abortion: the black genocide?

Slavery may be over, but it seems African-Americans are still the target of racial oppression. Abortion is what more and more people are calling "The Black Genocide."

"For every 1.3 live births in the black community, 1 child is aborted. This is not liberation. This is elimination."[1].

Click here to learn more.

Vita Pro Omni!

[1] http://www.toomanyaborted.com/?page_id=644

what's so bad about abortion?

I have a question. What's so bad about abortion?

Obviously, I could create quite a response of my own. But at the moment, I'm posing this inquiry more towards my pro-choice friends. I've always been puzzled about something.

Pro-choicers consistently talk about wanting to "eliminate the need for abortion" or "lower the abortion rate." For one, during his famous speech at Notre Dame last May, Obama called for pro-choice and pro-life Americans to come together to "reduce the number of abortions." Similarly, Hilary Clinton says she has a goal of "keeping abortion safe, legal, and rare." Even Planned Parenthood, no less than the leading abortion provider in the nation, wants the public to think they are in the business of lowering abortion numbers (though their private words and actions suggest otherwise).

If these people truly believe abortions empower women, why would they want to reduce them? If anything, they should be encouraging more women to abort their children. And if they are so convinced that the abortion choice is absolutely fundamental to a woman's freedom and societal status, why wouldn't they want it to not only be chosen, but chosen often?

My confusion continues. Pro-choicers also have a tendency to make exceptions and qualifications for their position. I call this common position "pro-choice-but." They will say things like, "I'm pro-choice, but I would never get an abortion," or, "I'm pro-choice, but I would never recommend abortion to anyone." Well, why wouldn't you get an abortion? Why wouldn't you recommend it? Please, tell me: What's wrong with abortion?

When I consider this phenomenon, I also think about pro-choice rhetoric. Nearly all pro-choicers insist on being labeled pro-choice– not pro-abortion. Never pro-abortion. And yet, it's obvious abortion is the choice they are defending when they say they are pro-choice, as no one is trying to take away the choices of parenting or adoption. Why such opposition toward being associated with abortion? Why not come out and say what choice you support?

My point is this. If abortion doesn't take an innocent human life, no justification is necessary. But if it does, no justification is adequate.

I truly believe the reason pro-choicers are so uneasy about abortion is the same reason pro-lifers are. It doesn't sit well with anyone. All of us know it is wrong to kill an innocent human being. And all of us know that is exactly what abortion does.

Pennsylvania governor Robert Casey once said, "Legal abortion will never rest easy on this nation's conscience. It will continue to haunt the consciences of men and women everywhere." My pro-choice friends make me think these words are true.

So let's be honest. I think we all know what's so bad about abortion.

Vita Pro Omni!

the happiest ending

On Wednesday we found ourselves at the start of Lent: a 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and spiritual preparation for the Resurrection miracle of Christ on Easter Sunday. Now is a time for Christians to reflect more deeply on our life in the Author of Life and the mystery of His conquering death once and for all: the feat which is the heart of Christianity; the event that stands as "the crowning truth of our faith in Christ"[1].

John Paul II taught us that now is also when "the Church is recollected in contemplation of the risen Christ. Thus she relives the primordial experience that lies at the basis of her existence. She feels imbued with the same wonder as Mary Magdalene and the other women who went to Christ's tomb on Easter morning and found it empty. That tomb became the womb of life"[2].

Our current Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, offered a beautiful reflection to begin this Lenten season. His words focus on the "great theme of justice" so that it might reign in our hearts and lives, now and always. What a magnificent virtue to contemplate as we enter this season of life! For without justice, it is impossible to live one's life to the full.

But in order for justice to reign, we must combat injustice wherever it thrives. And surely, in America, it has found no success more overwhelming than in the abortion mill. Abortion is the highest insult of the family unit, the superlative attack against society, the ultimate exploitation of humanity. Indeed, it is injustice incarnate.

Given this knowledge, we find ourselves asking, "How do we fight it?" We know abortion is there, but we can't seem to grasp it. We aren't sure how to pull it up by its roots. It often appears an amorphous tyrant that we cannot get ahold of. But our Holy Father gives us crucial insight that informs us of of its genesis: "Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil." When reading these words, I am reminded not only of the unjust abortion act itself, but where that injustice really happens.

