They said it.
Psychotherapist Mira Dana, who worked with post-abortive women for almost 20 years:
“Why would you feel sadness or loss about something you wanted to get rid of? On the surface it looks like a contradiction… The fact that it was your decision which caused the loss does not allow space for mourning.”
Miriam Claire The Abortion Dilemma: Personal Views on a Public Issue (Xlibris Corporation, 2013) 19
Share on FacebookFrom a post-abortive man:
“After the abortion, we ended up separating. Yet I sensed I was not the same. There was a sense of grief and shame in my life that clung to me even though I tried to shrug it off.”
Dr. Lizzie Ling and Vaughan Roberts Abortion (The Good Book Company, 2020) 55
Share on FacebookA woman named Delinda wrote about having an abortion:
“I found myself pregnant in a very unstable situation and at the time thought it was the best option for me and the baby.
I went to a rundown clinic in Nashville. I was disturbed about the things that went on inside this clinic. The environment was relaxed and almost comical.
Loud music blaring, and no remorse or compassion for the girls who were waiting to make this life-altering decision…
It was quick and a little painful, but mostly a fog in my memory. I remember letting out one crying gasp afterwards and that was it…
I chose to pretend it didn’t happen because if it didn’t happen, I could live with myself. Because of this, I went further in my addiction and became more detached from life and who I was.
My ability to love had also dissipated, and honestly, I didn’t think I would ever know how to love again.”
Michelle Bollom The Forgivable Sin: Shattering the Silence and Shame of Abortion (undated) 64, 65
Share on FacebookPro-life author S. Nye writes that in 2018:
“Over 80,000 repeat abortions were carried out, with nearly 3500 of these being carried out on teenagers. The year-on-year trend is for more multiple abortions. In the same year, 718 women had their sixth abortion. Five of these women were still teenagers.”
S. Nye Whose Child? UK Abortion, a Gospel Matter (undated) 110
Cites:
David Mercer “Abortions: Five teenagers among women who had at least their 6th termination in UK last year” Sky November 21, 2019
Share on FacebookIn her memoir, pro-life activist and founder of Live Action Lila Rose wrote about meeting with politicians and trying to get Planned Parenthood defunded:
“I met with Senate leaders. They listened politely and agreed with me in principle. Some even spoke with me at press conferences or rallies.
However, we also faced many obstacles. Perhaps the biggest obstacle of all was the desperate fear many political leaders had of an openly hostile media, and how the media’s negative coverage of their words or votes might impact their reputation with constituents.
At one private meeting… [t]he chief of staff for the House Majority Leader was present and was asked point-blank why they weren’t playing hardball with the Senate over the budget that would be sent to then-President Obama.
The House had the power to remove from the budget funding for Planned Parenthood and all abortion clinics and redirect it to authentic healthcare providers who helped save lives instead of ending them.
Even though pro-abortion politicians controlled the Senate and the White House, the House could refuse to approve any budget that allowed funding for abortion clinics. Yet, House members were afraid to do that. If the government shut down over abortion funding, the media would blame them, and they knew it.
“It will be on the front page of Politico that the Republicans shut down the government,” said the Chief of Staff nervously, angry that we were making such a big ask of his boss.
I wondered how someone that powerful could be so scared. The front page of Politico? Who cares? How many people even read Politico, anyway? Was Politico running the country now?
I believed that constituents wanted to see courage and leadership displayed, not cowardice and submission, to a hostile media.
Increasingly, our team discovered the necessity of reaching people directly with our stories and videos and not relying on media to report on our findings.”
Lila Rose Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change in a Wounded World (Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson Books, 2021) 144 – 145
Share on FacebookPro-life and pro-peace activist and author John Cavanaugh–O’Keefe, who demonstrated and rescued outside of abortion facilities, wrote:
“Pro-lifers who have spent time outside abortion clinics have seen coercive abortion unfolding. A car pulls up, an angry guy gets out and grabs a crying woman, and pulls her along. You hear the shouts: “We already talked about this and we’re going to get it done now, goddamnit.”
This doesn’t happen every Saturday morning at every clinic, but it’s common.
