It is unfathomable to think pro-lifers somehow blame hormones and the resulting choice to have an abortion on why the country is divided on this issue.
If there is one thing that will anger a woman in a heartbeat, it’s the accusation that we are just being hormonal. That’s just asking, rightly, to be slapped in the face.
So it may be understandable that jaws drop in shock at hearing the latest dismissal of the pro-life movement’s goals from the president of the largest abortion provider in America.
Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, was asked what she thinks lies at the heart of the abortion debate in this country. She answered with implying that the pro-life movement thinks women are “too hormonal [and] we can’t make good decisions for ourselves,”
Women head up most of the major national pro-life organizations in this country. It is unfathomable that pro-lifers, female pro-lifers in particular, somehow blame hormones and the resulting choice to have an abortion on why the country is divided on this issue. But Richards isn’t the only one to think such a ridiculous excuse motivates pro-life people.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately
Stephanie Toti, the attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights who successfully argued the Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstadt case in front of the Supreme Court, was asked by Glamour her thoughts on why people can’t accept that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land.
She said: “I don’t know. I think some people really want to take us back in time, to when women weren’t seen as fully equal members of society, and don’t have all of the rights and opportunities they have now. I think are some people who feel threatened by the idea of gender equality.” While not blaming female hormones explicitly, she expands on Richards’ comments. But again, a collective headshake from the pro-life side.
What Pro-Lifers Really Want
The overarching reason pro-life people are pro-life is that they believe abortion takes an innocent human life, one that is unique, precious, and deserving of breathing without being torn apart and suctioned out of the womb of this child’s mother. They believe women deserve better than abortion and more options than the physical, emotional, and psychological harm that abortion lays in its wake.
Those are the reasons pro-lifers seek to overturn Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, vote for candidates who respect women and respect the right to life, and stand on sidewalks and pray and counsel women going into abortion facilities.
However inane the comments from Toti and Richards initially seem to be, they are enlightening because they reveal the mindset of the abortion industry. They believe abortion is the answer to gender equality, equal pay, and elevating women above our hormones. Because they see abortion as this shining light, nothing is more important to them than telling women they can’t do what they want: they can’t have a career and a child, they can’t finish their education and have their baby, they can’t get support anywhere else, they can’t achieve their dreams and carry their baby to term.
The comments from Richards and Toti are ridiculous to pro-lifers because we are the ones supporting women and encouraging them with resources, friendships, and material help to have their children or place them with an adoptive family while still having a career and finishing their education. After all the incredible accomplishments women have made over the past century, there is no reason women should be subjected to an entire industry that only seeks to profit from their time of stress and vulnerability.
Women are fierce beings with the unique ability to carry a child, nourish it inside their own bodies, and birth a brand new person. Motherhood is not a disease that needs to be squashed under the thumbs of Big Abortion.
Pro-lifers are not threatened by women or by gender equality. We embrace women, honoring them for their significant contributions to society, families, the workplace, and academia. The abortion industry does not help women, as they claim.
By telling women they can’t, they diminish women’s individuality and place in the world. It’s a huge lie that those at the highest levels of the abortion movement continue to perpetuate. Women don’t deserve that kind of orchestrated deception.
LifeNews Note: This column originally appeared at The Federalist.