Of course, abortions occur, in a literal sense, in the abortion mill. These clinics have the necessary equipment to dismember, burn, and suffocate unborn children. But I think there is more to it than that. Any woman who steps foot into a Planned Parenthood for her procedure has already aborted her child, spiritually, some time ago. Perhaps it was out of fear, shame, or hopelessness; maybe it was out of desperation, because of a feeling that she had no other place to go; but for whatever reason, she has managed to force her child out of her heart, out of her conscience, out of her spirit. Thus, the abortion injustice has its core in the human heart, where Satan whispers lies to a woman that coerce her to first spiritually, and then physically, reject her baby. There is simply no other way to explain it, as abortion is entirely unnatural. Mothers have an innate impetus to care for and nurture their offspring. Yet abortion is the very antithesis of motherhood. It is anti-woman, anti-family, anti-life. It is pro-destruction, pro-distortion, pro-death. And this contortion of true femininity, of a woman's ontological makeup, is where so much of the abortion tragedy lies. As Mother Teresa said, "We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, of killings, of wars, of hatred. If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other?"

Thus, as pro-lifers, we need to delve into the depths of the issue. We ought to address not only the social and ethical ramifications of abortion, but its equally real spiritual ramifications, too. For it is deep within the heart of the woman, or the boyfriend, or the abortionist, or the counselor, where the abortion decision is wrestled with and chosen. And without God's life-giving grace, that person will not be able to make the right choice. In faithfulness, may we pray that that woman or man be given the graces necessary to choose life over death.

There is no doubt that Christ came for the sake of life. He tells us, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full"[3]. He then goes so far as to say that He Himself is life: "I am the way and the truth and the life"[4]. In gratitude for Jesus' paramount gift of Himself on the cross, we are inspired to become life-giving vessels for others. "Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love. May this penitential season be for every Christian a time of authentic conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came to fulfill every justice"[5]. May we be renewed in our efforts and rejuvenated in our energies towards defending the unborn. And may we draw life from the joy of the Resurrection, remembering that Christ's rising conquered all death– perhaps most especially that death forced upon the tiniest, weakest and most innocent members of the human family.

Darkness into light. Death into life. We know how the story ends– and it is the happiest ending we could have ever imagined.

Vita Pro Omni!

[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 638

[2] Christ's Resurrection was a Concrete Event

[3] John 10:10

[4] John 14:6

[5] Pope Benedict XVI, Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2010, emphasis mine

more irelands, less italys

As many of you know, I am studying abroad in Rome, Italy this semester. And even just being here for one month has completely broadened my horizons. I've experienced what it's like to live in a foreign country, to ride the metro in a foreign country, to grocery shop in a foreign country, to study philosophy in a foreign country... and to be pro-life in a foreign country.

Being a (provisional) Roman pro-lifer is kind of a funny feeling. I am living in the home of my faith, in the heart of the Church, in the world-seat of Christianity. I am practically neighbors with Pope Benedict XVI, I ride the bus every morning with priests and sisters galore, and I walk past the Vatican on my way to class. A picture of Mary hangs next to the sign of the Burger King near my apartment. There are over 900 Catholic churches in this one city. The Church is alive and well!

Throughout history, it has been this Church which has spoken as the consistent and chief mouthpiece of the pro-life message. Our current Holy Father calls abortion an "intrinsic evil," and an "aggression against society itself." John Paul II rallied Christians to "stand up every time human life is threatened... proclaim that no one has the authority to destroy unborn life... insist that every child is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God." And Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who is currently being considered for sainthood, prophetically stated, "In the future we will be known as Catholics not because we defend, honor, and declare ourselves to be followers of Christ[1] but because we defend life." I could quote thousands of others; but in short, when it comes to protecting innocent human life, the Catholic Church will lovingly, but firmly, demand that it be done.

Yet, in this Catholic, and thus pro-life, hub which is Italy, millions of unborn babies are legally killed every year. You see, abortion is not just an American scandal– it's a worldwide scandal. And here in Italy, approximately one out of every four children is killed by an abortionist[2].

As an American pro-lifer, it's easy to get caught up in working to overturn Roe. And, of course, this is a vital undertaking. John Paul II once called pro-life work "the most important work on earth." But we must not forget that unborn children all over the world are denied their right to life every day (126,000 to be exact[3]), and every one of them is just as worthy of life as an American child.

The U.S. is moving in the right direction. There is good reason to believe that within the next two generations, we will live in an abortion-free America for the first time since 1973. But we have to realize that many nations haven't had their Roe v. Wade yet. For them, abortion is not finally being shoved out, but is just now seeping in. They are not moving toward justice, but away from it. Indeed, even when Roe is overturned, our pro-life work is far from finished.

