Right to "Privacy" Has Men Hurting, Killing Women Who Refuse Abortions
by Maria Vitale
October 1, 2010
LifeNews.com Note: Maria Vitale is an opinion columnist for LifeNews.com. She is the Public Relations Director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation and Vitale has written and reported for various broadcast and print media outlets, including National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and AP Radio.
It’s the dirty little secret the abortion industry doesn’t want you to know about.
Under the cloak of the so-called “right to privacy,” women are being bullied into abortions.
Take the case of a woman from Pennsylvania, who refused her boyfriend’s demands that she abort her child. His response? He began hitting her in the back. As she tried to block his punches, his hand bruised her arm.
But the violence did not end there. He struck her with his closed fist, telling her that if she screamed, he would “give her something to scream about.” According to police, the victim, who was five months pregnant, said her assailant said “she was forcing him to have this baby and she should respect that he wants her to have an abortion. Since she won’t respect his request to have an abortion, he won’t respect her.”
This is what Roe v. Wade has wrought—disrespect for women, both inside and outside the womb.
The West Pottsgrove man is now in jail, charged with first-degree felony charges of aggravated assault of an unborn child, harassment, terroristic threats, recklessly endangering another person, and other charges.
But the question is: How many more men like Roderick Douglas Gaines are using violent means to attempt to force women into abortions they do not want? And why aren’t we hearing an outcry from so-called women’s rights groups about such atrocities?
Abortion is a human rights issue—not only for the vulnerable unborn child, but also for the mother. All too often, abortion is prescribed as a solution to the problem of domestic violence when, in fact, it is another expression of abuse. If a father has no respect for the life of a child, how can a woman expect him to respect her, body and soul?
Research has indicated that more than 60 percent of abortions are coerced, with women being forced into abortions they would not have chosen on their own. In the wake of an abortion, they are left to suffer from someone else’s choice.
How many abortion centers screen for domestic violence? How many report suspicions of abuse to police? How many times is abortion being used as a cover-up for crime—the crime of violence against women?
In news story after news story, we read of assaults on pregnant women—such traumatic incidents seem to have reached epidemic proportions. The widespread availability of abortion has obviously not curtailed domestic violence. When an unborn child becomes a target, her mother can easily become a target too.
This is one reason why choosing life for an unborn child can be so empowering for a mother. She may not be willing to leave her abuser to protect herself. But she just might in an effort to save her baby from harm.
When we’re in trouble, God often sends someone to help us out. For an abused woman, that someone just might be an unborn child.
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