Non-Choice

Many women get abortions, not because they have a choice, but because they feel like they have no choice. So it's a rarity when stories like this one come up.

A fourteen-year-old girl from Texas is pregnant. And she wants to have her baby. Her parents do not.

This girl has been all over the pro-life news lately because her parents are trying to force her to get an abortion. Luckily, she sued them, and the court has given her parents a temporary restraining order. There will be a hearing this Thursday, January 19, to decide whether her parents can force her to have the abortion or not. You can see the details here.

Apparently, the parents say that the girl is mentally unable to make the decision in her best interests. Her family in fact was so concerned about her welfare that they physically assaulted her to try to make her get the abortion. (Yes, this is me being sarcastic.)

First-off, I want to say kudos to the true pro-choicers out there who are horrified about this. Good for you, and thank you!

But that being said, where is all the pro-"choice" concern? You can bet that if parents were trying to force this same 14-year-old to not have an abortion that horror and anger would explode all over the internet and pro-abortion blogs.

But where are they? Why the silence? If they were truly concerned only about choice (and not "choose abortion"), they would lobby for this girl as perfectly capable of deciding "whether or not to have a child" (of course, she already has a child, but I digress). They fight so adamently against parental consent laws for abortion, why aren't they furious about this parental concent for having a baby? Not even necessarily *keeping* the baby, but just allowing the child to LIVE? Why?

The nauseating magazine "Jezebel" (yes, I think it is named after the Biblical Jezebel), which is self-described as "gossip, culture, fashion, and sex for the contemporary woman" (aka, leftist feminist and pro-abortion) wrote an article on this, but instead of focusing on the girl, it mostly talked about how pro-life groups were using this particular story to make "pro-choicers look like hypocrites".

"Why would this narrative be so appealing to an anti-choice group? Because it makes pro-choicers look like hypocrites."

Yep. We are, Jezebel, and you just proved our point. You showed no concern for this girl. You talked about her plight, and then complained about the pro-lifers...not the people who are infringing on this girl's "right to choose".

"Continuing her pregnancy may well be what the girl wants, but it's a little disturbing that the TCDL's narrative is the only one out there. Her family doesn't have legal representation, so it's been difficult to get their point of view."

Yeah. I'm sure this girl would go through the trouble of suing her own family just for kicks.

"As of now, I've been unable to confirm from any outside source that the girl's family is actually trying to force her to have an abortion — the only source for this story is the TCDL, which has an obvious vested interest in painting itself as the defender of a mother and her baby against an abortion-hungry family."

Thanks, Jezebel, for your touching concern.

One more thing.

"Really, no responsible pro-choicer should support a family's right to force a teenager to get an abortion. It might not be especially comfortable to think about a 14-year-old making a decision that will affect the rest of her life...But taking that decision away from her is way more upsetting..."

Which do you think would be more upsetting: carrying a baby unwillingly to term, perhaps with shame, some health problems, and some angry family members, or a forced abortion which leaves you with the haunting trauma of having murdered your child (whether or not the fetus is a "child" or not isn't the debate here--to the woman who was forced into the abortion, that child was her child.)

I'm sorry if this post is a little sarcasm-heavy, but I'm so infuriated about the complete dismissal of this girl's situation in the pro-abortion camp that I can't bear to write a calm, logical, "you're wrong" post like I normally try for.

Please pray for this girl and for all the girls out there who think they have no choice.

Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.

How Not to Protest

My last post was a review of Abby Johnson’s book Unplanned. There’s a reason I decided to do that review, besides just introducing you to a fabulous pro-life resource. The other reason is today’s post.

I actually have only been to one abortion clinic protest. I’ll say that right up front. I have wanted to go to them regularly ever since I started studying the abortion debate at the ripe old age of thirteen. The one protest I did attend was a Bound4Life prayer vigil, where I stood for one hour with other protestors, all lined up on the sidewalk beside an abortion clinic, praying, with the word “LIFE” written on red duct tape over our mouths. (I assure you, my attendance at such protests will rise drastically as soon as possible.)

What I’m about to say here then is, obviously, not taken from my own experience. Most of it is taken from the powerful experience of Abby Johnson—a Planned Parenthood director for eight years, turned pro-life advocate—and from other pro-life people, as well as current abortion advocates. I’m blogging about a subject I don’t have much first-hand experience on because I think it’s extremely important.

I posted about generalizing groups of people a few weeks ago. There is a reason that pro-lifers are often painted as reckless, harassing extremists (besides that opponents love to paint each other black). Because there really are reckless, harassing extremist pro-lifers.

Clinic Escorts

Abortion clinics often have “escorts” that go out and walk clients into the clinic. They have these escorts because of the pro-life protestors that try to convince the woman to not go in.

