"Abortion -- it is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."

Even if you were raped. Even if your pro-choice doctor claims you will die if you give birth to this child (which is bull, by the way -- I worked in labor and delivery for nine months doing clerical stuff and I learned enough to know that delivery is a fabulous cure for pre-eclampsia, and putting the child in the NICU gives him/her a much better chance of survival than abortion ever will). Even if you are 15 years old -- meaning you cannot lawfully drop out of high school yet -- and it is physically impossible to parent a child at this time in your life and still maintain your sanity (helloooo, adoption!).

You might take a guess that this quote may have been said by someone like Michelle Duggar, a woman who loves children very much -- so much, in fact, that she has nineteen of her own -- and easily finds a way to keep her entire family afloat with the help of her husband, Jim Bob. Or maybe it's by Sarah Palin, a die-hard conservative pro-lifer who is swimming in cash so that she may live as she wishes. If not one of those two, it must be somebody who said this a hundred years ago, before abortion was such a fundamental component of women's rights, before it was so necessary as it is today, with all the rapists and pregnant teenagers in this country.

Nope. Mother Teresa.

Wait a second, you've got to be kidding. You mean Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Catholic nun who took the vow of poverty; the woman of God who dedicated her life to serve the "poorest of the poor;" who for more than half of her life wore nothing other than a white, blue-bordered sari and a flimsy pair of sandals? You're talking about Mother Teresa, the missionary in Calcutta who visited families, washed the sores of children, and cared for the sick and dying on the sides of the roads? The one who accepted all awards presented to her not with pride, but "for the glory of God and in the name of the poor"? Yep, that's the one.

I've never met the woman, but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say she knew a thing or two about poverty. She chose to live in the deepest poverty, and took great joy in doing so. In my book, she's the second most selfless person ever to have lived (Jesus being the first), and her deepest desire throughout her years was always, "more of You, less of me." She didn't play around with poverty -- going on short term mission trips here and there yet on them residing in places with far more amenities than the people she was serving had, glad to go home after two weeks because, "it was amazing, but I just can't stand being there that long" -- No. She made her home among the poorest of the poor, pouring out love to those who had none, to those who had no money, no food, no care, no protection. And she was blessed by it.

The average cost of an abortion is $550 dollars. $362.3 million dollars of our tax money in America goes to fund it each year. Yet the mother to the poor called it poverty, and categorized women affording and retrieving an abortion in the same group as her children of the slums.

I think there's definitely something to be said about that, and not just, "Oh, that's a nice quote. Mother Teresa was a really cool lady." The saint certainly had a way with words, and when discussing abortion she had the opportunity to describe the crime with other words such as "evil," "murder," "wrong," or "inhumane." But she chose "poverty." Merriam-Webster's definition of the word includes "scarcity, dearth; debility due to malnutrition; lack of fertility." (Pretty ironic for the last one, huh?) So the question is, what are these women lacking? What is it that the wise nun decided they were malnourished of, infertile of?

Well, maybe -- and this is just a thought -- they have not conceived love. Maybe they are haven't been nourished with a true understanding of the value of life and the value of intimacy, which could be fed to them by -- you guessed it -- love. Maybe, just maybe, they are lacking Jesus. (And by the way, He IS love.)

So right now as I lay in this bed, on my laptop, with the AC and two fans keeping me cool, with my good health and expensive yoga pants, with loads of diet coke downstairs (side distraction: today when I was saying grace before dinner, I literally thanked God for diet coke... my mom laughed at me), as I look back on Mother Teresa of Calcutta's life and words of wisdom, I am humbled by the incredible truth of God's message to us... that it all comes down to love.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." ~1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I declare and protest life outside every Planned Parenthood in the country, but have not love, I am only another annoying conservative. If I educate young women about sex and reproduction, and if I write powerful pro-life articles, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all my money to pro-life organizations and die for the cause, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Note: I originally wrote this for my pro-life blog, but since it is brand new and is not yet completely set up, I also posted it here so it may get more exposure.