Abortion Rights

It is 2022. Ruth Bader Ginsberg has died. She has been replaced with a conservative justice. Trump was reelected President. Because the majority of the Supreme Court was now conservative, when the fight for abortion was taken to the highest level, Roe v Wade was overturned. But it was made worse. Abortion was not outlawed in every case, as long as there was a heartbeat.

Dawn and Matt were excited for their first child. They were a devout Christian couple, pro-life. They had planned this baby for years.

They were at their 22nd week. Dr. Johnson had the fetal heart monitor to Dawn’s stomach as they all listened to the heartbeat. “The heart sounds fine,” he said. “You have your ultrasound coming up in just a couple days, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Matt answered. “We’ll find out if it is a boy or girl then.”

“Do you have any names picked out?” the doctor asked.

“Justin if it is a boy, Justine if it is a girl, “Dawn told him.

“Those are great names! Well, we are all done here. I will see you in a week to go over the ultrasound with you,” he exclaimed.


Two days later, Dawn was on the table in a room with warm gel on her rounded stomach, a Doppler wand gliding across.

“Well, are you ready to know what it is?” the technician asked.

“Of course!” Dawn exclaimed.

The technician replied, “It’s a boy!”

Matt squeezed Dawn’s hand as his face split into a wide grin. “I love you, Justin,” he whispered, in awe.

Suddenly, the technician’s face broke out into a frown. She took some more measurements, the said “I’ll be right back. I need someone to look at this for a minute,” and rushed out of the room.

When she can back, she told them, “Dr. Johnson wants you to go over to his office straight away. He will be waiting for you.”

Dawn’s heart sank and she began to cry. She cried the whole way to the office.

When they arrived, the nurse ushered them straight into the doctor’s office. They sat gingerly in the chairs, waiting for doctor, Johnson.

Dr. Johnson walked in, sat down and let out a sigh. “This will be very difficult. I have looked over the ultrasound and spoke with the specialist. Justin has a disorder called Anencephaly. His brain has not developed.”

“Will it develop?” Matt asked.

“No. Only three in 10,000 babies are born with this disorder in the United States each year. Unfortunately, almost all babies with this disorder die shortly after birth. Very rarely have any lived past that, and even then, it has been for a short time, a couple years. Those children were blind, deaf, unable to really move,” he explained.

Dawn broke out in tears again.

Matt pleaded, “Is there anything we can do? Is he suffering? Does he have to continue to suffer?” He went against his conscience in asking that last question, thinking only about the pain his son might be in.

“I’m sorry. There is nothing we can do at this point. Since the overturn of Roe v Wade, abortion is illegal under any circumstances. Even if Dawn were to have a miscarriage, we would all be investigated,” Dr Johnson said sympathetically, with a heavy heart.

Dawn and Matt stood up to leave. Dawn was unable to say anything.

Matt extended his hand to the teary Dr. Johnson. “Thank you. We will go home and pray about it,” be barely croaked out.


When Dawn arrived home she went home, went straight to her room and looked up “abortion in the bible” online. The first passage was Exodus 21:22-25.

          22 “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely[a] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”

Then there was Numbers 5:11-31.

          11 Then the LORD said to Moses, 12 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him 13 so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), 14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure— 15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah[a] of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.

          16 “‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the LORD. 17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. 18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the LORD, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.

         19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the LORD cause you to become a curse[b] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

         “‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”

         23 “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. 24 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. 25 The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD and bring it to the altar. 26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial[c] offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. 27 If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. 28 If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

          29 “‘This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband, 30 or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the LORD and is to apply this entire law to her. 31 The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.’”

Dawn thought to herself, “Does God not think that a baby is not a baby until it is born? Is this how He feels about abortion? Would He want one of His innocents to suffer?” She read 8 more passages that were similar, where God commanded to kill the unborn.

Dawn went to the living room to talk to Matt. “Matt, I need to show you .something,” as she opened her Bible to the passages she had marked.

Matt read the passages and asked her, “What do you think about them?”

“I think that we shouldn’t let Justin suffer. I can’t do that to our baby,” she replied.
Matt sighed and said “Ok, how do we do it?”

