June 30, 2006 10:36 AM
Have you changed too?
My last entry - Stunning Rebuke to Planned Parenthood - drew this response Bryanne:WOW!!! Thanks so much for sharing this article, Barbara. I am ashamed to admit that I have buried my head in the sand when it comes to the abortion issue. I always knew I would never personally choose abortion because I believed it was wrong, but I never looked into the "methods" of how abortions were performed because the little bit of information that I did know...well, I could barely handle the fact that people could be so cruel to the precious children (gifts) that God has entrusted to us. This has certainly opened my eyes and now my prayer focus will shift to include all the potential murder victims in the womb.
Thanks, Bryanne for your comment.
One thing that distresses me about many "pro-choice" individuals - and I put pro-choice in quotes because they have resisted all attempts to get them to share the whole picture with their clients of their babies' prenatal development (so much for informed consent!) - is that they hold onto their pro-abortion views with the tenacity of a pit bull. It's as though abortion is the defining aspect of their identity. As though it just wouldn't be cool to rethink their position. Like Anne Lamott, who claims to have had an encounter with Jesus and fallen in love with him, but who is locked in such bitter hatred of Christian conservatives that she has adamantly refused to rethink her position. (I dunno, somehow when I became a Christian I figured that all the decisions and opinions I'd formed before encountering Jesus were definitely in need of a second look :)
The most you will get from some - especially those who've experienced the miracle of life themselves - is "I wouldn't get one myself, but I support the right of a woman to choose" - as though we were talking about whether to get a pierced eyebrow or something. As though we weren't speaking of a human life.
As someone who changed her tune drastically - from a hardcore radical feminist circa 1970 who fought in Virginia for abortion rights and had one myself in 1975 in San Francisco (read about it here) to a very committed pro-life mama of 12 (including three adopted kids, one saved from abortion because we agreed to raise him) - I can tell you life is not about standing still - emotionally, spiritually, or intellectually.
We should always be testing our opinions as new information presents itself. Of course, the mainstream media has done its best to keep the truth about abortion hidden - the barbaric procedures, the profiteering/racketeering of Planned Parenthood, the lack of regulation of abortion mills, the link between abortion and breast cancer. And many younger women who've been systematically brainwashed into believing abortion is a right and an unpleasant procedure akin to a dentist visit still have their heads in the sand about who profits from "sexual freedom" and birth control and abortion: namely predatory males and Planned Parenthood. In fact the early feminists (First Wave) believed abortion exploited women and only benefited men.
The Second Wave of feminism (1970 on) was originally more about liberating women from being reduced to sexual objects than anything else. When we fought for abortion rights, I don't think any of us would have ever imagined that they would someday amount to a million and a half per year or that babies only days from birth would be murdered and dragged out from their mothers' wombs (for diagram, see here).
What a ghastly legacy. And just look around to see how things panned out vis a vis the sexual objectification of women. Can anyone say Victoria's Secret? Pregnant naked Britney Spears on the cover of Harpers Bizarre (oh, I mean Bazaar).
There is much more to say, but I've spoken of this at length in my new book Reaching the Left from the Right: Talking about Social Issues with People Who Don't Think Like You.
But for someone who's all about change and thinking outside the box, Bryanne's comment was such a reminder that people do grow and change.
I mostly just wanted to ask my readers: How you have changed in this area?
Posted in Feminism, Pro-Life Issues | Permalink
Comments
Mrs. Curtis,
I have thought about this off and on since you mentioned it in another post. Would you mind sharing about how you came to save your son's life because you said you would adopt him? I know you shouldn't share names and such but I bet it is a beautiful story of love and hope - that you gave yourself for the life of this child that is now your son. If you don't want to share I understand. I just have wondered how you encountered the birth mother, how she found out her child was a DS baby and how you came to the decision of whether or not you would raise the child that is now your son. It just makes my eyes well to think of such love that someone could have for another - to give up a portion of themselves so that another human being can life.
I tried to write you a email yesterday but it all just kept coming out in a jumble. I think that the LORD pricked my heart about adopting even though I don't believe that the LORD is done with my own womb yet. The issue with Baby James just opened my eyes in a way that nothing else could have. I immediatly wanted to take him but I know that DH is not ready for that step yet, if ever. Of course, I keep asking myself why would God prick my heart over something if He was not preparing me for the future. You know what I mean?
Pray for us to follow God's ways and not our own. Thanks for listening...
