Christian Doctor Explains Why He Performs Abortions

Christian Doctor Explains Why He Performs Abortions by Michael Allen

 For about 20 years, Dr. Willie J. Parker refused to perform abortions at his Washington D.C. office because he was raised Christian and taught that abortion was wrong.

However, he recently told the New Jersey Star Ledger what changed his mind and convinced him to perform abortions as late as 24 weeks:I wrestled with the morality of it. I grew up in the South and in fundamentalist Protestantism, I was taught that abortion is wrong.

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Yet as I pursued my career as an OB/GYN, I saw the dilemmas that women found themselves in. And I could no longer weigh the life of a pre-viable or lethally flawed fetus equally with the life of the woman sitting before me.

In listening to a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, I came to a deeper understanding of my spirituality, which places a higher value on compassion. King said what made the good Samaritan "good" is that instead of focusing on would happen to him by stopping to help the traveler, he was more concerned about what would happen to the traveler if he didn't stop to help.

I became more concerned about what would happen to these women if I, as an obstetrician, did not help them.