Repost from Sunday, January 18, 2009.
In addition to the radio show on Thursday night, I spent my Saturday driving to Columbia for the South Carolina Rally for Life. The rally was an inspirational event and I enjoyed it immensely.
With these two big events in the past couple days, I have been thinking a lot about the pro-life movement (even more so than usual). A number of small moments in these two big events inspired me to write on this topic.
The abortion debate is framed in many ways.
On one side, you have those who like to call themselves pro-choice. They see themselves as the advocates of women and the defenders of the rights of these women. They see those on the opposing side as wanting to oppress these women, to take this right of abortion away. If you aren't pro-choice, you are against women, they say.
On the other side, there are those who are called pro-life. Though they see themselves as the advocates of the unborn children, those who have no voice. They see those on the opposing side as killers. You aren't pro-choice, you are either pro-life or pro-abortion, they say.
So there the debate is framed. Pro-woman vs. Pro-tyranny. Pro-life vs. Pro-abortion. Those on different sides will see each other differently.
I am here to argue that in order to truly be pro-woman, you must also be pro-life.
At the rally on Saturday, we were blessed to have a speaker from Silent No More, an awareness campaign for women who have had abortions. The speaker was a French immigrant who had two abortions. The first came when she was 18 years old and new to college. She ended up pregnant, and everyone around her told her she should abort the child. "You won't be able to finish college if you have a baby", they told her. And so she listened to the only advice she had, and chemically aborted the child. Well, aborting the child didn't help her finish college. After the abortion she was overcome with such feelings of loss, guilt, and severe depression that she was unable to finish her degree. Over the years she ended up becoming pregnant again, and still thinking it her only option, she once again had the child aborted, this time surgically. She said, as she awoke from the procedure with blood on her legs, that once again the horrible depression set upon her, as did thoughts of suicide. Thankfully, she soon found a husband who led her to Christ and showed her that she could live on, and even bring life into this world. She now has a son. Yet she cries daily for the siblings that her son could have had, her children that she never knew.
Many women at the rally carried signs reading simply, "I regret my abortion."
Many pro-choice advocates bring up the issue of rape. "How can you make a woman who suffered rape carry that child? Make them live with a constant reminder of that horrible event in their life?"
To them I reply, "How can you make a woman who suffered rape undergo an abortion? One of the most invasive procedures a woman can undergo, one of the most dangerous...how can you have them go through that?". While abortion can be a damaging physical procedure, its dangers are even more severe when it comes to the emotional trauma which results from abortion. I won't even try to go into the spiritual damage.
To be truly pro-life is to be pro-woman. Not to shun and censure, but to love and educate. Being pro-life is not about shouting down those who are pro-choice, or damning them to hell. We need to ask ourselves not how many women we made feel terrible about themselves, we need to ask what are we doing for these women, and what are we doing for the women still to come?
What are we doing to educate them, to let them know that there are other choices besides killing their child? What are we doing to make adoption a more loving option, to enable women who may not want or be able to support a child to still bring that precious life into this world?
This doesn't mean we need to weaken our resolve. While loving these women, we still need to show them the error of their ways. You cant sugarcoat abortion. The baby didn't just go away, to come back later when the woman decides she is ready to finally welcome him or her. And the baby didn't just simply die. That baby was murdered.
So, while still holding in our hearts the seriousness of abortion, we need to open these same hearts to these women. They need to know that though they may have made dark choices in the past, we are here to shine a light for them to follow. We love these women. It's a tough love, but it's a love that is much more real than the the culture of death offers them.
The culture of death offers them comfort, ease, and can enable irresponsibility. It offers them a false choice, and a tempting one at that. The culture of death tells them that what they have is a mistake, and it is a simple matter to relieve themselves of that mistake. It is not until the aftermath that the culture of death deals its damage to the woman. While a physical death is dealt to the child, it is an emotional and spiritual death dealt to the woman.
The culture of life offers women comfort, but not ease. It offers a chance to take up responsibility. It offers women a true choice, but it is surely a tough one to make. Accepting the responsibility of life is a difficult one, even for those prepared for such a task. But this responsibility is itself a gift.
When women come to realize that the culture of life, offers them true happiness, then our world will find itself in a much better state. Each and every life is a gift from God, and life is a gift that keeps on giving.
I am pro-woman, and I am pro-life. I hope the world will one come to see the truth, and the necessity, of these words.