Posted by: Mrs. DMG | June 30, 2006 12:58 PM
I've changed quite a bit in this area - I used to be one of those "I would never have one, but women should still have the right to one if that's what they want" sort of people who never wanted to think about the methods. When I first converted to Christianity (about 3 yrs ago), I "converted" very much on my own terms - I was unwilling to look at any of the other beliefs and opinions I held. Looking back, I feel like it was a grudging conversion, one of the mind but not of the heart. About a year and a half ago I started reading the Bible in earnest and I reached a point where I had to examine everything else I thought and believed or cease to call myself Christian. I thought, I prayed, I read... and, well, here I am - a woman of much stronger faith and a firmly pro-life position.
Yesterday I got a call from NOW (how do I get on these lists??) and she started off saying something like - we're doing a voter outreach campaign because we're very concerned that women are going to lose access to a safe and legal abortion. I responded, hands shaking and voice quavering, that this was not a concern of mine at all and that I am firmly pro-life. All I heard was silence on the other end, so I just hung up. Yesterday I wished I could have said more, but today I think what I said was enough - short, reasonably polite, and to the point.
It is quite timely that you posted this today, it is something I've been thinking about quite a bit!
Posted by: Amber | June 30, 2006 12:59 PM
I was never hugely pro-choice -- I fell into that category of "I wouldn't do it, but I won't interfere with another woman's choice" that you talk about. Even as a non-Christian, I could recognise that babies had rights, and that late-term abortions were the same as killing babies, just in a different location. I struggled, though, with where to draw the line; did that life begin when the heart started beating, when the brain started developing, when the fetus could feel pain, when the lungs were developed enough for life outside the mother? I couldn't see a one-celled organism as a human being, but I struggled with how far the creature had to get from that state to become human. Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that this was one of the easiest issues for me to revisit after I became a Christian in college. With the spiritual aspect admitted to, and the evidence from the Bible, I had to draw the line at the only obvious place it can be drawn -- conception. Now, I've become even more pro-life, thinking that children are wonderful gifts from God that most people ought to have more of. :) But that transition took a bit longer.
Newt
Posted by: Newt Sherwin | June 30, 2006 2:06 PM
I was a college student in the 70's. I was always against abortion, even when I was talked into one by my then boy friend. I have changed only because I came to Christ. Without Him I probably would have had more than one abortion....just because it was the "easy" way out, so-called. Those of us who are old now, who went through it, know better of course.
Posted by: Cynthia | June 30, 2006 2:42 PM
Hi Barbara,
My views changed radically after having my first child! Suddenly all I'd learned in my very liberal university days crashed up against the fact that I loved this child more than life. Are these views what I wanted for him?
I also read "How Now Shall We Live" by Charles Colson around that same time, which very much impacted my worldview. I still don't claim to have all the answers, but my views have changed very much since having children.
Posted by: Joni | June 30, 2006 2:51 PM
Barbara, just like you, I went from pro-abortion feminazi to pro-life Christian at the moment of conversion.
Posted by: Monika | June 30, 2006 4:43 PM
I actually came about it from a different direction: I changed my pro-choice status when I started reading biology books. I was not yet a Christian. I was interested in childhood growth and development, and everything I read always started discussing human life from the moment of fertilization. I learned that the life that is created at the moment of conception is unique, and will never be created again.
The truth seemed miraculous to me then. Now, with Christ in my life, it completely overwhelms me with its beauty.
Posted by: Noelle | June 30, 2006 5:32 PM
When I was a sweet young thing in the 70's & 80's I was pro-choice because I completely believed everything that was said about abortion. Abortion was simply removing a mass of cells, it was not ending a life. I honestly believed that a fetus was just some amorphous collection of cells until what, some point late in the pregnancy? I don't know precisely when I thought those cells turned into a baby, I really didn't take any time to sit & think about it, and since I was not in a position to be making babies at that time I didn't spend any effort to learn about fetal growth & development. And while I questioned the media in regards to how it presented other aspects of the daily news & our culture, for some dumb reason it never occurred to me to question anything medically oriented I saw on the evening news. Why I had such blind faith in the media for all things medical when I was an extreme cynic for all other things, I'll never know.
During the 90's I just stopped even thinking about abortion, it was not on my radar, I didn't give it a 2nd thought. If you had asked me my stance on abortion at that time I'd have said I was generally against it, but I would not have been able to articulate why, and I could have been persuaded to go either way. I certainly would not have come out firmly and said that abortion was murder or wrong.