So how does the rest of the the world currently fare in abortion legality? Where do we need to abolish child-killing and implement pro-life legislation? Let's take a look:

Green represents laws protecting life. Yellow represents laws allowing exceptions for abortion. And red represents abortion on demand.

So much red. So much blood.

But there is hope. Human Life International, for instance, is the largest international pro-life organization and missionary in the world. With 99 satellite offices in 87 countries, it generates effective obstruction to the culture of death through training, equipping, and mobilizing pro-life leaders across the world [4]. Similar groups defending life on a worldwide level include the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, Adoption Network, Bethany Christian Services, Birthright International, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, EFRAT, and Hope for Children, Inc. among nearly 60 others [5]. How encouraging is that?!

I am excited to visit Ireland next month. As a nation that recognizes human abortion as a crime against the human race, it boasts the lowest maternal death rate in the world[6]. Should we be surprised? We already know abortion causes all kinds of problems for women: a 50% increased risk of ectopic pregnancy[7], uterine perforations and damages, pelvic infection, life-threatening internal bleeding, future infertility, dangerous scar tissue, chlamydia trachomatis, chronic abdominal pain, a two-to-threefold increased risk of miscarriage after two abortions, and even death. Post-abortive women are also more likely to suffer complications with future pregnancies, including "bleeding in the first and third trimesters, abnormal presentations and premature rupture of the membranes, abruptio placentae, fetal distress, low birth weight, short gestation, and major malformations"[8]. Additionally, eight separate medical organizations have confirmed that abortion increases a woman's risk of breast cancer, and that for women over the age of 30 at the time of their abortion, this increase is by 110%[9,8]. The list of physical complications goes on and on; not to mention the devastating emotional, psychological, and spiritual effects of this supposedly "simple medical procedure." How refreshing it will be to step foot in Ireland and know that, at least on that pro-life ground, women are not being violated and victimized in these horrifying ways.

Let's work towards more "Irelands": more life, more love, more justice, more respect for humanity. Let's demand less "Italys": less suffering, less killing, less crying, less destruction of innocent people. The worldwide movement is on. Are you a part of it?

Vita Pro Omni!

[1] For many do this without protecting that same Christ's children

[2] Wm. Robert Johnston (http://pages.prodigy.net/wrjohnston/policy/abortion/ab-italy.html)

[3] CBR Worldwide (http://www.abortionno.org/world.html)

[4] Human Life International (http://www.hli.org/index.php/about/mission)

[5] Priests for Life (http://www.priestsforlife.org/plgroups/international.htm)

[6] Unicef (http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ireland_statistics.html)

[7] BNET (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3634/is_199807/ai_n8787580/)

[8] Abort 73 (http://www.abort73.com/abortion/abortion_risks)

[9] The Coalition on Abortion (http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/)

simply a birthday

In a few short hours, I will celebrate my 20th birthday. Thanks, mama and daddy, and of course my God, for giving me life 20 years and 9 months ago! I appreciate every minute of it. I know I haven't always lived it the best way I can, but I also know I am so happy to have the chance– the chance to live and to live more beautifully.


All of us should have a chance at life. Every child deserves a birthday– not just a deathday.




Vita Pro Omni!

that was it?

Wait, that was it? That was the woman-hating, extremist, anti-choice, "extraordinarily offensive and demeaning"* Tim Tebow ad that pro-choicers are still making such a fuss about?

Let's see it again.

Pam said she was happy to have her "Timmy." He came up and gave her a big hug. "I love you's" were exchanged. A cutesy song was played. The end. Which part of that was so horrendous?

I had heard the ad was supposed to be relatively light-hearted and uncontroversial, but if you read my last post, you know even I was under the impression it would show "the other side." Honestly, if it hadn't received so much hype, I'm confident it would have gone without notice; you would have no idea it had anything to do with abortion, let alone the pro-life position. Like Tim, the commercial was soft-spoken and nonaggressive.

The fact that pro-choice organizations like NARAL, NOW, and WMF (among a host of others) have spent the past week shouting in a rage against Pam, Tim, and Focus on the Family is just one more confirmation that "pro-choice" almost always means "pro-abortion." If these "pro-choice" leaders claim their platform is respect for "women's private reproductive choices," why don't they respect Pam's? Apparently she is happy with her choice and wants to tell people about it. It's obvious these fringe groups only want women to talk about one choice: abortion.

Pro-abortion. Not pro-choice.

