The Senate’s final vote on the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act was 64 to 33. It is disappointing that our own Maine senators voted in favor this procedure.

As a Christian man, I cannot be indifferent to how this impacts women. We must all defend God’s commandment: “Thou shall not kill.” We have an obligation to act, by writing to our senators and congressmen to show our opposition.

At three weeks from conception, the heart of a small new person is beating. Why is it OK to cut the life of that individual by abortion? There is a severe consequence to destroying a bald eagle’s nest. Around the time that abortion was legalized, the Bangor Daily news printed an article: “A Bird’s Nest Wasn’t on the Blueprint.” A nest containing eggs delayed an entire construction project in Brewer until the eggs hatched. That’s the kind of respect we have for some forms of early life.

Although I’m not qualified to address how a woman feels after having had an abortion, I’m very sympathetic. A 50 year-old woman I know who had one thinks about it all the time, and she is on medication for depression. We are learning that post-abortive women are suffering. There is a 154 percent higher risk of death from suicide among women who have had abortions. I recently watched TV news coverage about the effect on women who miscarry or deliver a stillborn baby. Those who lost babies due to abortion were not mentioned; they suffer in silence.

We are never to blame or judge a woman of any age who has had an abortion, especially when we learn that sometimes, they were pressured into it or felt it was the only option. But we do have a duty to make our position known, starting within our own families.

Aldeo Belanger

Madawaska