Men Regret Lost Fatherhood: Jason Jones

 "I wish the whole world could see abortion like this uneducated seventeen-year-old who'd never been to church a day in his life saw abortion."

"Our president said he didn't know when life began. But I was last in my class, and I know when life began."

It was just a few days before his seventeenth birthday when Jason Jones' girlfriend told him she was pregnant. Together they worked out a plan: he would drop out of high school on his birthday and join the army, and she would wear baggy clothing and take vitamins. They would tell their families when he got back.
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So on his birthday he dropped out of school and joined the army as planned. His girlfriend wrote him often telling him about the pregnancy and how she was taking care of herself and their baby growing inside of her. They decided on what they would name their child: Joshua if a boy, and Jessica if a girl. Everything was going as planned as they were getting used to their responsibilities as parents.

Then one Sunday while most of the other's were at church his girlfriend called, crying "like I've never heard a woman cry in my life. The only way I can describe it is that her soul was crying. And she kept saying over and over and over again, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it wasn't me.' " Her father's voice came from the extention, "We know your secret, and your secret's gone. I took Katie to get an abortion."

Jason Jones speaks in Washington, DC at a gathering of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign on January 22, 2010.


Men do regret abortion.

You can't help noticing the stark dichotomy here:

Pro-life
  • young people, not fully educated
  • value life
  • take responsibility for their actions
  • together thought out a plan and put that plan into action
  • make responsible decisions that will change their own lives in order to embrace the life of another
  • respect the right-to-life of their child
  • do not make their child suffer for something that was not their child's fault
  • supported each other on their parental journey

Pro-choice
  • older, supposedly wiser
  • values something other than life (reputation, wealth, etc. perhaps)
  • teaches his daughter (and her boyfriend) to run away from her responsibilities
  • refuses to support his daughter's choice
  • bullies his daughter into doing what he wants
  • his wishes at the expense of his daughter's and Jason's
  • this father does not respect the rights of the new father
  • this father does not respect the rights of his daughter
  • this father does not respect the right-to-life of his granddaughter
  • callous attitude 
  • oppression of others
  • unjust toward the child, the baby's mother and father
  • treats his daughter as if he owns her

What would you add to either of these lists?

Psalm 8
Divine Majesty and Human Dignity
(NRSV)

O LORD, our Sovereign,
      how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.
     Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
     to silence the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
     the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
     mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
     and crowned them with glory and honour.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
     you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
     and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
     whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Sovereign,
     how majestic is your name in all the earth!
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