Pro-Choice Catholic Testimony

In 1933, my grandmother’s OB-GYN told her — after she gave birth to her sixth child — that if she had any more children, it would kill her. My grandmother had Bright’s disease, a type of kidney disease. My grandfather didn’t care what the doctor said and forced himself upon my grandmother, after which she became pregnant again. My grandmother was terrified of dying and leaving her children motherless. One child had died a couple of years prior due to illness. So, five children were left (ages 4, 7, 9, 11, and 13). In desperation, my grandmother threw herself down a flight of stairs in an attempt to lose the pregnancy. The attempt failed, and my grandfather jokingly said, “See! What I put there stays there!”

My grandmother carried to term uneventfully, but when she gave birth, both she and the baby died within 30 minutes. Two of her children were placed in an orphanage with two different aunts and uncles, and the eldest son ran away from home and didn’t return for 8 years. My grandfather lost his mind and ended up in a mental institution, where he died 20 years later. My mother, the sixth child, grew up bitter and angry. If my grandmother had the protection of ending her life-threatening pregnancy, I’d have gotten to meet her. As it is, I can only visit her grave.