More thoughts on legalized abortion, choice, and politics

I am keeping up with leader Shawn Carney's reports on the prayer vigils of 40 Days For Life activists at abortion clinics here in the U.S. and in England, etc. Ever since I started hooking up to the websites of pro life activists, I have been thinking about the discipline and dedication these people have to continue such difficult work. Shawn wrote about some of the negative reactions they have received including verbal abuse so nasty he said he could not repeat some of it, but one of the mildest names the protesters have been called is 'terrorists.' He said there is constant counseling going out on how to handle these discouraging responses so as to be able to continue the prayer vigils without too much upset. The protesters are advised to keep praying when they face abuse, and of course getting into heated arguments is not an option. But offering addresses of pregnancy centers is done if those entering the clinics for abortions acted interested enough to listen and take the information. The goal of 40 Days For Life is to save lives, one baby at time.
On the other hand I got into a bit of an argument yesterday with a woman who pronounced herself pro choice who is one of Sheria's friends on FB. I regard Sheria as one of the most intelligent, articulate and best informed democratic friends I have. She is a lawyer, and is a formidable debater, and also a very passionate supporter of the President, which I would expect. Usually I just read her information and her exchanges with her friends and say nothing. I often go to the websites or links she finds and I watch the videos or read the articles. As I told her yesterday I am constrained from commenting some of the time by the lack of respect shown to republican opponents, that is people she and many of her friends feel contempt for which they don't mind expressing. But I think it is a mistake to underestimate the strength of your competition. I also think that sneering at them shows lack of discipline.
I must also say that I have been extremely impressed by the intelligence, discipline, and understanding of some of these pro life activists which include Catholic priests as well as simply devout church members who may be married as Shawn Carney is, heading the 40 Days for Life movement. These people all strive very hard to convey patience and understanding and even love for those others might regard as the enemy. They are counseled to pray for them too! They keep saying they are there to pray for and to reach them, too. And they keep reporting conversions of the clinic workers here and there, even to some deciding to quit their jobs.
What I wanted to say to Sheria is that praying for your opposition is more powerful than sneering at them. I have sometimes perceived Sheria feeling anger and despair, even though I think she has the potential to be a powerful black political leader, one reason I value her friendship. She gathers pertinent information all the time and she is able to explain difficult issues very well because of her familiarity with the legal language of the law. Congress passes laws, so a person with her talent is needed in politics to better explain these laws accurately.
But she is firm in her support of 'choice.' Well, I have met many republicans who have stated they support choice, too. I was very surprised to read in her book that Laura Bush, like her mother in law, Barbara Bush, supports 'choice' as well, even though their husbands, both Presidents of the United States, were pro life.
To me, this does not make them right, it simply shows how much impact that the philosophy and justifications behind legalized abortion have had on our world.
So it is understandable why Sheria and many of her democratic friends would be very confident that Roe vs Wade will not be overturned any time soon. But I am not so sure they are right.
I think at any time a big break could come, and this is why I think so. Legalized abortion was accomplished very easily in this country. As the pro life activists say, it came in the back door through a decision made by the Supreme Court daring to go where no Supreme Court had ever ventured before. Ruling in favor of Roe made it illegal in this country to deny a woman an abortion in any state, so this opened the door immediately to a soon flourishing Planned Parenthood, a corporation that began to open abortion clinics across the land. Soon the abortions went from a trickle in just a few states to a flood.
This meant just the few Justices on the Supreme Court had to agree, but when the people got the news more protests flooded into the Supreme Court than had ever been registered for any other decision. The people were not happy at not having a say in what happened. You might say they were disturbed in very large numbers.
To make the decision even safer because it was legal presumably, the media went pro choice almost over night. Powerful newspapers began printing endless columns from now pro choice columnists trying to reassure the populace in all kinds of ways why this new law needed to exist.
Never has so much been accomplished by a new 'industry' so fast. 'A Woman's Right to Choose what to do with her own body' became one of the most successful and powerful mantras ever coined. Soon women all over the land were repeating it as kind of a clarion cry. I heard it again yesterday from women who knew well the justifications for abortion as printed many times in the media.
