I knew today would be a different way to start a Saturday. I had no idea how to prepare… and if could I’m not sure what I would have done different. A group of us met at Grace Pregnancy Centre at 7am to pray. This centre has been established to provide alternate choices for women seeking abortions and to give guidance and counseling to men and women pre and post abortions.
The ironic thing about Grace Pregnancy Centre is it is about three doors down from an unlicensed abortion mill. So every Saturday, people concerned about what is happening at the mill turn out and pray out front. Today was my first visit there with a group from my church. Wow… I didn’t expect to see so many people so early on a Saturday morning, flocking to the place from all over – Number plates from as far as Kentucky – and people from all different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. You couldn’t help but wonder from what circumstance had they come. I read somewhere earlier that In 2000, cases of rape or incest accounted for 1% of abortions. Another study, in 1998, revealed that over 25.5% of women wanting to postpone childbearing reported this as the primary reason for choosing an abortion. Our culture is all about the sex but what about the consequences?
It was honestly numbing to watch these women walk in… sometimes after being dropped off by a friend of family member who had a child in the car… almost as casually as going to an optometrist or dentist appointment. It broke my heart. My thoughts kept going back to friends who’ve cried out desperately for children… or for those who have suffered the pain of miscarriage. How is it possible for one to so desperately want life and for another to be so willing to do anything to extinguish it? The mothers womb should be the safest place on earth.
Desperate times call for desperate measures… but is abortion necessary? There are other options. Could one of those lives today have been a president? Or found a cure for cancer? We will never know. What do you think? How do we respond to this? Surely we are to stand up for those who don’t even yet have an audible voice?
Joy, here are my thoughts from that day…
My heart is aching right now. I don’t really want it to stop aching. You see, I have a renewed anger towards abortion. Since I was young, I have hated the idea of it, but I have become calloused. This morning, I watched 20 or 30 women walking like sheep to a slaughter into an abortion clinic. Only their babies were the ones who were about to be slaughtered… in the name of convenience, desperation, or hopelessness. Some of them actually looked distraught. They avoided eye contact with us and pretended not to hear our words of hope and love. They knew the gravity of their decision today, and they felt at least a little guilty about it. Others walked in, chatting with whoever brought them casually, as if they were going to get a dental procedure or something, not killing their baby.
“Killing”… now that’s a harsh word isn’t it? Just saying it makes me feel like I’m condemning the women and girls who visited the clinic today. But my heart doesn’t feel condemnation. It feels love. It feels a longing to run up to each of them and embrace them, crying, telling them that if I could take away their hurt, I would!! I want to beg them to make another decision – one that is truly made out of love. I want more than the 10 seconds we had with them as they got from their car to the door in order to reach them in some way.
We could not reach out to them, except with our voices, or we could have been arrested by the undercover cop they have hired to sit in the parking lot. One of the other people with us today pointed out a sign outside that read something to the effect of “Firearms and weapons are strictly prohibited.” It seems that someone here has concern for life, but it has been lost on the most innocent ones.
At just over a month, a baby has brain waves. By 11-12 weeks, he squints, swallows, and makes a fist. He has fingerprints. He sucks his thumb and all of his body systems are working. He could fit in the palm of your hand. My only consolation today has been that these children are now resting in the palm of God’s hand. He loves them and valued their life.
What I witnessed today was heart-wrenching. More so is the fact that it doesn’t just happen on Saturdays. This clinic is open 6 days a week, and has performed over 45,000 abortions since it opened. All of this just 15 minutes from my home… I have officially been re-awakened. This is real.
I have to do something. I don’t know what it will be. If you are moved somehow, and want to do something too, let me know and we can figure something out together.
If you know someone who has undergone an abortion and is dealing with the aftermath, I encourage that woman to find a counselor. There is forgiveness and there is hope.
Kelly O’Neill (kelly@kellyoneillart.com)
This is an incredibly tough issue to grapple with so I will keep this short.
I have the view that a woman should have complete control over her pregnancy. This entails the guarantee of reproductive rights, which includes access to sexual education; access to safe and legal abortion, contraception, and fertility treatments; and legal protection from forced abortion.
This is not a decision that comes easily and without thought or remorse. I do not agree with abortion but I certainly do not agree with taking away a womans right to choose.
Certainly more can be done on a federal, state and city level to curb the number of abortions that take place by increasing funding for family planning services, and having female contraceptives covered by health insurance.
There are actions that can and need to be taken in this area with regard to family planning centres and so forth but to overturn Roe V Wade would be to take away the freedom of choice and liberty.
It is sad Joy…a womb becomes a tomb. Certainly not what God intended.
I would like to comment on the Roe vs. Wade statement. First, thank you for expressing a different opion. That can be a scary thing to do and I commend you. I would encourage you though to read the details about the Roe vs. Wade court case. Here is a link to assist you: http://www.afa.net/culture/GetArticle.asp?id=348
In a nut shell, Jane Roe was paid to claim that she was gang raped, which she was not. She is now a complete supporter of pro-life and is doing everything she can to reverse this case. I pray you will read the details. Many people that are pro-choice have never actually witnessed an abortion. To do so you might want to watch the unfortunately graphic video of one on http://www.noabortion.com. As you know it’s so good to know all we can about what we do and don’t support. It wasn’t fun for me to watch, but I needed to be educated on what I was not supporting.
Oh, and here’s the testimony of Jane Roe who was Norma McCorvey. Of her conversion and subsequently now speaks to end abortion after helping to pass this legislation and working in an abortion mill.
http://www.leaderu.com/norma/nmtestimony.html
Here’s the CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/roe.wade/stories/roe.profile/
The website is http://www.abortionno.org. If we can watch this and still think abortion is justifiable then there is something wrong.
Lets look at options to curb the need for abortions… provide assistance for these young mums… make adoption options easier… anything… but lets not see ending a life as a solution to continuing a normal life. How can we expect a mum who goes through an abortion to forget about this child she once carried? My heart goes out to the mums who feel like this is the only option… Please reconsider…
Thanks for the reply Amanda, I have indeed read many of the details regarding the Roe v. Wade case. Even though this is the landmark case in the area of Abortion Rights there have been many cases afterwards such as Doe v. Bolton or Gonzales v. Carhart. These cases after the Roe v Wade cases declined to overturn Roe v. Wade again and again so i do believe that in the case that the Justices believed they had made an incorrect judgment they had ample amount of Case judgments to overturn the case and have failed to do so.
To answer your query on supporting abortions I have specifically said that as a personal judgment in my own life that i do not support the abortion process and you are correct that very often it is a very traumatic experience. However, to use a legal system and in this the case of Abortion Rights a Constitutional Amendment to make Abortions illegal and a felony I stand behind my decision to support “Pro-Choice”.
There are a myriad of things that can be done to bring down the number of abortions that happen each year. That is something that everyone can work on together and actually get something achieved without all the fighting i see between “Pro-choice” and “Pro-life”.
Maybe this is a simplistic view of how Government should work but i simply cannot support a cause that would endeavor to let the Government makes a choice that should be left to the individual.
Sorry if i didn’t exactly answer all your queries, i just think there has been much much more to this than Roe v Wade