How's this for edgy

[Donna Dawson]

How's this for edgy? What if there was a solution to early term abortion? Read a bit about my journey to discovery on my page here at Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers.

[Ruth Ann Nordin]

I read your description of the book, but I still don't get what your solution is. Without knowing the bottom line, it's hard for me to know exactly how you're going to make both sides (pro-choice/pro-life) happy. Can you give more insight into this please?

[Donna Dawson]

Ever heard of embryo micromanipulation? It's been done in cattle and horses for nearly two decades. Why can't it be done in people. Why can't the rejected embryo be taken from one woman and implanted into another woman--one who can't conceive? There is still choice involved. There is still life involved. And there is no guilt involved. Can it be done? According to the abortion doctor I talked to 15 years ago--yes, but it wasn't cost effective. According to a top national transplant specialist? Most definitely and with no more cost than an abortion. If you want a bit more history about it check out my blog at www.authordonnadawson.com. I explained how the book has come into being.

[Ruth Ann Nordin]

That is a great idea. I have heard of people doing surgery while the baby is still in the womb.

How sad that people let the bottom dollar define what they will and will not do, esp. since there are woman who can't conceive who would love to do this. I'll check your website out. And thanks for explaining it. :-)

[Donna Dawson]

Amen! But what is even sadder is there actually are those out there who don't think this is a moral option. They have the view that 'abortion should end--it's wrong--I said so--and this shouldn't need to be an option.' Unfortunately, not everyone believes that way. Right or wrong that is the reality. And the next reality is: we either let it continue or we find an alternative that will bring peace.

[Michelle Sutton]

OOoh, that does sound edgy. Did you come up with something that would make a great story line?

[Donna Dawson]

Yes, I did come up for a great story line. Teen age girl has to either have an abortion or die--medical difficulties. This line was based on a friend of ours who was told the same thing. While my friend chose to carry the child and it was delivered as early as possible through C-section, I used that to start the plot. I have extreme religious nuts who want her to die for her sin. I have investigations and medical challenges. Overall, the publisher is pretty excited.

[Michelle Sutton]

That is cool. What really frustrates me is how unforgiving people are. We had a young woman in our church get pregnant and then she married her baby's father (three months into the pregnancy). Some people were upset that she was helping the kids. But she fixed it by confessing and by getting married. What else can be done after it's already happened? Same with a crisis pregnancy center I worked for. The 19 year old teen who was the part time secretery got pregnant out of wedlock and they didn't want her working the front desk anymore as they said it was a bad example. Um, yoo hoo! She didn't abort and she kept her baby. How is that a bad example? Am I just stupid or is there really something to judge her on here?

[Donna Dawson]

It's a perfect case of not seeing the log in our own eye as we judge the person with the speck in theirs. Jesus handled that one really well with the story of the unforgiving servant. The guy owes the king millions and should have all he owns and his family sold into slavery. Instead the king forgives him. What does he do? He goes and starts choking another guy over a few pennies. Ever wondered why? Well, he just didn't get it. He still had the mentality that he owed the king and was going to pay it back somehow. In thinking that way, he invalidated the gift. The king had given it but he hadn't received it. Because he hadn't received it, he couldn't see that his debt was bigger than his fellow servant's. It's no different in churches today. My daughter got pregnant out of wedlock and she too confessed before the church and she too married the child's father. The difference is, she knows she's forgiven and has been able to stand up to the judges in the church. I'm so proud of her because she looks them square in the eye and says 'let he/she who is without sin cast the first stone'. The people turn all red and walk away. Kind of like the pharisees. I feel sorry for those judges because the story of the unforgiving servant makes it very clear that because they didn't understand the concept of Christ's forgiveness and because they didn't really accept it, they will be condemned. Just because they are in church doesn't mean they will go to heaven. If they haven't been able to comprehend Christ's forgiveness and pass it on they can not receive the benefit of accepting his forgiveness--heaven. It's sad but true.

[Ruth Ann Nordin]

Wow. What a great topic this turned into! :-) I agree with everything that you two have said. It's not the sin that defines us but what we do afterwards that does, and that goes to people responding to what they see as well.

[Michelle Sutton]

Yes, the way I see it is this...the lady that runs the crisis pregnancy center was so condemning and I was thinking, "What did you want her to do? Have an abortion so no one would know?" Sheesh. The thing is that for some reasons Christians don't want to be loving and supportive toward unwed mothers in the church because I think they are afraid that others will go out and get pregnant to get positive attention. So they treat them badly or at least not as well as they would a married woman thinking it's helping discourage future bad behavior. NO! The was done and over with. That doesn't mean they are still doing it. BUT rejection that is painful from people who are supposed to love you is the very thing that drives these ladies right back into the arms of a man who will again have sex with them and tell them they love them when it should be the people of God doing it. Anyhoo...all that to say that in "It's Not About Me" I have a character who is pregnant and doesn't know who the father is and she wants an abortion to make it all go away. I have the characters who are supposed to be Christians deal with it the right way...and in the sequel "It's Not About Him", which comes out Sept 1st, the entire story is about how this unwed mother feels and how things are handled when she places her baby for adoption. Both stories will make you cry at least once.

[Ruth Ann Nordin]

I don't get why a woman who works at a crisis pregnancy center would take that attitude. I agree that it's tragic that Christians can be the most condemning group there is. How are people supposed to find out about God's grace and mercy is those who are His own fail to show it in their lives? And writing is such a great way to bring that up. :-)

[Donna Dawson]

Thank you for joining us Ruth Ann. It is a very interesting aspect of the side of Christianity that we tend to overlook--one of complete grace and mercy. And Michelle, it goes one step further. Because the church can't forgive, the mother can't forgive herself or the child born out of wedlock. I know far too many people who were made to feel that they were a mistake--unwanted. We told our daughter that the sin wasn't sleeping with her boyfriend/husband. The sin was her rebellion against God. Her repentance to him for her attitude was more important to us than anything else. The actions that followed that repentance were merely fruit of what had happened in her heart. Incidentally, her rebellion came out of a rejection of what my husband and I believed. She admits that had she died in that time, she would be in hell because she didn't believe in the gospel message. We quickly realized that her pregnancy wasn't a mistake. God allowed her to get pregnant--in spite of birth control--because it was the only thing that would bring her face to face with her rebellion. She and her husband are both Christians now and are raising their two children to follow Christ. Because of God's intervention in the form of pregnancy, two souls are bound to the kingdom. We look at our little grandchild as a precious gift that brought our daughter to the King. God chose to bless her in spite of her sin.