“What’s an abortion?” my 8-year-old son asked.

The question stopped me in my tracks. I thought he’d been watching TV, not paying attention to my conversation with his father.

I was speechless, an unusual reaction for this talker. As the seconds sped by, my mind volleyed between explaining abortion and protecting his innocence by using a classic parental line such as, “You’ll find out when you’re older.”

But for some reason I decided not to wait, and a minute later I jumped in, explaining abortion in simple, 8-year-old language. I told him that sometimes, when a woman is pregnant and doesn’t want her baby, she’ll go to a clinic where the baby will be killed before it’s born. I struggled to come up with a gentler word than “killed,” but what other word would he understand? I suppose I could have said, “they end the baby’s life” or something easier for his mind to process. But in the heat of the moment I said “killed.” He doesn’t know what “terminate” means; he’s seen TV ads for the latest “Terminator” movie but he wouldn’t understand the pro-choice language of “terminate the pregnancy.”

As the reality of abortion settled into his mind and heart, his eyes grew wide as saucers. Shock – that’s what it was; he was shocked beyond words. I could tell the information was slowly sinking in but would take time to process. He looked confused, bewildered and very sad.

Later he found me. “Know what I’m going to do when I grow up?”

“What?” I asked.

“I’m going to work hard to save all of the babies from abortion.” His eyes filled with tears.

“That’s a wonderful idea,” I told him. Then my eyes filled with tears, too.

I watched a video where children were told about abortion and then asked to share their feelings. The reactions were like my son’s – total disbelief that anyone would want to do something like that, let alone actually do it. They were confused at the mere idea of killing a little baby before it’s born.

In that innocent time before life throws opinions at us and messes with our God-given morality and love for all people, children inherently believe in life and see babies as innocent creatures who should be tenderly cared for, not killed. They don’t get it.

If all of us could only stay that way as adults, smiling at the thought of a cute little baby floating around in its mommy’s “tummy,” not a nuisance to get rid of at any cost.

I don’t get it either, kids. I really don’t. I’ve been thinking a lot about the world as we know it and, as far as I’m concerned, any society that kills its unborn babies is not civilized.

Lara Ketter is a writer who lives on a Kansas farm with her husband and three children. She writes a weekly blog on her website, www.LaraKetter.com, under the title, “Live. Laugh. Love. Lara.” She’s written two books and volunteers as an editor/proofreader for the quarterly Tipton Times, her hometown newspaper.