I’ve never had an abortion. I used to be pro-choice, staunchly so in fact, one time even arguing with a pro-life protester in front of an abortion clinic while waiting for an oil change next door. I wasn’t even politically active at the time; I just have a rebellious spirit. Must be my Irish.
The lady was very nice and I wasn’t rude or anything, but I had my opinions, and I shared them. They were uninformed of course, because though I’d known many girls and women who’d had abortions, some of them multiple abortions, I myself really knew nothing of the process, I’d just bought into the whole ‘my body my choice’ and ‘if you don’t have a vagina you don’t have a say’ argument, which is obviously still the argument for the modern ‘unlimited abortion’ Left. I had a different topic in mind for my weekly article, but two abortion-related videos I saw today as well as the recent New York ruling have compelled me to write on the subject. I could not hold back!
I became politically active in 2007 with the candidacy of Barack Obama. I was thrilled at the idea that America, with its sinful history of slavery, was seriously considering a black candidate for President, and still am proud of the idea and the accomplishment, just not the candidate. When McCain chose Palin and the Left went absolutely apoplectic about, among other things, her absolutist pro-life position, I knew I had to re-evaluate my position on abortion if I was going to vote for her, and since I knew I was never going to vote for a radical like Obama, that’s what I did. I figured if I was going to be ‘pro-choice’, I should know what that meant, so I forced myself to research the issue of abortion, both in pictures and descriptions, and watching videos of people describing in detail exactly what it was. Needless to say, that self-torture, though necessary, was horrifying, and I’m no longer pro-choice. Having said that, however, I think the methodology and messaging from the pro-life position has often been faulty at best, detrimental to the cause at worst.
I remember when I was debating the woman in front of the abortion clinic, seeing posters of aborted fetuses and words like ‘abortion is murder’, etc. Being pro-choice and uninformed, the message not only didn’t register with me, but the extreme nature of it wouldn’t have converted me, and I think that’s one of the problems with pro-life activism sometimes. Tactics and strategy are important if you want to persuade people to your position (and save babies), but shaming and shocking people isn’t as effective as, say, talking to and loving them. While the photos shock and horrify, for instance, they rarely stop people from proceeding inside. Perhaps a poster of ‘there are other options than abortion’, or ‘You don’t HAVE to abort your baby, we can help’ might. It’s kind of like the ‘would you rather be right or happy’ argument, and if being ‘happy’ means stopping abortions, messaging matters.
I’ve written before of my astonishment at the absolute intransigence of pro-choice women on the issue of abortion restrictions, not understanding why 5 months for instance, wasn’t enough time to figure things out. I mean surely that’s a reasonable compromise, considering Roe is still the law. But no, it’s not, as Abortion Barbie Wendy Davis proved when she stood for hours to plead against that restriction in Texas. She lost, but that didn’t stop them, for as I mentioned, just this week, the New York legislature voted to allow abortions up to the date of birth, as well as to remove protections for a fetus born alive from a botched abortion, something Obama himself voted against as well, as an Illinois state Senator – 3 times ironically.
To translate: for any reason at all, a woman can have an abortion up to 9 months, to the date of birth, and if the abortionist screws up, no one’s gonna help the baby, they’re just gonna let it die. (As I write this I just sigh and shake my head sadly). Some states even fund the abortions on the taxpayers’ dime to make it worse! And New York isn’t alone, as Alaska, New Mexico, Vermont, Oregon, Colorado, D.C. and New Jersey also have this abortion until date of birth provision. To add insult to injury, New Jersey recently introduced a bill to prevent the slaughter of pregnant cows. Priorities after all.
As if that wasn’t enough, Virginia Democrat Rep. Kathy Tran recently introduced a bill that would allow up until birth… even when a woman is in active labor, about to deliver her child!!! Think about that. A woman 9 months pregnant, on the way to the hospital, can kill that baby for any reason, even at the time it’s being delivered. And for the balkers, ‘mental health’ counts as ‘health of the mother’. That’s not even ‘abortion’ any more, that’s just outright murder. And it’s being introduced in Virginia, home of the founders who wrote the Declaration of Independence which declares the very first right of all – the Right to Life!
That irony only adds to the horror of it all. Even crazier is that these are the same people who’d put you in jail if you messed with a sea turtle nest – go figure!
Whatever one’s position on abortion, whether you’re pro-life or pro-abortion, surely any reasonable person is disgusted by this extreme abortion activism and legislation. A lot of women have had abortions, and as a society, particularly if one is a Christian, we should probably try to offer mercy and forgiveness, especially if it’s a one-time exceptional circumstance. And to be clear, I’m not including rape or incest in this discussion on abortion, as that’s a completely different conversation. Nor am I talking about women who’ve had multiple abortions, using it as birth control; again, different conversation. I’m talking about the ‘accidental’ or ‘negligence’ pregnancy that many women chose abortions to ‘get out of’. Whether you think it’s ok or not, it’s legal, and it seems only reasonable that we comport to what Democrats used to say about it, which is that it be ‘safe’ and ‘rare’, not up-to-birth or post-birth execution.
For instance, if pro-choice advocates want it to be legal, wouldn’t they also want it to be safe? If so, why did every single news outlet refuse to cover the atrocities of the murderous Gosnell case, and to this day still not ever discuss it? (Though I must also remind everyone that it was a Republican governor of Pennsylvania at the time, Tom Ridge, who knew about but ignored that ‘house of horrors’ and allowed for the murder of those countless babies). And to be fair, pro-lifers should take more aggressive steps to make adoption easier, and to facilitate the keeping of the baby and all of the difficulties that entails, not just the having of it. The argument that pro-lifers are pro-birth, but not pro ‘after birth’ is a legitimate one that needs to be addressed.
Pro-choice people should accept abstinence training in schools as much of an alternative in sex ‘education’ birth control discussion, for an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure. There must be rational thinking on this issue all the way around.
At the same time these uber-Left states are taking such extreme positions in favor of removing any restrictions on abortions, other states are doing the exact opposite, from allowing almost none, to restricting them to 5 months or less, including ‘fetal heart beat’ laws. The hopeful thing in this unpleasantness is that as technology advances, people are able to recognize ‘life’ in ultrasounds and see pre-born babies as future humans earlier than ever, and not just clumps of tissue, and therefore desire more restrictions on abortion.
However, with each new breakthrough on this front, Democrats are going even further in the opposite direction. One has to wonder how this will affect them politically in the 2020 races and beyond, as the average Democrat or Independent voter evaluates whether this extremism aligns with their values, especially evangelical and Catholic voters. And in fact, some bishops are calling for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church for signing the states’ unconscionable abortion law.
So 46 years after the Supreme Court decision on Roe which legalized abortion nationwide under the ‘right to privacy’, while thus denying 59 MILLION children their ‘right to life’, (including 14 million black children) the debate, and legislation to restrict or expand it, rages on, with the chasm yet unbridged and hostilities remaining.
If you’re a Believer, you have to know that we will be judged as a nation for this, not just individual states, for God will hold us accountable for this obscenity and all of the other wickedness in the culture.
Especially those who profess to be Christians, but who have let it happen, as the churches seem to all have been infiltrated by Marxists unabated. As I’ve said multiple times, complacency is the enemy of liberty, but it is also the enemy of morality, and we’re sliding ever closer to a dangerously slippery slope beyond any possible redemption.
God help us all.
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