The date June 24, 2023, marks one year since the United States Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
It came nearly 50 years after the high court made the right to an abortion the law of the land.
The ruling one year ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization didn’t make abortion illegal. It put the question of its legality and limits back to each state in the Union.
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Other states such as California, New York, Colorado and most Democrat-controlled states, according to the Associated Press, “are positioning themselves as abortion safe havens.”
Last year’s decision thrust the abortion battle into a new phase, in which the opponents are more equally positioned legally.
As an internist, he performed abortions. He believed it was a way to offer women the best health care possible.
For those who vehemently oppose abortion — the decision was an answer to years of fervent prayers.
Personal story changed thousands of lives
Bruchalski is in that latter group.
Lest anyone, however, think he is a pro-life man with no clue as to what women endure in pregnancy or when giving birth — his personal story has changed thousands of lives.
He believed it was a way to offer women the best health care possible.
His compassion for the poor and needy is what brought him into the medical field. But now he talks about how God was gracious enough to let him face a critical juncture early in his career, as those two worldviews — supporting abortion and opposing abortion, each passionate and unyielding in their stance — collided in him.
He experienced what one might call a self-quake. Just as in an earthquake, the foundations crumbled, and what he thought was something to hold onto and steady himself turned out to be not all that sturdy.
Bruchalski is founder and director of Tepeyac OB/GYN, “a pro-life, faith-based obstetrics and gynecology practice serving the metropolitan D.C., North Virginia and Maryland area.”
It was 1989, and he was an internist at a hospital in Virginia.
In one examining room, a woman who was 22 weeks pregnant was trembling on the birthing bed. She was in pre-term labor — but at that gestational age, the baby lacked the lung development to survive outside the mother’s womb, even with all the life-saving technology available then.
Bruchalski gave her some options to try to stop the contractions to give the baby a greater chance of survival.
He took note that the woman wanted to terminate the pregnancy and began to proceed.
“She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t go through with this.”
As he described in his book, “The red numerals flashed 505 grams [17.8 ounces].”
The staff were required to resuscitate born-alive fetuses weighing over 500 grams.
“My stomach drops,” wrote Bruchalski. “I lunge toward the emergency button to alert the neonatal intensive care unit and immediately turn on the warmer.”
But the searing stab in his spirit came when the neonatologists on staff yelled at him, saying, “Stop giving me tumors, John! Stop treating these babies like they’re tumors!”
Bruchalski’s conversion started with the two women and their contrasting desires — and went from there.
He realized that he hadn’t asked her enough intake questions. He didn’t find out about her.
Said Bruchalski, “When you decide the life of the child is based on the desire of the mother, guess what? I didn’t take a good history.”
Bruchalski’s conversion started with the two women and their contrasting desires — and went from there. He continued a sort of double life, performing abortions during the day while also volunteering at a pregnancy help center.
Then, a later trip to Medjugorje, the cite of apparitions of the Virgin Mary since 1981 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, completed the conversion to his being a pro-life advocate and medical professional forever.
“The Virgin Mary said three things: to be the best doctor you can be, always to see the poor and see them daily, and to follow the teachings of her Son’s church.”
Said Bruchalski, “You have to change the human heart where children become wanted … and that women deserve integrated compassionate care.” (iStock)
Through a holy messenger, he said he was told, “Mary said three things: to be the best doctor you can be, always to see the poor and see them daily, and to follow the teachings of her Son’s church.”
On his return home, Bruchalski informed his supervising doctor that he would no longer be able to perform abortions.
He knew this would mean a much lower salary and that his career options would be limited.
One year after Roe, Bruchalski said he believes the real struggle will not be in the courts.
It’s not about winning legal battles.
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Said Bruchalski, “You have to change the human heart where children become wanted … and that women deserve integrated compassionate care.”
Bruchalski said he is no longer devoted to a cause — but to serving Christ, the risen savior, whose blessed mother appeared to him in Mexico and Medjugorye.