NOW, the "National Organization for Women," should really call themselves the "National Organization for Women Who Choose Abortion." They clearly are not for all women, so why pretend to be?

Vita Pro Omni!

*according to NOW

the other side

Today I got an email from Nancy Keenan. She is the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America– one of the largest pro-choice organizations in the nation.

This is not a joke. But it's also not quite as interesting as it sounds. I joined NARAL's mailing list a few months ago in an effort to stay up-to-date not only with the pro-life groups I support, but also with the pro-choice groups I oppose. I am a strong believer in the benefit of "seeing things from the other side." Unfortunately, seeing things through Keenan's eyes proved to be not only difficult, but distressing.

Her email was a heated response to CBS's decision to air a "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life" Super Bowl ad produced by Focus on the Family featuring Florida football star and Heisman trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother. The ad itself is simple, positive, and uncontroversial. At the end of its 30- second duration, it encourages viewers to visit Focus on the Family's website to read the Tebows' full story.

Here's the brief version. Tim's parents, Bob and Pam Tebow, were pregnant with their fifth child when they travelled to the Philippines to do missionary work. While there, Pam contracted amoebic dysentry and required medication that might threaten the life of her unborn baby. After telling Pam that she was merely pregnant with a "mass of fetal tissue," her doctor advised her to get an abortion. She ignored her. And on August 14, 1987, she gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby boy: Tim Tebow (Lifenews.com).

The Tebows' story is inspiring and encouraging to women. It reinforces the certainty that women do possess the strength and courage to handle difficult pregnancies. It reminds us that challenging circumstances will always exist, but women and families are more than capable of handling them with proper assistance and care. And it makes us thankful that Tim Tebow, who may go down in history as the greatest college football player of all time, is in the world today.

But Keenan was not inspired or encouraged. Instead, her email asked me to "focus on [my] anger and... on the 30 states where anti-choice forces are gathering support for 'personhood' measures." She informed me that "Focus on the Family's ultimate message is to deny women the ability to make the choice that is right for them and their family." She concluded her email by calling it "...absurd that CBS would give a radically anti-choice group like Focus on the Family a platform to expose its extreme agenda to millions of people."

I feel sorry for Keenan. I feel sorry that she is making a concerted effort to "focus on [her] anger" while encouraging others to do the same. I feel sorry that she has become so blind (for Satan blinds us all, at times) as to see 'personhood' as an atrocity she must fight and Focus on the Family as a group with an "ultimate message" of denial. I feel sorry that she truly and honestly believes pro-lifers are "radically anti-choice" people with an "extreme agenda." And most of all, I feel sorry that she is so scared.

Keenan is scared to have the pro-life message spread to 100 million Americans this weekend. She is scared that Tim Tebow's story might touch the hearts and lives of women who are faced with a life-or-death decision. She is scared for our nation to "see things from the other side."

But it is time for America to see abortion for what it really is– not as the "quick fix" that the media portrays it to be, or as the "simple procedure" Planned Parenthood pretends it is. It is time for pro-life groups to stop being labeled as "extreme" and "radically anti-choice." What's extreme is deciding that children under nine months of age can be killed just because they are too small to defend themselves. What's radically anti-choice is denying millions of babies a lifetime of choices just because they are inconvenient.

We are never going to get anywhere in the abortion controversy until pro-choice leaders see things as they actually are. While they are entitled to their own views, they are not entitled to their own realities.

I am deeply thankful to Tim Tebow, Focus on the Family, and CBS for showing America "the other side." And I pray that Nancy Keenan, and all pro-choice Americans, will maybe, just maybe, see that side for what it really is.

Vita Pro Omni!

pro-woman, pro-life

"All who are genuinely committed to the advancement of women can and must offer a girl who is pregnant, frightened, and alone a better alternative than the destruction of her own unborn child." -Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law professor, pro-life feminist, and one of the "50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America" according to National Law Journal

Yes, you read that correctly. Glendon is a feminist... and she is pro-life. That is not an oxymoron, and that is actually not uncommon. True feminists are pro-life.

Some of you just got upset with me. You are thinking, "That's not fair. I am a feminist, and that is precisely why I am pro-choice," or, "Abortion is about empowering women. Without it, women would be suppressed," or, "If anything, pro-lifers are anti-woman." But deathroe.com explains:

"If you want to see the weakest and most subservient women in America, just look at the faces of those entering an abortion clinic. What you will see is sadness, desperation, fear, and resignation. What you will not see is women who feel empowered or in control.

