Today, so many pro-life bloggers are typing away. We are on Twitter, Facebook, and even on our own blogs trying to ask pro-choice supporters the question of what exactly does CHOICE mean??
We are still waiting to receive a good answer. They can’t seem to just say, “Well, “choice” is deciding to murder your unborn child.” Why won’t they just say it? Do you know how much more credible they would sound? Why tippy-toe around it??
There was one time I spoke with a guy that said, “Yes. I know it’s murder, but I’m okay with that.” At least he was honest about what’s taking place. Planned Parenthood won’t be honest. They keep hiding behind “choice.” I wonder… who gave these babies a choice?
(Warning – graphic images)
Suction Aspiration: First 12 weeks of pregnancy
Dilatation (Dilation) and Curettage (D&C): First 12 weeks of pregnancy
Dilatation (Dilation) and Evacuation (D&E): First 18 weeks of pregnancy
Prostaglandin Abortion: 4 to 6 months of pregnancy
Salt Poisoning (Saline Amniocentesis): After 4 months of pregnancy
Hysterotomy Abortion: 4 to 9 months of pregnancy
I don’t understand how political leaders who are responsible for approving our laws can look at these images and not feel an immediate urge to strike down legalized abortion!I would ask them “is this the “choice” you stand up for?
It breaks my heart to see pictures like the ones above. It also makes me think about the reality that abortions happen every day. Something I rarely thought about, before I started working for our local Right to Life organization. I am thankful that my eyes have been opened and I have become aware of the reality of abortion. How can anyone, once they see the truth, do anything but work toward ending to abortion.
It’s heartbreaking. I don’t understand at all how anyone can look at those photos and still defend “choice”. Abby, I’m sure you saw photos like this when you worked at PP, yet they didn’t change your stance. So why was that? I’m not asking to accuse you, I’m asking truly to try to understand that side and what goes on in the mind of a pro-choicer. Were you told that these photos were fake? How do abortion clinic workers rectify their job with graphic photos of torn-apart babies?
No. I saw babies like this all of the time. I worked in the POC lab (Products of Conception…their words, not mine), so I knew exactly what babies looked like after they were aborted. To me, if just confirmed what I already believed. I thought they weren’t living in the womb and now I was looking at them in this Pyrex dish and they weren’t living. I know it is probably hard to wrap your head around that, but it was pretty easy for me to think about it that way. It wasn’t until I saw the baby fighting for its life during an abortion that I was able to see that a baby in the womb is alive. I was able to see that it needed to be defended. I was able to see that child as human…that baby felt that it’s life was in danger. That sense of danger is what gave that child humanity to me…because danger and fear is something that is very human.
@ Richard – Many people have convinced themselves that these images are fabricated or doctored, or at least mislabeled as far as gestational age.
“Choice” simply means what it looks like: women have the choice to have abortions. Showing pictures of aborted fetuses grosses me out, but it doesn’t make me think that the women who go through with abortions are horrible murderers.
You, of course, have the choice to be pro-life. That’s fine. If you think abortions are horrible and wrong, then don’t have one. Encourage people who aren’t sure to not have one.
But passing laws against abortions are wrong. Forcing women to proceed with an unwanted pregnancy is cruel.
Hey Bri…Why is passing laws against abortion “wrong”? The people who favor such laws well recognize this is the lesser of two burdens. The question boils down to this…which is less cruel:
1. Kill person “A” by tearing them apart
2. Put person “B” through 9 months of physical challenge.
If you somehow think choice 1 is less cruel, perhaps you should reread the definition of “cruel.” And if you think person “A” isn’t a person, you are just playing imaginary games with language, not living in the real world of pain and suffering.