“Well, I heard of this woman a couple blocks over who is an herbalist. She is rumored to have a mix that will induce labor in cases like this. I could go see her,” she told him.


The next day, Dawn went to the home of Martha Simpson, an herbalist from a long line of practitioners of homeopathy. Martha opened the door.

“I need your help,” Dawn whispered.

Martha knew immediately what kind of help Dawn needed. Martha was visited frequently by women who needed her assistance since the abortion ban. She did not charge for her services, as she believed that she should not profit off another woman’s suffering and loss. She offered Dawn a seat while she went to make the tea. “Why don’t you tell me the story while I make us a drink?”

Dawn relaxed a little and began to tell Martha the news as tears again rolled down her face. Martha came back with the needed tea and sat it down in front of Dawn. She never let the herbs out of the house, in case someone were to take them to the police as proof of what she provided. All women must drink the tea there.

“I don’t like doing this!” Dawn explained. “I am Christian. I am pro-life. But the Bible says God may be ok with it. I don’t want my son to suffer. I can’t let him. I love him.”

Martha put her hand on Dawn’s arm in sympathy. “I understand, my dear, “she soothed. “There is the tea. It will induce a miscarriage. Then he will not suffer.”
Dawn hesitantly picked up the teacup, the gulped it down. “How long will it take?” she asked.

“It will probably be sometime tonight,” Martha replied.


Matt had the bed ready went they went to bed that night. They decided that they wanted to stay home and do this in private, away from prying, judging eyes.
In the middle of the night, Dawn woke up with pains in her back and lower stomach.
She woke Matt up. “Matt, I think it is time.”

Since Justin was so small, the labor went quickly. Matt delivered his son and stared at his. Despite his misshapen head, Matt thought he was beautiful. He was not breathing and he was a pale blue. Matt wrapped him up and put his in Dawn’s arms, then went to lay next to her and cuddle her in his arms.

They both sat propped against a pile of pillows, holding their sweet Justin, crying. Dawn passed the placenta without a care from either of them. They were focused on his fingers, stroking his caved in head, were he had no skull or brain. They knew they had done the right thing.

What they also did not notice after the placenta passed is that Dawn did not stop bleeding. Matt was so focused on Justin, he didn’t notice that Dawn was starting to get paler and her lips were getting bluish until her arms got limp and she slumped against him.

“Dawn?” he worriedly asked, as she pulled back and shook her shoulder. He looked down and saw that the bed and her nightgown was soaked in blood. “Oh my God!” he almost yelled as he grabbed his phone and called 911.

“My wife just had a miscarriage and she is bleeding really bad and she’s pale and leaning over and she won’t answer. I think she’s dying! Please send an ambulance,” he practically screamed through the phone.

“Sir, we have an ambulance dispatched to your address. They will be there in about three minutes. Please stay on the phone with me until they get there,” the dispatcher’s tinny voice came through the line.

A couple minutes later, paramedics arrived with the police and knocked on the door. Matt hung up with the dispatcher and let them in. The paramedics moved Justin aside. He would need a proper burial, at this point, probably with Dawn. They began chest compressions, and IV, and tried to start transfusing blood. They knew they were too late, but they had to make a show for Matt. They picked her up and put her onto the gurney.

They placed Justin gently on her and strapped them both down. As they wheeled her out, the senior paramedic gave a knowing, sympathetic look at Matt. This was not the first time he has been on a call like this.

The Sargent took a look around the room a noticed that the bed was set up for the labor. He pursed his lips and blew out a breath of air, shaking his head sadly with a sheen of tears in his eyes. He knew what he had to do, but he had to do it.

He took out his handcuffs and took Matt by the wrist, placing one cuff around it. “Sir, I am placing you under arrest for First Degree Murder. You have the right to remain silent, “he said as he placed the second cuff and began to walk him out of the room. The officer thought, “If only they were allowed a professional to help them through this.”

Abortion right do not affect only the women who want the right to choose. They affect the one who need the right to choose. It affects every female.


© Suzanna Schroeder