Their faces make it clear that, like suicide, abortion is a tragic choice made by desperate people who have been convinced they have no other choice. Better than anyone else, women who submit to abortion understand why no woman was ever admired for having an abortion, and why no woman ever bragged about her abortion, and why no woman ever climbed off an abortionist’s table with a higher opinion of herself than she had when she climbed onto it.

This nonsense that women must have the right to kill their children in order to be equal to men is an invention of the abortion industry. With almost no exceptions, pioneers of the Women’s Movement like Susan B. Anthony, Mattie Brinkerhoff, Sarah Norton, Emma Goldman, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were outspoken opponents of legal abortion. Alice Paul, who wrote the original Equal Rights Amendment, called abortion "the ultimate exploitation of women." Even suffragist newspapers such as Woodhull’s and Claflin’s Weekly, had editorial policies which openly attacked both abortion and abortionists.

These early feminists saw that abortion is patronizing and paternalistic, and that a woman’s willingness to submit to it doesn’t free her, it degrades her. They understood that legalized abortion is nothing more than a safety net for sexually predatory and sexually irresponsible men. Today, after over [37] years of legalized abortion, that view has been so thoroughly proven true that some abortion advocates no longer even bother to deny it; in fact, some say it should be celebrated.

On May 11, 1990, the PBS radio program Spectrum featured the staunchly pro-choice Ann Taylor-Flemming saying, “I came of age with the women’s movement. It has given license to my ambitions and dreams, and filled me with the fervor for equality that permeates all that I do. But this time, I want to turn the tables a bit. Take an issue that always seems like a women’s issue and pitch it directly towards the men out there. And that issue is abortion... it’s time now to invite the men of America back in, to ask them to raise their voices for choice... I dare say that many of them have impregnated women along the way, and then been let off the hook in a big, big way – emotionally, economically and every other way – when the women went ahead and had abortions... the sense of relief for themselves was mixed with sympathy for and gratitude towards those women whose ultimate responsibility it was to relieve them of responsibility by having abortions... it would sure be nice to hear from all those men out there whose lives have been changed, bettered, and substantially eased because they were not forced into unwanted fatherhood.”

It is hard to imagine that even the most bigoted male chauvinist would suggest that women have a responsibility to let men who impregnate them “off the hook” by submitting to abortion. Yet here is that very argument being espoused by someone who claims to be an advocate for women.

Today, abortion apologists continue to push the idea that having a clean place to kill their children is the cornerstone of women’s equality. That lie is a self-serving perversion of the basic values of legitimate feminism. As pro-life feminist Melissa Simmons-Tulin once said, “Women will never climb to equality over the dead bodies of their children.”"

- - -

I recently began reading David C. Reardon's famous book Aborted Women, Silent No More. In it, he verifies that to be pro-woman is to be pro-life through the firsthand perspectives of women who have suffered abortions themselves. The survey sample is typical in age, marital status, family size, race, and number of repeat abortions; thus, it has the strength of providing a long term view of the attitudes of aborted women and of clearly showing that "dissatisfaction and regrets over abortion grow with time" (p. 7).

Reardon discovered that the majority of women did not experience the abortion as a choice at all. 83% of the women surveyed indicated they would definitely have chosen against abortion if their husbands or boyfriends, abortion counselors, doctors, and family members had suggested alternatives. Social and family pressures were generally in favor of abortion to the extent that "nearly 55% of the respondents felt they had been`very much forced' to abort by others" (p. 11). In short, Reardon revealed that abortion hardly provides women the "freedom of choice" it promises. He writes:

"The hundreds of women who have joined together here to share their stories... have done so in order to separate the realities of abortion from the myths and slogans. They come from all parts of the country, from all walks of life. Some are rich, others poor. Some aborted for reasons of health; some because they could not afford a child. A few aborted because their pregnancies were the result of rape; others because the child they carried might have been deformed. Others aborted purely for the sake of convenience.

But despite their many differences, all these women feel that they were deceived and manipulated. Together, they are determined to save other women from the same fate. For these women, abortion is not some great "privilege" which has been granted to their gender. Instead they see abortion as a tool by which women have been abandoned and exploited.

