What will you do? (7)

Katia is a 17 year old Russian student who lives with her divorced mother. Her mother has to work two jobs to pay for ballet lessons for Katia, who has won many competitions and dreams of becoming an international star. One of her fellow dancers is Ivan and through spending time with him, they have grown closer, to the point where they have begun to sleep together. They have talked about getting married one day, but both have many goals to achieve before then.

Just a few months before the national competitions, Katia misses her menstrual period. At first she thinks this might be due to stress or her strenuous training regime, but after another month, she starts to panic, and visits her doctor. She is stunned to learn she is pregnant and rings up Ivan in tears. He is also shocked and asks her what she is going to do about it. He says ‘Neither of us is ready for a baby now. Why don’t you visit one of those clinics?’

Katia doesn’t know what to do. She is too ashamed to tell her mother, so she makes an appointment at a pregnancy counselling service. Here she is told by a very kind nurse she should not worry and that a simple procedure will solve her problem for her. So, even though she is upset about what she is doing, she makes an appointment for a termination of pregnancy and this is performed the following week.

Ten years later, Katia has moved to the USA to pursue her ballet career and has started to attend a church. There she meets Todd, a committed Christian who is active in the pro-life movement. He strongly believes that abortion under any circumstances is wrong. They begin dating and things progress rapidly. Todd thanks God for sending him this wonderful woman as a friend and potential wife. He thinks about Katia constantly and daydreams about their future together as missionaries in Russia.

When Todd asks Katia to marry him, she begins to cry. ‘Oh, Todd’ she sobs, ‘I love you so much. But there’s something I have to tell you.’ When she tells him about her abortion, Todd feels as if his whole world has fallen apart. How could he ever forgive her? Why has God allowed him to fall in love with a woman who has killed her own baby?

Over time and with counselling from their pastor, Todd is able to forgive Katia and they get married the next year. They are thrilled when two years later Katia discovers she is pregnant. But, on antenatal testing, the foetus is discovered to have Down syndrome. Their doctor encourages them to consider aborting.

What issues does this story raise?

What will you do?

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