small baby in utero“Mommy, tell me something that is happening on the news.” Dante asked as I browsed the news feed on my smart phone.
“The news are not always good.” I said, trying to avoid talking about the news.
“Tell me something bad that is happening in the world!” Dante insisted as he pointed to one news article, “How about this one?”
He clicked on a news article that said, Abortion demand ‘soars’ over Zika.

Oh boy…here we go.

I explained to him that there was a sickness that is transmitted when people are bitten by a certain kind of mosquitoes. While most adults might feel like they got a cold, but mothers who are pregnant with babies might grow babies with very small heads. Babies with small heads often lead a miserable life and die very young. So many mothers want to ‘let the baby go’ while the baby is still small in the mother’s belly.
“How do you get rid of a baby from the mother’s belly?” Dante asked.
“Er…” Finding the right words to explain this to a seven year old I said, “They stick a tube up to the place where the baby is growing and suck it out.
“What!?” He turned around and faced me with a wide-eyed look, “How can they just do that?”
“Well, the mothers feel that if the babies are going to be born with small heads and live miserably, they might as well stop the pregnancy. The problem is, this is illegal is many countries.” I said.
“Why is it illegal?” Dante asked.
“Well, some people feel that even if the baby was still tiny, like the size of a pea, they will grow into a baby in a few months. So they might feel that if killing a full sized baby is illegal, then killing the baby the size of a pea should be illegal too.” I explained.
“Wow…” Dante muttered.
Curious about what his thoughts were about this heavy subject I asked, “What do you think Dante? If you were these mothers, who might have these very sick babies, would you consider having an abortion?”
As I waited for his answer, I saw his eyes welled up with tears as he responded with one simple question, “Will the baby feel hurt inside the mother’s belly?”
“I don’t know Dante…I don’t know…” I said.

Dante’s brother Cedric came over to play and that was the end of this conversation. I was very touched by Dante’s consideration for how the an unborn baby would feel even if the baby was the size of a pea.