Contrary to the popular slogan "freedom of choice," women who have experienced it know abortion is seldom, if ever, a "free choice." Instead, legalized abortion has become a tool for the manipulation and exploitation of women. As will be seen, many of these women were forced to abort by boyfriends and husbands who begged and threatened them to "do the sensible thing." Some were forced to abort by insistent parents. Others were intimidated into abortion by physicians who were afraid of malpractice suits, or by social workers seeking to reduce the welfare rolls. Still others felt forced to abort because of the social prejudice against unwed mothers, or because of a social insistence that they handle their problems alone. But whatever the pressures they faced, all of these women felt backed into a corner and saw abortion as the only way out. They were made to feel trapped and isolated. For nearly all women, abortion is experienced not as an act of "choice," but as an act of despair- their only choice.

The price women pay for being abandoned and exploited by the "privilege" of abortion is extremely high. Women who have abortions quickly learn that it is not nearly as "safe and easy" as pro-abortionists would have them believe. Instead, abortion is dangerous to both the physical and mental health of women. In fact, as we will see, half of all aborted women experience some immediate or long-term physical complications, and almost all suffer from emotional or psychological aftershocks.

Instead of being a giant step forward for women's rights, legal abortion is the most destructive manifestation of discrimination against women today. The abortion mentality is sexism incarnate. This sexism is apparent in four ways.

First, with abortions easily and legally available, as well as socially acceptable, it is easier than ever for men to sexually exploit women. When their promises of love end in pregnancy, these uncommitted and selfish men are free to manipulate women into abortions so as to free themselves of unwanted commitments. They whine and pout about doing the "sensible thing" or resort to threats, "If you don't have an abortion, I'll leave you." In either case the end result is the same: the women face the risks and guilts of abortion alone. And if a woman resists such coercion, her exploiter can simply deny all personal and financial responsibility for his "unwanted" child, saying, "You're stuck with it now, babe. After all, you could have had an abortion." Thus the abortion "choice" is just one more arena in which men condition their love and respect on the basis of women's obedience to their desires.

Second, beyond subjecting women to manipulation and threats of abandonment, the abortion mentality attacks the unique value of female sexuality. This is a result of the pro-abortion rhetoric (generally promulgated by population control zealots) which portrays abortion not as an alternative to childbirth, but as preferable to childbirth. This attempt to de-sex women, to separate them from their reproductive potential, has eroded the natural pride women enjoy in being able to conceive and bear children— a creative wonder which no man can duplicate. Instead of praising this unique potential of women, the abortion mentality belittles it, or at best, dismisses it as commonplace. No other public policy has ever attempted to undermine a creative capacity of one half of its population.

Third, women are being abandoned by a society which has no patience for a trial unique to women— an unplanned pregnancy. Rather than receiving the love and support needed to cope with this challenge, women are offered the easy way out, the "quick-fix," the cover-up: abortion. They are seen as second-rate citizens with second-rate problems, and so they are handed a makeshift "solution." They themselves are "socially aborted." Abortion is a superficial and potentially dangerous answer to the challenges of a pregnant woman. Abortion is the "cheap love" which society offers as a substitute for costly care and honest commitment. Though offered superficial support in making their abortion decisions, women must always face the consequences alone. Abortion, unlike childbirth, is always a lonely process.

Lastly, while women have the right to both family and career, the abortion mentality tells women that one must be sacrificed for the other. Women are made to feel that they must "plan" children around their careers, because "unplanned" children will ruin their lives. Thus, abortion is defended with the argument that women are restricted by the limits of their careers, their education, or their finances. Faced with these limits, the sexist abortion mentality says women are not strong enough to survive an unplanned pregnancy, much less to raise an "unwanted" child or endure giving him or her up for adoption. Instead of helping women to be strong, independent, and capable of handling their lives in spite of social prejudices against "problem" pregnancies, the expediency of abortion encourages women to be weak, submissive, dependent, and incapable of dealing with unexpected challenges. Just as in what many feminists consider the traditional, male-dominated social order, the abortion mentality dictates to women what they cannot do, what they cannot handle.

In the simplest of terms, abortion has been sold to women under false premises. We have been lied to, manipulated, and exploited. For too long we have remained silent, too ashamed to speak out, too ashamed to admit our errors. Now this has changed. Those who have experienced abortion firsthand are no longer willing to be silent."

Today, the courageous women who spoke up to Reardon are the inspiration for one of the largest post-abortion healing ministries in the nation. The Silent No More Awareness Campaign seeks to expose the lies surrounding abortion through the testimonies of hurting women and men who want to help others avoid intense pain. Their stories are filled with tears and heartbreak, but their words are saving lives and hearts.

I stand by what I said: True feminists are pro-life. I am pro-woman. I am pro-life.

Vita Pro Omni!