SOMETIMES DOCTORS DON'T KNOW BEST

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Belle’s Law, aka “Guam’s old abortion ban,” (P.L. 20-134) is back in the news after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the Attorney General’s appeal of the Guam District Court’s decision to not lift the injunction on the ban which has been in place since 1990. 

The law has a rather frazzled history and maybe I’ll recount the whole mess in a future column, but for this column I am resurrecting the testimony of the late Shirley A. Terlaje who wrote in support of Bill 848, the bill that became Public Law 20-134, or “Guam’s old abortion ban.”

For those who don’t know, Shirley A. Terlaje was the wife of the late Eduardo S. Terlaje, who was a respected attorney, a four-term senator, and vice speaker of the Legislature. 

Mrs. Terlaje is also the mother of Guam’s newest Superior Court judge, the Honorable John C. Terlaje, and in the following excerpt from her 1989 testimony, Mrs. Terlaje tells us of how John came to be.

“Since the Supreme Court legalized abortion on Jan. 22, 1973, more than 14,000,000 babies have been killed at the request of their own mothers. The unborn child has become a helpless victim, left to the ruthlessness of doctors who are using their medical skill to destroy and to murder, rather than to care for the innocent unborn child. 

Certainly, it is time for us to come to the defense of all those who are being discriminated against. People who would never dream of discriminating against another on the grounds of color, discriminate against the unborn child on grounds of size, because that child is so very small that he (she) cannot in fact make its voice heard. Therefore, it is brushed aside as being of no importance. 

During the pregnancy of my sixth child, I experienced exactly this type of discrimination against my unborn child. During the first two months of my pregnancy, I had been quite sick and the doctors had done a large number of X-rays in an attempt to determine what was causing me to be so sick. 

When it was later discovered that I was pregnant, the doctors told me and my husband that in all likelihood, the child would be born deformed and brain damaged. (This was before the use of ultrasound to determine such things.) 

The doctors tried to convince us that I should go to Japan to have an abortion. Abortions were then legal in Japan, but had not yet been declared legal in the United States. My husband and I were both appalled at the idea of killing our own child, so we refused to follow the doctors' advice. 

Six months later in that year, I gave birth to a healthy baby boy, our son, John. John is now 23 years old, and is still healthy, and a great joy to all those who know him. He was born without any perceivable physical or mental defects, and tests have revealed that he has the highest IQ score of any of our 11 children. 

Regardless, of what his health or intelligence had been, I cannot imagine casting him aside, not allowing him the chance to be born. In just these few years, he has had a great impact on our family and on the lives of all who know him.”

(The full testimony can be found in the bill’s committee report dated December 22, 1989.) 

My family and I have a few things in common with the Terlaje’s. Like the Terlaje’s, we also have 11 children, and our ninth child had a diagnosis similar to John’s. And like the Terlaje’s, doctors heavily suggested that we abort him.

It was a very stressful time. In those years, Guam’s economy was in decline and our income with it, and this was our 9th child. We spent the last of our money traveling to the states to seek other medical opinions, but none were hopeful. Abortion was never an option, but the stress to do it was immense. 

Our baby was born healthy and strong, and today he is a tall, handsome, intelligent, and productive young man, who, among our 11 children, is the only one who has chosen to make Guam his home and raise his own family.

And there is a Guam-sort-of-ending to the story. Shirley Terlaje’s daughter, Maria, John’s sister, became our son’s godmother, long before I learned that doctors had told the Terlaje’s to abort their son too.

Sometimes, doctors don’t know best.

Tim Rohr has resided in Guam since 1987. He has raised a family of 11 children, owned several businesses, and is active in local issues via his blog, JungleWatch.info, letters to local publications, and occasional public appearances. He may be contacted at timrohr.guam@gmail.com