Note those last seven words. “Convince the woman to not go in.” Ultimately, that’s what protestors outside abortion clinics are trying to do. In most, if not all, cases, the woman going in for the abortion is scared, hurt, and often alone. She may or may not be absolutely dedicated to getting the abortion, but she wants—or feels that she needs—to go in. Which do you think will convince her to stay out? Screaming people waving signs with pictures of aborted babies? That only encourages her to flee—inside, where it’s quiet and safe. Or will it be the peaceful, prayer for people, saying gently to her, “You don’t have to do this. We’re here to help. We can help you, for free. You don’t need to go through with this today.”

Are you going to convince her to stay out and talk to you when you’re screaming at her?

Of course, from what I’ve seen and read, pro-abortioners will label any type of protest as harassment. Just because they say its harassment doesn’t mean it is. Peaceful, gentle protests are effective.

From Unplanned:

"'Uh-oh. They got one,' my trainer said. 'I wish they'd leave these poor women alone. Do they have to harass them over such a personal decision?'...

"I watched as the pro-lifer handed our client some literature--she didn't look like she felt harassed to me. Clearly, she'd chosen to talk to the pro-lifer...If we are pro-choice, I thought, ...why do we feel we need to protect clients from conversatoiins about their choices?"

Strong, loud, violent opposition (abortionist shooters, I’m looking at you) only strengthens the other side. There’s nothing like opposition that solidifies the troops. (From Unplanned, after the murder of George Tiller, an infamous late-term abortionist: "Dr. Tiller's death...solidified our ause...rallied our sense of being the despised yet brave advocates for women's health and well being...")

Peaceful prayer and counseling, on the other hand, create quite a different feeling. (From Unplanned, about the 40 Days for Life campaign: "Forty days and forty nights--those are biblical proportions! That's a long time to be surrounded nonstop by a large group of people who disagree with you but are so persistently...well...nice about it. It created an atmosphere I couldn't quite articulate.")

 I could go on with more quotes, but for sake of conciseness, I won’t.

Also, I’m not saying there’s never a time for pictures of abortion and chanting pro-life slogans. There are. I only became dedicated to the pro-life cause when I saw pictures of abortion. I already knew what abortion did, but the pictures “hit it home”, so to speak. As for chanting pro-life slogans…let’s save that for the Walk for Life or to counter a PP lobby day. Not when trying this exact time and place to save lives.

Pro-abortioners claim that sidewalk counselors or other peaceful protestors change nothing, therefore we are useless, therefore go home and keep your mouth shut. Don’t listen to them. If I spent my whole life volunteering at sidewalk counseling or a crisis pregnancy center and only helped save one baby from abortion, it’d be worth it. It’s always worth it.

Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.

To Punish?

Something that has been on my mind lately is where the responsibility of the abortion lies. In the mother, for instigating it? In the abortionist for actually doing it? In the abortion advocates for deceiving the mother?

Pro-abortioners like to make fun of pro-lifers for enthusiastically saying that abortion should be illegal and then fumbling around with no real answer to the next question: should women who get abortions be punished?

Now, if abortion was made illegal tomorrow, should the women who had abortions today be punished? No, of course not. That’s not fair, and is actually unconstitutional. (“No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto [translates to “after the fact”] Law shall be passed.” Article 1, Section 9, paragraph 3.) (This isn’t to say the woman isn’t guilty. She is. Just not in the eyes of the law.)

But in the hypothetical situation of abortion being illegal, the answer is yes. They should. Is the woman a victim of propaganda and lies and sometimes a victim of pressure and threats? Yes, she is. But the last decision is up to her, unless she’s being physically forced. Just because somebody was threatening to kick you out of the house unless you kill, say, your hateful brother, doesn’t make killing your brother okay. If abortion is made illegal (except in cases of the mother’s life being at stake, or perhaps severe (emphasis on “severe”) physical harm), then the woman obtaining the abortion would be fully knowledgeable that having an abortion is against the law, and against the law because an abortion is murder.

The abortionist is also guilty, obviously, sometimes maybe even more than the mother. The doctor doesn’t instigate abortions. However, he is willing to do it. Paid assassins don’t get off the hook by protesting, “but somebody else told me to do it!” What’s more, the abortionist knows exactly what they’re doing. They can’t hide behind “those pictures are faked” and “fetuses feeling pain at any less than 22 weeks is propaganda” because they’re living with it whenever they do an abortion. They can’t not know what a six-week-old baby looks like, unless they do abortions with their eyes closed. And let me assure you, an abortion doesn’t look like a blood clot.

What about abortion advocates? Yes, they’re guilty too. Obviously, in the hypothetical case of abortion being illegal, they’d be harder to catch and convict. Somebody referring somebody else to the drug dealer is harder to find than the drug dealer herself. Somebody helping plan the assassination is harder to find than the assassin himself.

In short, if abortion were illegal, it would have to be handled just like any other murder case. It doesn’t make any difference that the victim is a baby instead of a public official or rape victim. I’m not saying all women should get the exact same sentence. There’s a reason we have different classifications of murder: first-degree, second-degree, third-degree, manslaughter. They (meaning the woman, the abortionist, the nurses, the secretary, and anyone else involved) would have to be convicted separately of any other case and individually from each other, but they would still need to be convicted.

Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.