An Abortion Testimony: It Matters to This One

By: American Decency Staff

I wish I could credit the unknown author of a story that, perhaps more than any other, has deeply influenced — and paralleled — my life.

This story tells of a young man who was walking along a seashore. Far ahead of him, he saw a distant figure:  someone who like him was walking, but who paused every few steps, stooped down, and seemed to be throwing something into the sea.

His curiosity aroused, the young man hurried forward, his feet awkward in the sand, as he tried to catch up with the man.

As he came closer, he saw that it was an old man, and the reason that he would stop every step or two was to pick up a starfish and fling it into the ocean. It was only then that the young man noticed the thousands of starfish that littered the beach for miles, stranded there by the tide.

The young man felt a rising sense of anger. What the old man was doing seemed so pointless, and he couldn’t wait to catch up to him to tell him so. By the time the young man came abreast of the older man, he was out of breath.

“Why are you doing this?” he gasped. “You can’t save all of these starfish! It’s useless! What does it matter?”

The old man paused for a moment, looking down at the crusty starfish he’d just picked up. He turned it over slowly, then answered.

“It matters to this one,” he said as with a slow, deliberate motion, he tossed it back into the sea, into life.

It matters to this one

I know a woman who grew up in a Christian home, but who was rebellious. She began dating a young man her parents disapproved of, and despite their protests, she continued in her relationship with him. After a few months, she and he eloped, crossing over from their home state of Tennessee to Corinth, Mississippi, where they could be married immediately. She was seventeen, he was nineteen.

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