Every time an abortion happens, there are two victims. One is killed, the other is wounded. Abortion hurts women. Most know it immediately, while laying on that table and listening to small talk and laughter going on around them. Most wish someone cared enough to stop them. Most have an urge to run. But then, it’s too late. It’s done. So they walk out the door and shove the hurt down as deep inside them as they can. Eventually, though, it comes out. Depression, substance abuse, relational problems, PTSD symptoms…many never make the connection between their emotional problems and a prior abortion because they are told by professionals that abortion is legal, safe, and harmless. Those are lies straight out of hell. It’s time for the Truth. Pro-life is pro-woman.
It really, really shook me to see those pictures. I can’t find words, it just really hurts. On FB today i “Frontspeaked” (it’s the opposite of a backbite) all people courageous and strong enough to carry a child, even if it was “unplanned”! That’s how i’m alive. Thank God!(Sorry about my bad english, im swedish)
Bri says: ” … but it doesn’t make me think that the women who go through with abortions are horrible murderers”.
Do these women who have abortions play a passive or active roll? Do they make a decision and carry through with it? Yes, they play an active roll and carry through on a decision. They are participants in an abortion. Bri can’t bring herself to equate abortion with murder. But, if she does, she’d have to then say that these women are participants in murder. This makes them murderers.
I’m sure these women don’t see their action as being the equivalent of pulling a trigger or wielding a knife to commit a murder. But, they are receiving bad advise. And, that advise is often coming from Planned Parenthood.
Bri says: “But passing laws against abortions are wrong. Forcing women to proceed with an unwanted pregnancy is cruel”.
Where are all these unwanted pregnancies coming from in our society? If they weren’t occurring that would eliminate the need for aborting them.
I thought the magic of “education” was supposed to prevent the unwanted ones, and we’ve had about 40 years to educate, since passage of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. I’d say the “education” was a failure.
I think what is missing in our society is a “moral education”. That would reduce the unwanted pregnancies and the abortions.
Bri I am not saying that we should force women for it is thier choice but they need a choice to love thier baby more then them selves. I guess you have doen one your self I do not know but I bet if you held ones of those dead babys in your hand and you new that you killed the baby what a change of mind set you would have. It does not matter if a girl is raped or not she needs to put herself in the baby’s shoes. It is better to have the baby and give it for adoption then live with the thoughts, pain, and feelings all your life knowing that you made the choice to murder your child. AS SOON AS THE SPERM TOUCHES THE EGG YOU BECOME A MOTHER!!!! Brit you need to change your mindset and fight for these babys then making a escuse for the murders of billions of innocent babys!!! If any mother loves her babys then why argue with peole who are trying to save and protect the next generation!!!!
Thanks for your courage, Abby. I am almost done with your book. I am excited to see you in Helena Montana for our upcoming Culture of Life conference! I am so thankful for you and may God bless you and your family and protect you always. By the way, congrats on making it all the way home to Rome…… your journey has truly just begun. Joining the Church is the best thing I have ever done!Beth
@Richard – you exhibit a fairly common misunderstanding by the anti-choice movement about law and abortion. Political leaders do not “approve” law. Elected representatives in Congress write and debate legislation that, upon passage, is signed into law by the President.
The Supreme Court (a decidedly non-political body by statute) is the body that will ultimately “approve” a law upon challenge and appeal in lower courts.
Eric said: “Hey Bri…Why is passing laws against abortion “wrong”? The people who favor such laws well recognize this is the lesser of two burdens. The question boils down to this…which is less cruel:
1. Kill person “A” by tearing them apart
2. Put person “B” through 9 months of physical challenge.
If you somehow think choice 1 is less cruel, perhaps you should reread the definition of “cruel.” And if you think person “A” isn’t a person, you are just playing imaginary games with language, not living in the real world of pain and suffering.”
Sometimes, it’s not that simple, Eric. One of my friends got an abortion because going through with the pregnancy would have put her life in danger. Another woman got an abortion because her baby was dying in her womb and would never survive.
Are these women supposed to put their lives on the line for a fetus? Both of these women are married and have children. Were they supposed to die and leave behind their families for the sake of giving birth?
