Hope and Faith

SIXTY: HOPE

By Saturday evening, Hope was still feeling the remnants from her fight with Faith. It was all she had been thinking about, stressing about, worrying about.

She was in shock. From the moment Faith had said those words, I'm pregnant, to the fighting and yelling that came afterwards. It was surreal. Hope couldn't believe that, one, Faith was actually pregnant, and two, she was going to abort the baby.

Hope had always wanted a baby. She wanted multiple children, three at least. The thought of children completed her, finalized her fantasy of the perfect life. Marriage and children. That was how it was supposed to be. And here was Faith, ready to kill a baby that God had given her.

Hope didn't understand the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate. In her mind, there was nothing to debate. You either supported the killing of an innocent fetus, or you didn't. How did people think that this was okay? How did doctors and politicians actually support this?

She could understand why Faith may not want a child right now at this point in her life. She was young and not ready. But there were other options that she wasn't even considering. Faith could carry through with the pregnancy and then give the baby up for adoption. Why had she not even considered it when Hope suggested it?

Abortion was murder, plain and simple. It was taking away the life a child who never had the right to choose. They called it pro-choice, but what about the baby's choice? It never got one. It never got a voice. Its will to live was simply taken away by a greater power, and in this case, that power was Faith.

Hope felt so much anger towards her. She truly and honestly believed that she loved this girl, but now she was questioning everything. Faith would be a murderer. And this had nothing to do with religion or God – it was about ethics and morals. Faith wasn't just sinning under God – she was willingly participating in the murder of an innocent child. And that was not something that Hope could easily forgive.

Hope felt sick. Just sitting there knowing what was going to happen to that poor baby made Hope want to cry and scream all at once. She wanted to yell at Faith, grab her by the shoulders and shake her, snap some sense into her. She wanted to explain it all to her. Give her more options. Ask her to give the baby another chance.

But while Hope wanted all of these things, she also wasn't stupid. She knew that there was no use in even trying. Because if she knew Faith Everett by now, then one thing was clear: Faith was set in her ways, and nothing – not even Hope – could change her mind.