California teen Sylvie Richards believes her mother is “helping people” when she travels to Oklahoma to abort unborn babies.
This week, the 17-year-old defended her mother’s abortion work in an essay at Teen Vogue. But Richards honestly seemed confused about why pro-life advocates want to ban abortions, likely because her mother hid from her the truth.
“As I try to rationalize [pro-lifers’] thought processes, searching for logic in their misinformed judgments, I draw a blank,” Richards wrote. “Throughout my entire life, when my mom isn’t sitting at the dinner table or finally letting herself relax on a family vacation (a rare occurrence), she has always been doing something to help others.”
Her mother is a California abortionist who recently began traveling to Oklahoma to abort unborn babies there. Oklahoma has seen an increase in pregnant mothers coming from Texas to abort their unborn babies after Texas banned abortions on unborn babies with beating hearts last fall.
But now, Richards said she is afraid that her mother will go to jail for “helping people.”
Driving to school recently, she said her “heart clenched” when she heard a report about Oklahoma passing an abortion ban. Abortionists who abort unborn babies in violation of the law could face up to 10 years in prison or fines of $100,000.
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“Now, [mom’s] freedom may be at risk for helping people access healthcare if she continues providing abortions after the law goes into effect,” Richards wrote.
She continued: “Before I heard the news, I had never considered the possibility of my mom going to prison, and anyone who knows her likely hadn’t either. She’s never cheated on a test, never gotten a cavity, and when she was in high school, she got voted ‘Biggest Brown-Noser’ by her classmates. My mom plays by the rules.”
Richards said she cannot understand why pro-life advocates want to punish her mother for doing abortions. She seemed to think that if pro-lifers simply would understand that her mother is a good person, that they would not pass laws like those in Texas and Oklahoma.
“These people don’t know my mom, and it’s likely they don’t know any other abortion provider,” she continued. “Yet, they feel confident enough in their perceptions that they attempt to threaten their livelihoods, and sometimes their lives.”
Richards said she worries about her mom going to prison every day, and she believes that pro-life advocates want to punish her for “dedicat[ing] her life to helping others.”
Sadly, the young woman has been deceived. No one wants to think badly of their own mother, and it’s understandable why Richards is afraid. But her mother is not doing good work and she is not helping others. Quite the opposite, her mother is making money ending the lives of unique and irreplaceable human beings – women’s own children – in unnecessary, violent abortions.
It’s doubtful that Richards ever was taught how abortions tear unborn babies limb from limb or poison them to death, or how these babies are distinct, living human beings from the moment of conception. She probably never heard how many women later come to regret aborting their unborn babies or how many are injured in botched abortions. And she likely was taught to fear and avoid pro-life advocates, so she never had the chance to hear another perspective or learn that pro-lifers are overwhelmingly peaceful, compassionate and dedicated to non-violence.
The goal of the pro-life movement is to protect and value human lives, from the moment of conception to natural death, and the biggest destroyer of human life in America today is the abortion industry. Pro-life advocates are not just “out to get” abortionists, but the billion-dollar abortion industry must face consequences for destroying innocent unborn babies’ lives.
However, pro-lifers also offer compassion and forgiveness to abortion workers who have changes of heart. Through 40 Days for Life, Abby Johnson’s And Then There Were None and other outreach efforts, pro-life advocates are helping people leave the abortion industry, heal and find gainful employment that truly helps women in need.
Pro-lifers provide true support to families in need, too, through material and emotional support so that no mother ever feels that she has to end her own child’s life. The pro-life movement does not seek to punish mothers who abort their unborn babies either. Instead, they offer counseling and other outreach to help these mothers grieve, forgive themselves and heal.
