Late last night I came across an article recommended by Jill Stanek; an op-ed piece from the New York Times. Called, “I Couldn’t Turn My Abortion Into Art” the essay is a quick read, well written, personal and it is absolutely heartbreaking. Read it for yourself, my words here won’t do it justice.
The author is a pro-abortion woman writing about her abortion experience more than two decades ago. As a 22 year old woman, she spent most of her life fighting for the right to an abortion, and spent many years dedicating herself to what she calls “experimental feminist video.” When she discovered that she was pregnant, she saw it as an opportunity to prove what a great thing abortion is.
As one could guess, her experience was anything but great. She had no big surgical complications. Her experience didn’t turn out like the experiences of hundreds of women exposed to horrific conditions and careless doctors. She wasn’t physically wounded, she was emotionally–spiritually wounded.
She concludes that she is still pro-abortion, she concludes saying, “I don’t wish I had a 20-year-old. I didn’t want that baby, with that man. Abortion rights, yes, I’ll always support them, but even all these years later, I wish the motto wasn’t “Never again,” but “Avoid this if there’s any way you possibly can, even if it’s legal, because it’s awful.”
I wish that someone had alerted me to the harshness of the experience, acknowledged the layers of regret that built and fell away as the months and years passed. I want my daughters to have the option of safe and legal abortion, of course. I just don’t want them to have to use it.”
I’ll say it again and again and again, until it truly strikes our hearts and compassion flows through our veins and we never again have to be reminded: abortion hurts women. Abortion hurts women who picket and protest and shout lewd chants. Abortion hurts women who feel strong and secure about their decisions–until there is no turning back. Abortion hurts the women it deceives with its convenience and promises of a better future. Abortion doesn’t “care for it’s own.” It hurts the women who have supported it most, the ones who hate us– the ones it is hardest for us to love.
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We spend so much time fighting for those who don’t have a voice, seeking justice and even vengeance for the deaths of helpless children that we forget they aren’t the only ones who have experienced injustice. We forget that the women who show up with picket signs and and loud voices are also just women who could be acting out of hurt or out of ignorance. We claim time after time that we don’t care more for unborn children than their mothers, but sometimes we do.
We are not going to win the battle for the heart of our nation by shouting angrily for justice, but by kneeling down and washing the feet of the ones who despise us.
Again, I encourage you to read the article for yourself, but before you do, pray with me that the Lord would soften your heart and that He would give you His very own compassion for pro-abortion women. When you’ve read the article, pray with me once again, with opened eyes and heart, that the Lord would touch the hearts of pro-abortion women everywhere, and that he would reveal to them the truth about abortion. Pray with me that the horrific reality of abortion would become undeniable, and that the slick ad campaigns of places like Planned Parenthood would utterly fail.
Finally, look at your Life Band and pray with me once more, “Jesus, I plead your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God end abortion, and send revival to America.
LifeNews Note: Stacie Kuhns writes for the Bound4Life blog.
