First, kudos to Leila for treating people who disagree with her with such respect. It shows what a true lady she is. Quickly, because I don't want this topic to overwhelm my selfish personal story on my blog, I'll respond to a couple comments. (And also because Leila added another post on this topic, but I just want to move on. ;) )
From Leila: Feminists are not conceding anymore that abortion should be a regrettable choice, but are in fact encouraging women to call it a positive good, with T-shirts and all. So, I am not sure you have your pulse on the modern abortion industry, the gender feminists, and their ilk.
Yes, you're right, I don't have my pulse on the modern abortion industry. I realize that nearly every business seeks to make money but I do believe that some abortion providers feel they are doing a good public service. Yes, it's true.
From JoAnna: Feeling "backed into a corner" is not a valid reason to kill a living child, so it should not be a valid excuse to kill an unborn child.
I never talked about reasons or justifications, just the reality of life for lots of women. I believe a small minority of women having an abortion feel justified.
Also from JoAnna: If women feel they have no choice, how is it "pro-choice" to essentially affirm that? It seems more "pro-abortion" to tell women that they have no choice other to abort, so sign here and fork over your $$ so we can kill your baby, even though you don't want to (as opposed to giving her the resources necessary to make a different choice).
Most political terms are pure semantics. Estate Tax vs. Death Tax. Global Warming vs. Climate Change. Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life. I'm 100% pro-life. I also know that banning an activity doesn't stamp it out. Unless we empower women to make good decisions for themselves in relationships, abortion will not go away.
Christian women: let's work on compassion for each other.
Thank you for offering a calm, reasoned response. It's a pleasure to dialogue with you. :) Regarding your comments:
ReplyDeleteI never talked about reasons or justifications, just the reality of life for lots of women. I believe a small minority of women having an abortion feel justified.
There are a lot of sad realities for women -- for example, an abusive husband. Can a woman have the choice to kill her husband -- and suffer no legal consequences -- in order to escape the abuse? No, she cannot. (Obviously, I'm not talking about cases where an act of warranted self-defense occurred.)
It's the same concept with abortion. However sad one's reality is, it does not justify or excuse the deliberate killing of another human being, especially an innocent human being.
Most political terms are pure semantics. Estate Tax vs. Death Tax. Global Warming vs. Climate Change. Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life. I'm 100% pro-life. I also know that banning an activity doesn't stamp it out. Unless we empower women to make good decisions for themselves in relationships, abortion will not go away.
I absolutely agree with your last sentence. However, I believe intrinsic evils should be banned across the board. Rape, for example, still happens even though it's outlawed. Does the fact that rape still occurs mean that we should legalize it? Back in the pre-Civil War era, should we have waited until we could have improved the South's economic conditions so that slavery wasn't needed before outlawing slavery? The only way to abolish the South's dependence on slaves was to first ban slavery and THEN work on getting the economy adjusted to the disuse of slave labor (and even then it took a war to accomplish this).
I understand your viewpoint, completely, because I used to hold it myself. However, gradually I realized that there can be no justification for the deliberate taking of innocent life, no matter how difficult the situation.
Doing sidewalk counseling, it is amazing how many women come in there misinformed and with more information (facts like the development etc), change their mind in time. I have also seen first hand what the former director of PP that quit spoke of-the workers are told to "get more abortions in the door" etc and they do this by greying the facts rather than empowering women to make their own choice. For example, they often say the baby is younger than it actually is to make abortion more palatable. Before my experience on the sidewalk, I thought that it was simply an option available to women (one I wholeheartedly agree with), but now I see there is a clear agenda and money behind pushing women that are at their most vulnerable to make this choice. I like what you say about empowering women to make good choices-so true! Knowledge is power, and that is what we do on the sidewalk, share information and resources that match that women's particular situation so that they can keep the child or give the child up for adoption, should they choose. It is better for them to know the hard facts prior about what they are doing (killing a baby) rather than them finding out afterwards when they can't do anything about it. Of course, we also give free post abortive counseling resources, etc in case that is the case.
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