Heartbreaking: NYT on "Choosing not to keep the baby"

Over at the New York Times blog "Motherlode: Adventures in Parenting", a heartbreaking story:

When asked for advice, Motherlode readers come through, and last week more than 700 of you poured out your thoughts to Emmie, a young woman unexpectedly pregnant as she is about to start a grueling and prestigious Master’s degree program.

I heard from her yesterday. I will let her explain in her own words what she decided and why. Then I ask you to please return later today to brainstorm ideas on how to transform the surge of compassion that rose up here toward Emmie into real action that can help the many young women who find themselves in her shoes.

Emmie sent me a number of emails laying out her thoughts, and asked me to combine them into one.

[Click here to see what she wrote.]

What is heartbreaking for me is not only the "choice" she has made, but how very close she was to making the right one. If there is anything that should inspire us to try harder to provide for young women experiencing problems in their pregnancy, it is a story like this. Let us pray for Emmie and her soon-to-be-ended young child.