Finally, at age 40 in 2002, I became pregnant. Then and only then did I make any effort to learn about fetal development. The tears burst out of my eyes as they washed away the scales of deception. I finally was learning the truth, and to my horror I learned about the heart beating at 21 days, about how early the nervous system functions and voluntary, deliberate movement begins. Of course this was also quite fascinating and exciting, too, because I was following the daily/weekly development of the babies growing within me. But my heart was also heavy with the knowledge of how foolish & deceived I'd been for all those decades. How could I allow myself to be so blindingly ignorant about something so easily learned? I was also so angry with the media and Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates. How could they deliberately misconstrue the truth? How could anyone KNOW the truth and yet try to conceal it? Abortion really does stop a beating heart!
I wish I knew the answer of how to change our society so that abortion does not seem like the answer to an unplanned pregnancy. I wish there was some way to educate everyone about the basics of fetal development. Truly, if I was wallowing in ignorance, then the rest of the world is, too. It can't be that hard to take out some gentle ads with the kind of pictures available on the internet that are not offensive, with a few easily understood facts. Right? Can't we fight mis-information with the truth?
I will not allow my children to grow to adulthood without understanding fetal development, if for no other reason than that I do not want any grandchildren of mine aborted. Information is power. If we can just educate this generation with the truth, then maybe we can change things for the better.
Posted by: Tulip | June 30, 2006 6:59 PM
Oh my heart just hurts. I was always pretty ambivalent about abortion, until I (1) met Jesus (2) became a mother and (3) learned about fetal development. I am so MAD about the sneaky, underhanded ways PP tries to make this a "choice"; how could KILLING a BABY be a CHOICE??? How about Planned Barrenhood teaching about CHOOSING not to have sex unless you're prepared for a baby? And I have to say, my heart aches for every woman that has undergone an abortion; oh that they would encounter Jesus and be made whole again. The ancient people would sacrifice their children to the fire to worship idols; we do the same today to worship whatever it is that is worth killing an infant for. Does preventing a pregnancy fall into the same mindset? I don't know; just that it's all a sad, sad state of affairs, but nothing that Jesus can't redeem and make new because we all know that once the devil brings on an abortion, then he brings on the accusations. We need to teach our children, as Tulip said, and we need to value the children God sends. Most of all, we need to be there to support teen mothers and their babies, and also to introduce hurting women to the Great Physician, the only one who can heal their broken spirits and hearts.
Posted by: Keri | July 2, 2006 12:32 AM
I am a Christian woman now... but 8 years ago this August I murdered my own child in an abortion. The baby was just a tiny bump on the ultrasound, no discernable body parts... but now that I have had two more, I know EXACTLY what it was I murdered. I am so grateful to Christ for my redemption and forgiveness of even this my most heinous sin. When I was first saved I still thought abortion was ok for some people, that they ought to have the right to choose, just like you say, I had my head in the sand, I was thinking we shouldn't limit people's freedoms. But of course we limit people's freedoms when it comes to others lives. We don't permit murder of a grown person, or child, nor abuse of anyone... but I was willing to let selfish mothers choose to kill their unborn children so that they could go on being selfish.
I have since come to a more complete understanding of just how valueable life is, how God chooses each child for their parents specifically and providentially. How children are such a gift and blessing and even a reward. To say no to recieving one is a horrible thing. It is like saying "God, I know you are all powerful, all knowing and able to do more than I can think or imagine, but Im just sure that this baby You call a blessing is really a burden and a bummer in disguise. Please oh please don't bless me with what you consider a treasure worth having!"
How foolish we are to consider that we have any right to tell God that we know better than He does.
Forgive us all for the foolishness we committed.
Peace
Meg Logan
p.s. where can i get that diagram to post on my site??
Posted by: MegLogan | July 3, 2006 7:34 AM
I have always been strongly pro-life. I have enjoyed working this year for two clients my employer (ad agency) has taken on - a crisis pregnancy center and a pro-life political organization. As I've dug more and more into both sides of the coin, trying to understand the pro-choice opinions so I can present better pro-life arguments, I have changed. I have grown more empathetic to women who choose abortion. I still think abortion is as wrong as I ever did - even more so - but I am learning how to approach it differently. Especially now that I am experiencing my first pregnancy, I understand how difficult carrying a baby can be, and how even the physical discomforts are certainly an influencing factor in a woman's decision. Rather than just railing against abortion, I now try to focus on how we can make carrying a baby and deciding to raise the child or place him or her for adoption a more appealing prospect to women.
Posted by: miller_schloss | July 5, 2006 2:11 PM
