{"id":294337,"date":"2023-07-07T18:42:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T23:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=294337"},"modified":"2023-07-07T14:54:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T19:54:27","slug":"jacqueline-two-abortions-broken-destroyed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/jacqueline-two-abortions-broken-destroyed\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacqueline had two abortions: ‘I felt more than broken – I felt destroyed’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Sarah Terzo – Substack<\/a>) Jacqueline Middler had two abortions and deeply regretted them. She wrote her book, White Stick<\/a><\/em>,<\/a> to tell her abortion story. (All quotations below are from this book.)<\/p>\n

Pregnant Unexpectedly<\/h3>\n

Middler became pregnant during her first year of college. She didn\u2019t know what to do but was leaning towards choosing life. Then she spoke to a friend who\u2019d had an abortion.<\/p>\n

The friend said there were many things Middler wouldn\u2019t be able to do if she had a baby. She wouldn\u2019t finish college, she would lose her scholarship, and her boyfriend, whom she wanted to marry, would break up with her.<\/p>\n

Middler said, \u201cBut I can\u2019t kill my baby.\u201d (p. 30)<\/p>\n

The friend told her there was no baby, only cells. Middler writes, \u201cFinally, words that comforted me. I wouldn\u2019t be killing a baby \u2013 just a group of cells.\u201d (p. 31)<\/p>\n

Fetal Development in the First Trimester<\/h3>\n

The fetal development information below is from The Endowment for Human Development<\/a>, a nonreligious site not affiliated with the pro-life movement, and National Geographic\u2019s DVD The Biology of Human Development<\/em>, which can be purchased here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Midler didn\u2019t know that a preborn baby\u2019s heart is beating at 21 days<\/a>, and some scientists think it starts even earlier. She didn\u2019t know that a child in the womb was already right or left-handed<\/a> at eight weeks, or that by 10 weeks the baby has fingerprints<\/a> and sucks her thumb<\/a>.<\/p>\n