….coming through my door;
Was it Rachel weeping for her sons who were no more?
Could it have been the babies crying for themselves,
Never understanding that they died for someone else?
(“Spirit of the Age”, Michael Card, Birdwing Music, 1986)
For those of you who are my “Facebook friends”, you know that I have “waded in” (perhaps jumped in with both feet would be more accurate) to the current controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood; specifically, the undercover videos that have been released (nine so far) that have exposed some of the more gruesome and shocking facts about the abortion industry and the selling of fetal body parts.
I am against abortion. Always have been. I am staunchly, rabidly “pro-life”, or if you prefer (which I don’t), “anti-abortion”. The publication of these videos has once again caused the spotlight to shine hard onto this barbaric, heinous, inhumane procedure that is still happening, day after day, year after year, in our country…
…while most of us just go on with our daily lives. We simply can’t be bothered, we simply do not care; or, rather, we just don’t care enough.
Out of sight…out of mind.
- “Please don’t show us those horrid videos…we will be sick” (yes, that is the point, actually).
- “They (the videos) can’t be ‘real’; they’ve all been ‘faked’” (nice try; it would be too awful if they were true, so let’s bury our heads in the sand and fling mud).
- “It’s not that bad; PP does so many other good things; abortions only count for 3% of their services” (really? Please watch this: PP’s 3% Myth)
I’ve been posting links about this issue on my “wall” at facebook every few weeks since the videos came out, and will probably continue to do so. I realize that it’s not much, but at least to me, it seems to be better than doing nothing at all (which is what I had been doing).
Perhaps you don’t agree.
Perhaps you are one of the ones who have “gently chided” me because I am not doing more to be actively “pro-life” in terms of getting involved with pregnant women: offering to take in their unborn babies, providing them with alternatives to this terrible choice, etc.
Yes. I am sure I could do more. Now that I’m living in the Twin Cities for the next eight weeks, I’m already checking out what it is I might be able to do…(and have been thinking about starting with 40 days for life…always a good idea to begin with prayer and fasting).
And, when I return to Kenya later this year, I will once again look for a ministry similar to “The Least Of These” (orphans and vulnerable children) that I was a part of from 2008-2010 in Nairobi. Can hardly wait to get involved with something like that again.
Kate and Friends
But, can I make one small comment? If you feel you must chide me for my “pro-birth” (but not “pro-life”, according to Sister Joan Chittister) stance, please, can I ask you, gently of course, to not do so, unless you are also
- actively involved in caring for, say…smokers and helping them to quit because you are against cigarette smoking (you could give out nicotine patches to smokers on the street, or in homeless shelters…); or
- actively involved in the new refugee crisis because it’s horrendous and appalling (volunteer to take in a family, write to your legislators, adopt a people group); or
- actively involved in rescuing women from sex trafficking, ISIS, pornography, drunk driving, or whatever cause pushes your buttons or sets you “off”…because…
Come on now…isn’t is just possible to be totally against the process of something, especially something as horrific as abortion, the destruction and death (most often by violent crushing and/or dismemberment of body parts) to members of the human race, without throwing the “smoke and mirrors” of social action around the issue, so that the primary focus on this cruel and brutal procedure is obscured?
Smoke and mirrors. Red Herrings. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain….” Confound the issue so that people will look over here; while the real issue, the killing, the murder, the butchery, is going on over there (2000+ performed, just today).
Many people have written eloquently on this topic since the videos have started. This week, it has been an article by Katelyn Beaty (“The Power of Pro-life Women”*), the managing editor Christianity Today magazine, that has caught my attention. In CT’s September, 2015 issue, she writes:
“As the videos continue to stir public debate, we can expect to hear a common refrain: If you care about women, you will support their right to choose an abortion. You are either for women’s well-being and empowerment, or you are pro-life…
This is a false dichotomy—one that women in particular need to dismantle.”
Yes. One is not against women if one is pro-life.
Beaty goes on to describe ways in which women are beginning to address the abortion issue, by shaping future government legislation and in continuing to expose the lie of abortion as being empowering for women. “To be pro-women is to be pro-life…. abortion is not a ‘women’s issue’; rather, it is a human issue that affects women uniquely”.
I hope you take the time to read this article. And, in whatever way you can, I hope that you also might be able to find your voice and speak up, as Michael Card has so eloquently written, for all the ones who seemed to die…for nothing.
And, with all due respect to Sister Joan, it is my humble opinion that to be “pro-birth” is to be “pro-life”, in the most basic, fundamental sense of these words.
Because abortion…always…always…brings death.
“Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die;
save them as they stagger to their death.
Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.”
For God understands all hearts, and he sees you.
He who guards your soul knows you knew.
He will repay all people as their actions deserve.”
(Ps. 24, 11-12)
Beaty, K. (2015). The power of pro-life women. Christianity Today (59), 7. Retrieved from http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/september/power-of-pro-life-women.html.