By Tim Waggoner
OTTAWA, August 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While Canadian Olympian weightlifter Marilou Dozois-Prevost has proven her physical strength well enough to see her compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in early 2007 she proved she has another sort of strength when she made the last-minute decision not to abort her unborn child.
In January of 2007, the 22-year-old athlete from Montreal was hit with two equally unexpected and unwelcome announcements – she was told that she had missed the cut for the 2008 summer games and, on an unrelated level, that she was pregnant.
Accepting the former news as unchangeable, Marilou focused instead on her unplanned pregnancy. While her coach and boyfriend, Simon Demers, was opposed to the idea of aborting the child, Marilou was not as certain. She wrestled with the decision for several weeks before she found herself sitting in a hospital waiting room in a hospital gown, being told how an abortion is performed.
Before the abortion could take place, however, Dozois-Prevost ran out of the hospital in tears, apologizing to the doctor for the inconvenience. Marilou had chosen life.
Tragically, the Olympic athlete was notified a few weeks later during a routine ultrasound that her baby had died 8 weeks into the pregnancy.
Incredibly, Marilou is now competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing after an additional spot in her sport was offered to Canada.
Source: cyberpresse.ca