I've had to think a bit before saying anything in reply Milky because this set me off thinking and feeling in several different ways. They are perhaps summed up by seeing that there is no such thing as a private abortion confined only to the mother and fetus. Even if only the mother is directly involved, there is more than the one potential child that is lost. Many of us given the gift of life grow up to have our own children and grandchildren and so on down the generations - for each aborted child all of these possible people are lost too in their hundreds and thousands as the generations roll on.
Thank God they don't all lead to such a tragedy as this - your friend's loss of his child, then his own life, and you losing a very close friend in such traumatic circumstances. My heart goes out to you, and everyone else involved in this. I include your friend's girlfriend too because she must have faced her own nightmares in this situation - the fearsome prospect of carrying a seriously handicapped child, and the trauma of termination, and its terrible consequences. Although I think abortion is wrong, it seems to me that most women who choose it are under great pressure, distress and uncertainty, and for them there can be lasting consequences as
@Misty said. It would be easy to talk when I never can face this kind of choice directly myself. The whole issue is saturated with tragedy and calls out for the deepest compassion.