ASK THE AUTHOR: Pamela Binnings Ewen
LATEST PROJECT: An Accidental Life (9780805464320, $14.99, Sept. 1).
PUBLISHER: B&H Books.

How would you briefly describe An Accidental Life to Christian retailers?

New Orleans. 1982. She’s a new partner in a prestigious law firm. He’s a prosecutor facing the trial of a lifetime. They’re married and their jet-set lives are about to change. The question they must answer: What happens to infants born alive during an abortion? And why? This courtroom drama exposes one of the best-kept secrets in the world.

What inspired this novel?

The story was first inspired by testimony during a hearing before Congress in 2001. Witnesses testified that at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill., and around the country, medical assistance was being withheld from infants born alive during abortions. The testimony resulted in federal law protecting such babies, but not state law. I learned about this for the first time in 2011 and then and there resolved to write this book. 

Your 25 years of experience as an attorney qualifies you to write a courtroom drama. What research did you do for this project?

Besides the usual newspapers, online and other reading, I interviewed
prosecutors and sat in on murder trials, taking detailed notes. I interviewed our
Louisiana Parish coroner (the equivalent of other states’ medical examiners) and a nurse who testified at the 2001 hearings. I interviewed Melissa Ohden, an “accidental life” herself (as she puts it). I read the detailed Congressional Report on the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act and studies and cases cited in that report, and interviewed doctors and other pediatric nurses to check my conclusions. Dorinda Bordley, a decades-long legal, pro-life advocate assisted in digging into the development of case law following Roe v. Wade, as did Robert Winn, founder of Louisiana Right to Life and a former partner in a major New Orleans law firm. I also read numerous briefs and pleadings, both pro-life and pro-choice, filed in real cases.

Was it challenging to write both sides of the trial arguments?

When I began writing, I was determined to let the chips fall where they may in the verdict. So that was very difficult, because morally I believed the murder charge was justified. But the law doesn’t always take us where we want to go, and my primary goal was to tell it like it is. I wanted readers to know what’s happening. So it wasn’t until I actually began writing the closing arguments in the trial and put all the evidence together that I knew the verdict. Here’s something new: I came across an odd statement by the Supremes in Roe v. Wade, and by linking that with reasoning from other cases and new understandings of how medical advances have changed the concept of viability, I realized that a murder conviction of the doctor would really stand up in court.

How is this novel similar to or different from your previous works of fiction?

This was the most difficult to write. I am passionate about getting the word out that this is really happening—that infants are sometimes born alive, and some are left to die. All of my novels are what some might call issue-driven stories, but I think this one is most important. More detail was required to show that the evidence is real and that it’s still going on—tough to do without crossing the line and boring readers. I hope that I’ve succeeded!  

An Accidental Life is also about Rebecca’s faith journey. What type of character is she? 

In the beginning, ambitious Rebecca is a secular humanist who, thinking this life is all there is, gets on that treadmill and starts to run. Her Christian faith evolves during the story through the power of the Holy Spirit. First, as she comes to understand the beauty and complexity of God’s creation, especially human life. And second, through the sanctification of love for her husband, who is a man of faith.  

What do you hope readers take away from this story?

My prayer is that when a reader finishes An Accidental Life, he or she will understand that human life is not determined by mankind’s definitions and timelines, regardless of emotions or politics. I pray that readers will understand that the horrors recently unveiled in the Kermit Gosnell trial are not an aberration, and that this is real.

What other information should Christian retailers know about An Accidental Life?

Those who have read my earlier novels Dancing on Glass and Chasing the Wind will recognize Rebecca. All three books are related through the characters and the time period, although each can be read on a stand-alone basis. All describe what it was like for young women in those days (the 1970s and early ’80s) struggling to find success in what was then a man’s world, while maintaining balance between families and careers.