Erin said: “Do these women who have abortions play a passive or active roll? Do they make a decision and carry through with it? Yes, they play an active roll and carry through on a decision. They are participants in an abortion. Bri can’t bring herself to equate abortion with murder. But, if she does, she’d have to then say that these women are participants in murder. This makes them murderers.
…
I think what is missing in our society is a “moral education”.”
You’re absolutely right. I don’t equate abortion with murder, and that’s because it’s not.
What do you mean by a “moral education?”
Caleb said: “Bri I am not saying that we should force women for it is thier choice but they need a choice to love thier baby more then them selves. I guess you have doen one your self I do not know but I bet if you held ones of those dead babys in your hand and you new that you killed the baby what a change of mind set you would have. It does not matter if a girl is raped or not she needs to put herself in the baby’s shoes. It is better to have the baby and give it for adoption then live with the thoughts, pain, and feelings all your life knowing that you made the choice to murder your child. AS SOON AS THE SPERM TOUCHES THE EGG YOU BECOME A MOTHER!!!! Brit you need to change your mindset and fight for these babys then making a escuse for the murders of billions of innocent babys!!! If any mother loves her babys then why argue with peole who are trying to save and protect the next generation!!!!”
These are babies we’re talking about. They’re fetuses. I’d fight for a baby’s right to life. When I hear stories about people finding babies dumped somewhere; it boils my blood. But a fetus isn’t a baby.
You know, for being so against abortion, I’m surprised that more of you aren’t angry at God. He gives the most abortions. 8 million babies are stillborn or die within the first month of life. Only 1.37 million are aborted by women in the United States.
Hi Bri. When does a fetus become baby according to you? In science people talk about “Life” when they discover precursors of cells in meteorites, but all of sudden we say that a “fetus” with heartbeat is not Life. There’s an inconsistency!Life is such from conception and we have the duty to protect it with the same respect and awe of a Biologist who finds a pre-cell stuck on a meteorite.
Bri, first of all I want to thank you for taking the time to dialog about abortion, as many are unwilling to do so. I’d like to address a few things. My entire response is a bit lengthy, so I will post several comments to break it up.
You say that abortion is not murder because the child in the womb is not a baby but a fetus. “Fetus” is Latin for “little one” or “offspring.” Just like you and I are “offspring” of our parents. “Fetus” does not mean “non-human.” It is simply a term given to a human at a certain stage of development (embryo, fetus, infant, adolescent, adult etc.). We are no less human at any one stage than another.
You mentioned that your friend’s baby “would have put her life in danger.” Allow me to preface my response by stressing that ALL life is sacred. So your friend’s life is no less sacred and valuable than her unborn child’s life. With that said, I am guessing that your friend’s doctor told her that her life was in danger. Unfortunately it is all too common that doctors are telling patients they “need to abort” because of xyz. It is far more likely that the woman’s life is not threatened. Also, being that both the mother’s life and the baby’s life are potentially at stake, the woman should get a second opinion before she makes any life-altering decisions. There are countless women who have been told by a medical professional they should have an abortion (because of health risks for her or her baby) that decided not to go through with an abortion and ended up with little or no problems for them or their baby. This is more common than most of us realize. (See this American Idol contestant’s story as an example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdnzk1PTghc
My point here is that even if there are health risks, someone’s life is not less worthy because they have (or potentially have) health problems. And yes, we are called to make sacrifices for our loved ones, even to the extent of sacrificing our life to save another. Many people would take a bullet for a loved one if it came down to it. That is what real love is: sacrificing one’s wants/needs for the greater good of the other. In situations that you have described, a woman risking her life for her baby’s sake is no easy decision, but it is a very brave and selfless decision nonetheless. And as a sidenote: no one can know for sure that the baby “would never survive;” that is a common scare tactic.
Sadly abortion is murder. In some cases where a baby is born 3 or 4 months prematurely and survives, would you call the taking of that child’s life at that point “murder?” I ask this because abortions can happen at that stage and later. So someone’s value of life should not be based on their location (inside the womb vs. outside the womb).
