"... a married couple came to me and requested an abortion. Because the patient's cervix was rigid, I was unable to dilate it and perform the procedure. I asked her to return in a week, when the cervix would be softer.
The couple returned and told me that they had changed their minds and wanted to "keep the baby." I delivered the baby seven months later. Years later, I played with little Jeffrey in the pool at the tennis club where his parents and I were members. He was happy and beautiful. I was horrified to think that only a technical obstacle had prevented me from terminating Jeffrey's potential life.
The connection between the six-week-old human embryo and a laughing child stopped being an abstraction for me. While hugging my sons each morning, I started to think of the vacuum aspirator that I would use two hours later. This was an emotional tension I could not tolerate."
Source: George Flesh, M.D. "Why I No Longer Do Abortions," Los Angeles Times, 9/12/91 Op.ed section
The couple returned and told me that they had changed their minds and wanted to "keep the baby." I delivered the baby seven months later. Years later, I played with little Jeffrey in the pool at the tennis club where his parents and I were members. He was happy and beautiful. I was horrified to think that only a technical obstacle had prevented me from terminating Jeffrey's potential life.
The connection between the six-week-old human embryo and a laughing child stopped being an abstraction for me. While hugging my sons each morning, I started to think of the vacuum aspirator that I would use two hours later. This was an emotional tension I could not tolerate."
Source: George Flesh, M.D. "Why I No Longer Do Abortions," Los Angeles Times, 9/12/91 Op.ed section
6 week old baby
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