God’s Little People: A Physician’s Odyssey in the Land of the Unborn. By John Hey, MD. Carpenter’s Son Publishing, 144 pages
During my hurried lunch break on a recent Friday last summer, I stood in the check-out line in our local Food Giant and with great interest overheard two young folks’ discussion of the day’s ‘breaking news.’ What caught my ear was this… “Hey, I just heard the Supreme Court shot down somebody named Roe V. Wade. What did that Wade fellow do anyway?” I wanted to enlighten them on this news, but I bit my tongue, chuckled, shook my head and drove on back to work.
Returning to my clinic, the staff was talking about that same revelation they had just seen on their smartphones. Several of them (all under 40) were asking a similar question… “What exactly WAS Roe v. Wade anyway?” These young healthcare workers were born into a “Post-Roe Decision” world and those names meant nothing to them.
I had a flash back to my high school senior year some 50 years ago when the bombshell ruling was made. Arguments about the relatively taboo abortion issue had been on the national radar since 1971…basically throughout my entire high school career.
Vividly, I recall that that it was an important enough issue that those of us on staff of the school newspaper, the Highlander, even wrote editorials about it during that time. I remember that one of my arguments against the legalization of abortion was the very simple notion that ending the life of an unborn child was tantamount to “playing God.” I also argued we should recall that there were many babies born “illegitimately” throughout history who had become renowned world icons. One example, King William the First (AKA/ William the Conqueror, or William the Bastard) became the first Norman king of England in 1066. Thus, for the past 1000 years all of England’s monarchs are descended from that “accidental conception.” A few other examples of history-making ‘bastard children’ given were the scientific and artistic genius, Leonardo DaVinci, Confucius, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Paine.
To name a few more VIPs born to unwed mothers, how about Marilyn Monroe, Oprah Winfrey, and Steve Jobs? Just think, there would be no Apple Computers if Jobs’ mother had chosen to terminate her pregnancy rather than giving him up for adoption.
Since Roe v. Wade determined in January 1973 that the U. S. Constitution granted women the legal liberty to choose abortion, the potential lives of over 63 million babies have been ended before they had a chance to begin. I’ll wager we lost a few geniuses in that number.
Several weeks prior to SCOTUS striking down the Roe v. Wade decision by overturning the present-day Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, I received an extremely timely surprise in the mail… a book written and shared by my fellow Mississippi Family Physician, Dr. John Hey. Dr. Hey’s beautiful and powerful book is an easy-to-read and hard-to-put-down memoir of his ongoing half-century of doctoring in the Mississippi Delta town of Greenwood.
Dr. John Hey has delivered over 1500 babies thus far during his career. He graduated from Mississippi College in 1960, the University of Mississippi Medical School in 1964, and commanded a medical unit in Vietnam in 1966. He is an ordained teaching elder in his local congregation, Grace Bible Church. He is a lecturer in medical ethics and has taught numerous medical students as their preceptor and Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine with UMMC. In addition to Family Medicine, he is board-certified in Sleep Medicine, a charter fellow of the American Geriatrics Society, and is the medical director of a local nursing home in Greenwood. Thus, he has throughout his career epitomized the true “womb to the tomb” practitioner of Family Medicine. He’s done all that, and he is one heck of a good storyteller as well, as shown by this remarkable book he has written. God’s Little People is a small volume that makes a giant statement: that human life should be cherished and protected from the time of conception all the way to the grave.
Rather than simply praising this book, which Dr. Hey presents in ‘lessons’ rather than chapters, I will share an excerpt that should hold a special significance to all primary care physicians who have no doubt experienced similar difficult ethical dilemmas during their careers. As so many of us are hard-wired to be “people pleasers,” it takes a courageous physician not to acquiesce to the passionately desperate (but quite often misguided) requests of our patients.
Dr. Hey writes in ‘Lesson Nine: When the Patient and Her Family Insisted on an Abortion’:
"My secretary told me one morning that there was an older man and his wife and their young daughter waiting to see me. They wanted to have a conference with me to seek my advice. I was not their family doctor, but they were well known in the community as upstanding, good people. The gentleman was an elder in their church and well respected.
"They came in with their college-age daughter, and we sat in my office with the door shut. They began by saying, ‘We have a problem we want you to help us with. Our daughter is just finishing college and she has a scholarship to get a master’s degree at a very good school, but she is pregnant.’
"They continued, ‘She and her boyfriend agree that they won’t be able to marry at this time, but after she gets her master’s degree, they’ll have more freedom. They also agree, and we concur, that there is no way they could take care of a newborn baby. The only possibility would be to have this baby aborted.’
"Apparently, she was only a few weeks pregnant and they wanted me to find someone ethical and competent who would perform the abortion for them and save the young couple’s future.
"I immediately shot up a ‘flare prayer,’ asking the Lord for guidance. Then, I told them that I appreciated their confidence in me, but that I really could not recommend an abortion.
"They asked why, and I said, ‘Well, for one thing, it’s such a dangerous procedure.’
"And the girl’s father said, ‘Well, I’ve heard that it’s pretty straightforward now.’
"‘Oh, no. In fact, half the people involved in the procedure are killed during an abortion.’
"They looked puzzled, but then finally smiled and said, ‘Oh, you’re talking about the fetus.’
"I replied, ‘Yes, they just don’t seem to survive the abortion at all, and that’s a serious matter. As a physician, I’m pledged to try to preserve life, not to destroy it, so I just can’t have a part in doing something like this.’
"They said, ‘Well, we think the options are narrowed down to this one, which would be the best.’
"They asked, ‘What are you talking about? Emotional disturbance or guilt?’
"‘Yes, that’s part of it, and that’s very hard to deal with. I know people who never really get over that. It always brings a profound change in everybody’s life when a baby is lost. But, I’m talking about really long-term consequences.’
"They looked puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’
"‘I’m talking about a thousand or fifteen hundred years later, because I think God will be very negative toward all of you for causing the loss of life of this innocent child.’
"They looked at each other, and to my surprise and thankfulness, they did not erupt in anger at me. Instead, they said, ‘We’ve never even thought about all this, Doctor. Thank you for your counsel, and we’ll let you know later what we decide.’
"I did not hear any more from them. Then almost a year later, the grandmother came into my office holding this little baby in her arms and said, ‘I want you to see this child that you saved!’
"She said that she and her daughter and her boyfriend talked about it and they decided that they wanted to go on and have the baby. They would worry later about her master’s degree and her career. This grandmother was gushing on about how wonderful that little baby was. He was her little grandson, and she was so thankful to have him. She wanted to thank me.
"I thanked them for coming in and telling me, and then I thanked the Lord for allowing me to play a part in saving that little baby.
“In my career, I can remember five cases in which my counsel resulted in babies not being killed. They lived!”
This was but one of the many poignant “Lessons” shared by Dr. John Hey in his thoughtful book. I encourage you to read it. Published in 2020, paperback copies of this book as well as the Kindle version are available on Amazon. Signed copies of the book are available on www.littlepeoplebook.com. The book’s author can be reached at jheymd@medical-arts.org and Dr. South can be reached at rwbdsb@ripleycable.net.
About the Reviewer: Dr. Dwalia South, a past-President of MSMA, is currently Chair Emeritus of the MSMA Committee on Publications. She has served on the Mississippi State Board of Health and the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure. She practices Family Medicine in Ripley, Mississippi and is the author of the book “Una Voce” (2011), a collection of medical essays. She is also the author of Southernisms, a column which appears in many newspapers across the state, including the Magnolia Gazette, the Hinds County Gazette, and the Southern Sentinel.