Lastly, I noticed in the last comment on your last post -“You know, for being so against abortion, I’m surprised that more of you aren’t angry at God. He gives the most abortions. 8 million babies are stillborn or die within the first month of life. Only 1.37 million are aborted by women in the United States.”
– there is a notable discrepancy. You say “God gives the most abortions” which, according to your own logic, abortion is not murder because it’s not a baby. Yet you go on further saying that these “abortions” God gives are the still-born BABIES and the BABIES that die in the first month of life; (to clarify for anyone reading this, abortion is the “ending of a pregnancy”, that is why there are some people who have actually been aborted while in their mother’s womb and survived through it, like Gianna Jessin and Claire Culwell). Therefore these supposedly “8 million babies” who die are not dying from abortion, but after they are born. You are comparing “8 million” to “1.37 million” yet claiming that fetuses are not babies. I find it interesting that you compared them. It tells me that somewhere in your heart you know that a fetus is indeed a baby, a HUMAN.
In addition to that, all life ends. But it is not up to us to decide when a life should end; it is God. When we take the life of a completely innocent, defenseless being, that goes against God’s will. So it is not God we should be angry at, it is ourselves. And when a woman has a natural miscarriage (not her choice), she has to accept God’s will, even if she can’t understand it.
Bri, I again want to thank you for taking time to read and write about this. I will definitely keep you in my prayers as well as all those reading this. God bless.
Also check this out: http://www.ehd.org/movies.php?mov_id=70
Bri,
How is it cruel to make a woman carry a baby? That’s what we are created for. It’s why we have a uterus and men don’t. It’s a honor and something we should be so grateful to be able to do.
What about the choice to have sex, which shockingly causes pregnancy?
You say the pictures gross you out, and your blood boils when you think of babies in dumpsters. What makes these babies different? Fetus in a stage of life, the same as infancy, adolesance, adulthood, senior. None of those stages makes us any less human.
And no I’m not mad at God, he gives us free will. That’s that greatest grace of all, but unfortunely we use it to destroy ourselves sometimes. That’s not His fault it’s ours.
Reading the debate is interesting; however, no one has mentioned that many, many women that have abortions identify themselves as Christian. It is sad that the Christian woman would be a statistically significant portion of the abortions performed in the U.S. It is sad that the Church has failed women, both Christian and non-Christian alike.
I do not believe in the legal right to an abortion, nor do I believe in the legal prohibition of abortion.
At some level abortion is not unlike the worship of Molech that was practiced by ancient Israel and many other nations. At the valley of Tophet, the fires raged and the drums pounded to drown out the screams of the children. In modern America, the drum of “pro-choice” drowns out the screams of the unborn. When will the drums be silenced? When will we drop our foolish bickering and stop this insanity?
As for the legal eagles in our midst, please study a bit before commenting. Remember that Congress has the power to legislate, but not enforce. Remember that the court has the power to judge, but not “approve”. Remember that only the office of the President has the power to enforce laws written by the Congress and tested by the Court to be within the bounds of the Constitution. If any of these three step outside of their Constitutionally mandated bounds, no matter how well meaning, they are in contempt of the very foundation of this great nation.
Perhaps a great leader will rise and do just as King Josiah did by breaking down the altars of Molech in the valley of Ben-Hinnom so that no one would have to sacrifice their son or daughter.
Perhaps God will forgive us, but only if we turn to Him first. Perhaps God will forgive me, for my hands are stained with the blood of the innocent just as your’s are, dear reader.
I am praying for the reversal of Roe v. Wade. I know it’s a LOOOOOONG shot, and that laws don’t get reversed, but we serve an Almighty God! I know it breaks His heart to see what we’ve allowed to happen in this country. It is way past time that we all stand up and say enough of the murder of our children! Enough of the lies and deception of our government and Planned Parenthood!Won’t you pray with me? Let’s pray with repentant hearts and see what God will do!