Sometimes a pro-life agenda and a pro-choice agenda flow together, if the woman can choose, the child can live.”
John Cavanaugh–O’Keefe Pro-Life Democrat: 50 Brief Insights an Apologia (2020) 28
Share on FacebookPhilosopher Peter Singer, who argues in favor of killing disabled babies, wrote about a poll about disabled children:
“In a 1983 Gallup poll, Americans were asked what they would do if they had a badly deformed baby in need of treatment. 43% said that they would ask the doctor not to keep the baby alive, and 40% said they would want the baby kept alive.”
Peter Singer Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994) 119 – 120
This quote reveals the terrible ableism that was present in our society, with more parents wanting a “deformed” baby to die than to live. I’m not aware of any more recent surveys, so I don’t know if things have improved since then, but with the high rate of disabled babies aborted after fetal screenings show disabilities, I suspect that they haven’t.
Share on FacebookPresbyterian minister Sarai Schnucker Beck wrote an essay defending legal abortion in a book collecting abortion-related essays from religious women.
She frames her essay as a letter to a pro-life friend. She wrote:
“Because of our faith, I think that we also share a belief that all life is important – human beings, animals, plants, germs in the sea, birds in the air, all part of God’s creation. For me, this has come to mean, more now than in the past, taking with great seriousness the potential human life that is the fetus.
But for both of us, I believe that it also means taking with great seriousness the present life of a woman in a difficult and complicated situation…
Perhaps it would be better to think of the fetus and the mother as having “concurrent” claims. That is, both claims occur at the same time, and both are important… At times the potential life that is the fetus may have a stronger claim, and at times the mother’s claim may override…
I am convinced that you and I agree that life is valuable because it is given by God.”
Sarai Schnucker Beck “A Common Language” in Phyllis Tickle, ed. Confessing Conscience: Churched Women on Abortion (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1990) 35 – 36
She calls a preborn baby “potential life” and values the child the same as nonhuman life. But a baby in the womb is a human, not a germ, a bird, or a plant.
It’s interesting that she calls a pregnant woman a “mother.” How can a human mother be anything but a mother to a human baby?
A study by the Pew Research Center reveals media bias in the 2012 election.
This doesn’t relate to abortion directly but does relate to it indirectly. Pro-lifers have been saying for a long time that the mainstream media (CNN, MSNBC, etc.) are biased against the pro-life cause.
It backs up the claim that the information one gets on issues, presumably including abortion, varies based on what news one watches.
Here are the results:
Coverage for Obama was:
On CNN: 21% negative, 18% positive
On FOX News: 46% negative, 6% positive
On MSNBC: 15% negative, 39% positive
Coverage for Mitt Romney was:
On CNN: 36% negative, 11% positive
On FOX News: 12% negative, 28% positive
On MSNBC: 71% negative, 3% positive
So we see there was considerable media bias in the 2012 election.
Dutchess Harris Uncovering Bias in the News (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Abdo Publishing, 2018) 9
Information on media bias directly concerning abortion.
Share on Facebook
Sally Thompson, who works at a pregnancy resource center counseling abortion-minded women and post-abortive women:
“I would sometimes ask my clients to explain to me what an abortion is. I always heard, “It’s terminating a pregnancy, it’s killing or murdering a baby.” Those are harsh words but revealing answers. If it has a heartbeat, it’s alive, and if we do anything to make that heartbeat stop, it’s death.
Some women who have had abortions think because they willfully walked into the abortion clinic and asked for the abortion, it’s called murder. Some have even said, “I killed my baby.”
What makes it so hard for women who have had abortions is that one day reality will set in.
Getting the revelation that you chose to bring death to your child and family member can take years to digest… The support of others is much needed because, like many women, when reality hits it is devastating.
Many women have stated they stayed in domestic violence situations because they thought they deserved to be there after an abortion. Others believed God was punishing them for having an abortion. Having an abortion is very traumatizing for women.”
Sally Thompson and LaQuita Maxey The Aftermath: Stories of God’s Grace and Freedom after Abortion (Storytellers, LLC, 2021) 10
Share on Facebook