By Lindy Navarro
(Oregon Right to Life News) — My parents were told to abort me. I was given a 2% chance of surviving a full-term pregnancy. Statistically speaking, I shouldn’t be alive.
When my mom was about 18 weeks along with me, my parents were told that I had a genetic abnormality called Turner Syndrome (TS). Turner Syndrome is a rare, genetic anomaly occurring in about 1:2,500 live female births. It is characterized by the deletion of one of the sex chromosomes, so the karyotype shows up as X0, rather than the typical female XX karyotype. This can cause a lot of complications, risks, and delays. The scariest part about the diagnosis is bringing the baby girl into the world safely. Once she is safely earthside, things are looking up. That’s not to say that there aren’t struggles, extra care, pain points, or difficulties. But, the chances of the issues she has turning life-threatening decrease dramatically.
The characteristics and effects of Turner’s show up so differently for everyone. The main hallmark of TS is short stature, which can be treated by growth hormone treatments. The treatments offer the girls an opportunity to…well, still be short, but they won’t need the step stools and kitchen tongs to reach things on the top shelf quite as often.
The second most frequent issue TS causes is ovarian failure due to lack of estrogen because of those missing X chromosomes. This is by far the cruelest, and sadly one of the most ubiquitous parts of the diagnosis, affecting about 90-92% of women with TS. There are cases when spontaneous pregnancies occur – they just don’t happen often. Also, in these cases, most often, there’s enough estrogen in her body for puberty to begin naturally without Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).
I never understood the logic of encouraging somebody to abort a child, even with such grim chances of survival. If we abort the baby, they have a 100% chance of death. If we don’t abort them? They may only have a 2% chance of survival, but somebody has to make up that 2%. What if they’re in that 2%? Why would we not give life a chance? If the choice is almost-certain death, or certain death, why are we immediately choosing death? Just because we want to control the outcome? What opportunities, possibilities, and miracles are we snuffing out because we’re trying to hide from our own pain and grief? Because they might suffer, or have hard things to deal with? The truth is that nobody gets out of life unscathed from scars and struggles. The question is the extent of the struggle. Not if you will struggle.
Abortion isn’t an “undo” button on life. It’s the extinguishing of a unique human life and a dream that never existed before, and never will again. There are family lines that ended, art left uncreated, and diseases that were uncured because of abortion. There are children that weren’t taught, there are songs that weren’t sung, gardens unplanted, and recipes that weren’t created because of abortion. There are inventions that weren’t dreamt up, dances that weren’t choreographed, and helpful companies that were never built because of abortion. There are strong arms and hands that never offered help, and words of encouragement that were never spoken because of abortion. Worst of all – there is love that wasn’t ever brought into the world with each child who is aborted.
The dark irony that my parents were told to abort me because of a condition that can have such a high rate of barrenness is not lost on me. That is also the most difficult part of living with TS. Barrenness or even just infertility is one of the worst hurts a woman can face. But the pain certainly is not so grave that I wish I were never born.
We have become so uncomfortable with self-sacrifice, comforting others in their hurt, and delayed gratification that, as a society, we have wounded and anesthetized our own souls and conscience. To our own detriment, we reject and try to work against the truth that struggle and resistance build strength and character. Just like trees die without storms, because those storms help the trees build deep roots, we need challenges to be healthy and well-grounded, too. I pray that we can wake up from our slumber and find that the wounds in our hearts are not beyond repair.
About Lindy Navarro:
A follower of Jesus and Willamette Valley native. In my free time you will probably find me baking, drinking coffee, writing, or outside with my two Australian Shepherds. You might also find me pestering my husband because I’m unapologetically obsessed with him. ☺️
