Comments on: Ectopic pregnancy and the sanctity of life

By: Birth control makes me mad | Life In a Shoe

Birth control makes me mad | Life In a Shoe — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:33:04 +0000

[...] he know the side effects of the drugs he provides to his patients? Besides skyrocketing rates of ectopic pregnancies, birth control pills and implants are known to cause abortions and birth defects. They are known [...]

By: Life In a Shoe » Ectopic pregnancy clarifications

Life In a Shoe » Ectopic pregnancy clarifications — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:07:49 +0000

[...] fully expected to receive some criticism for my post on Ectopic Pregnancy and the Sanctity of Life, and I felt the need to moderate with a heavier hand than usual since many of the negative comments [...]

By: Thomas DeLadurantey

Thomas DeLadurantey — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:08:14 +0000

As a youngman not yet married, I want to thank all you ladies(and guy or two) for the hardy discusion. I am taking this all in for future referrence for when(hopefully) my wife(if I get married) is expecting.

By: Jeanelle

Jeanelle — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:03:48 +0000

I was told that my first pregnancy was ectopic after going to the ER for severe pain in my abdomen. The doctor, after doing an ultra sound did not find the location of the baby. He went on to suggest terminating the pregnancy anyway. My husband and I prayed when the doctor left the room for a miracle and left saying we would get a second opinion. Our daughter is 9 years old today. God was good to put this conviction on our hearts. God has blessed us with three more children and three more in heaven. Praying for God’s will and trusting in Him alone is what has proved to strengthen our family and what has helped us face difficult trials.

By: Martha

Martha — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:43:00 +0000

I have a SIL who did not realize she was pregnant with an ectopic pregnancy, and at 8 weeks since the baby was alive and growing, ruptured her tube and the amount of time she had to get to the hospital, it was about 5 min. away from bleeding out.
I guess what I am saying it is a very short window of time if you decide to watch and wait. She is not able to get pregnant again as far as I know, because of losing not only that tube, but I think one of her ovaries as well.

You would have to probably stay at the hospital under constant monitoring in order to do this.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:48:31 +0000

I do appreciate your response but I still am outraged at the comments made. It seems you think it is OK that I had to go through life threatening surgery because by that point nature had intended for me to lose my baby. What about my 4 previous losses? 2 of which were treated with methotrexate even though they were classed as pregnancies of unknown origin. Each time the doctors managed them expectantly ie. through blood work done every 48 hours. It was apparent that they were non-viable pregnancies as nothing showed on scans and the hormone levels were low. Would you have preferred me to sit indefinately with pregnancy tissue poisoning my body? But what you are saying is that I aborted those foetus’s. Correct me if I am wrong. I am normally a very open minded person who actually believes that God has helped me survive a horrific experience but your opinion and others around you are making me question my belief. I would just ask you to be aware that women who are going through this may find your strong view intimidating , confusing and mind altering. I am a strong person who IS struggling with the situation I find myself in and for a time today I questioned myself whether I had aborted 5 babies. Ludicrous! I can normally respect other peoples views – but I just can’t this time. What I do struggle with is the fact that you call yourself a Christian, yet seem intent on making even one person (me) feel so worthless and rotten. I do not want to play mind games here so this is my last word on the subject. I have nothing more to say.

By: kimc

kimc — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:19:51 +0000

Debbie,
I’m so sorry you suffered your loss – I’ve lost babies as well. The 5th birthday of our stillborn daughter would have been this Saturday and she is very much on my mind.
But you misunderstand my post. Nobody here is accusing you of an elective abortion. Your tube ruptured; your baby was dead or actively dying, not just expected to die someday. You received necessary medical treatment and nobody killed your child.
The practice in question is abortion as an automatic and preventative treatment in every case of ectopic pregnancy: killing the child because it poses a risk to the mother.
What happened in your situation was nothing of the sort and I’m so sorry you took it that way.

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:42:05 +0000

I have been considering the subject of murder all night (this article kept me awake most of the night) and here’s what I came up with: Murder is hateful, ugly, viscious and cold-hearted. None of those things I felt the morning I went in for surgery. I spent 7 hours after the pain began praying, crying out to the Lord for guidance (and a miracle). I remember laying in the bed waiting to be wheeled into the ER and asking God if what I was doing was right, and peace unexplainable came over me. I felt no condemnation from my Lord – if anything I felt His compassion on me as His hurting child. I know He was right there with me, holding me through it all. The only condemnation I felt was from a woman who felt it her place to show up at my house a week later and accuse me of having an abortion – all in the name of Jesus, of course.

There will be those who disagree but I think of this as I think of the Pharisees accusing Jesus of “working” on the Sabbath. They took what he was doing (good works) and tried to use it against him, basing their accusations on their definition of “work”. If there are those who want to tell me I “murdered “my baby then that is their own interpretation. I know what happened, I know what the outcome would have been had I “waited”, and my Judge has not condemned me.

Meredith – thank you for your clarification of Kim’s post. I read most of it as that as well, but I’m also reading her article as putting ectopic pregnancies as little more than an occurence for mild concern – which I’m sure she doesn’t mean, and I’m still reading a message of “let it rupture before doing anything”. When addressing a topic like this it is bound to raise some questions and strong emotions, particularly for those of us who’ve been through the sorrow of an ectopic pregnancy. To have gone through an ectopic and have the word “murder” used is horrifying and hurtful. Forgive me if I have read things wrong.

OK, enough on my end. Off to kiss and cuddle my babes, and pray they never have to go through an ordeal like I did.

By: Perry C.

Perry C. — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:36:43 +0000

Well put Margret, very well put.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:31:25 +0000

I wonder if people are misunderstanding. I didn’t read anything in Kim’s post saying that treating a ruptured tube would be wrong, or removing a *dead* baby was wrong. If the tube ruptures, the baby dies, that is not an elective abortion, but a miscarriage.

What I got from the post was that given the numbers, we ought to be leary of jumping to abortion as the only option in an ectopic pregnancy, similarly to how we are finally realizing that jumping to a D&C when a heartbeat isn’t found at 6 weeks along may end up killing viable babies and ending healthy pregnancies. It may not always be necessary.

I have always had a problem with pre-emptive abortion (“The baby’s going to die anyway, let’s get it over with”). I think this falls into a very tricky area ethically, but knowing that rupture doesn’t happen 100% of the time, and that rupture is not fatal to the mother 100% of the time, I would chose to take the risk in watching and waiting. I might camp out in the hospital parking lot, but I would wait.