurst and I saw 5 women standing on the sidewalk, walking slowly back and fourth. Since we were already there, I decided to park and walk with my children to get a closer look. When we got back into the mini van after our visit, and I suddenly found myself being pelted with questions for the next ten minutes. What was that building for? Why were people praying? What was happening in that building? I did my best to avoid answering their questions, but they just kept asking and asking. I had to tell them something, so I said that something was going to be happening in that building that people are very worried about. This only increased the questions and persistence. They had to know what was going on in the building and they were not going to let me off the hook. fearAs a parent I can say that I have been dreading conversations like this and I was shocked that I was suddenly involved in one. I was completely unprepared and would have preferred to have had time to plan and memorize stock answers that I had discussed with my husband prior to the conversation. Since that was not going to happen I came up with an answer that I thought would be simple and end the questions. My children have an understanding that babies grow in their mother’s tummy and that the mothers know a long, long time before the baby comes out that there is a baby growing in the tummy. I told them that the building was a medical building and the people who work there were going to be taking babies out of a mother’s tummy before the babies were ready to come out. I thought that this would end the conversation. Unfortunately this brief statement set off a day long interrogation session of which I have never in my many years of parenting endured before. Once the statement left my lips, they started firing away at me. “Are they making women do this? Are they paying women to do this? Why would women do this?” I answered with, “Women are paying the workers to do this.” “But why would women do this? What happens to the baby?” they asked. I said that since they were taking the baby out before it was ready, the baby would die. “So they are making the baby die on purpose? Do the mothers know ahead of time?” they asked. I said that the workers tell the mothers that it is not really a baby, so the mothers will not worry about doing it. With that, the car erupted with cries of disbelief, even laughter. They said, “If a mother knows that she is pregnant and is having a baby then how could it not be a baby?” they asked. They just could not get over that women would just believe the workers like that. McD friesLuckily for me we were about to pass a McDonalds and the two year old noticed. He started talking about wanting McDonalds which changed the conversations at last. However, my break from interrogation was short. Later, that day when we were back in the car the fourth grade girl asked, “Is it illegal to kill someone?” I said yes. She asked “Then is what those medical workers in the building doing illegal?” Before I had a chance to answer, the kindergarten boy piped up “Yeah, do the police know about this?” He asked. I said that the police know about this and that it is legal to do what they are doing. Then the kindergartener asked “Does the Fox News know about this?” I said that reporters do know about it and are talking about it. Later, when my kindergarten son and I were alone in the kitchen, he asked “What does God think about this?” I said that I thought that God would not like it. Then the kindergartener got an idea. He decided that we have to warn people about the building. He said, “We have to make 3 signs that say, Tell your wives and mothers not to go into this building.” Since the kindergartener had been to the building, he must have thought that 3 sign would be enough to get the message out. ChildFinally, he said, when you see Auntie Lori at the shower this weekend, be sure to tell her not to go into that building. When I saw my pregnant sister-in-law at her baby shower, I delivered the message from my kindergarten son about the building. She said that she had heard about the Planned Parenthood building in Aurora and she said to tell my son that she would be very careful not to go into the building. My son was very relieved to hear this. Now he just has to make sure that everyone else knows about it.

Share Tweet Email