"My Dear Pro-Life Friends"
We were invited to listen to the murder of an 11 week old baby in Michigan this week as NPR broadcasted a suction abortion to the nation.
Horrifying. Poor baby didn’t stand a chance!
What are the Pro-Life leaders NOT saying about this story?
First: Know what you heard in that broadcast. It’s called a suction, or aspiration, D&C abortion, and is widely used to kill babies during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Here is an animated description of the procedure https://t.co/5UJsrTN4b5)
I have seen numerous ProLife leaders commenting on this story with the narrative that women are victimized and coerced by the abortion industry.
WHAT?! It makes me wonder if they actually listened to the story? (Here is the broadcast. If you didn’t listen to it already, you need to hear this with your own ears. (https://t.co/B61QJDJpdQ)
The MAJOR thing that ProLife leaders are failing to notice (or ignoring?) in this story is: WHAT WOMEN ACTUALLY SAY ABOUT THEIR OWN ABORTIONS!
Let’s be silent for a second with the common Pro-Life narrative that “all women are victims” and actually listen to what women have to say, shall we?
Melissa:
“I was relieved after the struggle.”
(The “relief” is finally being able to get an abortion. The “struggle” is the difficulty of scheduling it. She drove from Michigan after trying for three months to get an appointment in Ohio. She accidentally went to a Pregnancy Crisis Center but rejected their help.)
“I am going through a divorce, and I slept with somebody one time. And then I got pregnant.”
“I just feel so much better because I have two kids. I have a 10 year old and a 2 year old, so- it shouldn’t be this hard.”
(”Better” because she could get an abortion. “Hard” in reference to the difficulty of getting one.)
Woman A:
“I don’t think I could survive if I knew that I had to have these babies* with an abusive person….I feel like a prisoner.”
(She knows the twins in her womb are babies)
“I can’t physically, financially or mentally handle two more kids.”
(She knows she is carrying “kids” and she already has two more at home.)
“I’m so fertile…I have to stop having sex in order to not be pregnant. So abortion- even though this is my first one, I’m happy that it’s here because I don’t what I would do right now.”
Woman M:
“I want to go back to work and just kind of have something for myself other than just being a mother all day, every day.”
(She is married with three born children. The youngest is about to start school, and now she is pregnant again.)
“I wouldn’t trade my kids for anything. I love them to death. But I just feel like that phase of my life is over. And it was an amazing phase, but I don’t want to keep going back. I want to go forward.”
Unidentified Woman #1:
“I can’t.”
(Spoken during the recorded procedure. Note: this woman has signed all the consent forms for this abortion and had given permission to reporters to record her experience and is fully cooperating with the procedure.)
“Thank you guys so much”
(Spoken to the abortionist and staff after her 11 week old baby has been suctioned into a vial.)
“Oh, I hope I didn’t do to bad. Thanks so much. Thank you so much!”
Unidentified Woman #2
“We feel dirty. We feel like we have to sneak and do this. Some of us, put our lives at risk doing it.”
(Referring to emotional difficulty of getting an abortion. She wants to finish school and not be trapped with a guy who got her pregnant.)
LISTEN. TO. THE. WOMEN.
Cramming them into a preconceived victim narrative doesn’t accurately portray what many of them articulate themselves. And it does NOTHING to help protect their babies.
Sidenote: All the women in this story already have born children. They have already experienced a child growing in their womb, had ultrasounds, and given birth. They know what pregnancy is. They aren’t acting in ignorance.
My dear Pro-Life friends,
Instead of perpetuating a false narrative of victimhood for ALL women who get abortions, we must advocate for the equal protection of the laws for preborn babies. This means criminalizing abortion for everyone, including women.
If abortion is murder…and it is. We must treat it like homicide….Unless we think preborn babies are actually less human or less valuable than the rest of us and don’t deserve the same protections of law we enjoy as born persons?
Fortunately, treating abortion like the homicide it certainly is, does not criminalize women who are actually victims. There is already a robust justice system that already takes into account things like coercion and mistake of fact. (You can find more on that here : https://t.co/1YfknlWR3G )
And incidentally, criminalizing abortion for everyone and providing equal protection of the law to babies also PROTECTS WOMEN from coercion.
Fun fact: If it is criminal behavior for women to get abortions, it is also criminal behavior to coerce women into abortions. If you want babies protected from homicide and women protected from coercion EQUAL PROTECTION is the way forward.
And it is not a minor point that this is simply the expression of, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Erika S.