I have heard and read these so many times in my years of protesting legalized abortion I have decided there is no use arguing long with most of these women because they are not going to listen.
A lot of the justifications have to do with the difficulties women experienced when abortion was against the law and most of the million or so babies killed in this country alone in legalized abortion were instead born. Born on welfare and in poverty. Born unwanted to uneducated parents, either teenagers or possibly drug addicts, and so on.
But the women are also not thinking of the effect of a law against abortion which tells that woman that abortion is not available to her so she had better prevent a pregnancy that she does not want. This was the consciousness in many women that existed in this country before legalized abortion. So women were more careful about getting pregnant than they are now. There was no abortion clinic to run to. Abortionists had to operate outside the law in most states like Texas where Roe lived of Roe vs. Wade fame.
But then abortion was generally regarded as murder, so murder of the unborn was also thought to be prevented by not legalizing abortion. With legalized abortion what could be termed as murder of the unborn rose to astronomical heights almost the first few years. It became necessary for the industry to deny that abortion was murder because that was too disturbing to prospective clients who might go to the clinics.
Shawn Carney reports that euphemisms are often used for an aborted baby in abortion clinics, 'human waste' being one of those euphemisms. Does anyone really believe that a fetus is human waste? But I read and heard what many abortion advocates called these babies in an attempt to convince the mother abortion was not a sin, a crime, a bad thing. It was not murder. It could even be a sad event but a blessing if it relieved the upset pregnant woman's mind and she could go home and not have to worry about being pregnant any more.
Well, I never believed in abortion so I would tell myself if I could not take care of a baby I absolutely could not take chance one to get pregnant. I needed to stay alive to take care of my other children, so I got along without sex a lot of my years, or if I was married and could not afford a baby mentally or physically no penetration. I did what women have to do if they don't believe in abortion. I just didn't take those chances. I did not tell myself I had to have sex, I had to have penetration damn the consequences. I thought restraint was not asking too much of myself if I did not want to kill a child through abortion.
So it isn't as if there are not ways to keep from getting pregnant if you do not believe in abortion, but if you can somehow convince yourself it is okay then you might find yourself getting caught and thinking you simply have to have an abortion.
I don't care what the justifications are, do they justify the death of another human being being nurtured inside of your body until old enough to leave the womb and be nurtured either by the breast or formula?
Women who still believe in choice have not gone deep enough into all the ramifications of abortion in my opinion. They are resisting those considerations, may resist thinking about them for years.
In the meantime pro life activists go on working very hard to overturn Roe vs. Wade so that once again abortion will be illegal except for reasons like rape, incest, or possibly severe birth defects. Most importantly, it will no longer be legal for birth control, which seems like an irresponsible reason to have to kill a child, but it is estimated that 95 percent of all abortions are for birth control. Oh, I got drunk and didn't use protection. I need sex. Restricted sex is no fun. I simply cannot afford a child. I have to work. I have got more on my plate now than I can take care of. I would have to go on welfare. So I didn't think. Do I have to be punished? This baby would suffer.
To this I say, well, no matter how the baby suffers after it is born, it is still alive. If you kill the fetus, that is final. Isn't killing the child, any child, worse?
Surely we can agree that murder is worse than just wounding a person. There is hope as long as there is life.
I know that a lot of women are not going to change their minds about supporting 'choice' but easy come easy go. One day, whether they are ready or not, this law so easily made legal will be overturned! The right circumstances to overturn it have to come into play.
In the meantime the pro life activists are going to be working hard to add to their ranks, to build opposition to the law, and are showing a great deal of discipline in doing it.
Discipline, dedication, and hard work pay off in the end. If women are not willing to rethink shallow justifications for legalized abortion, the activists will have to go out around them. But they can count on it, one day this law will be overturned because too many people know it is wrong and are working to end its reign of terror for the not yet born.
Some woman may not want to recognize the holocaust, but it is being recognized just as other holocausts have been recognized and eventually stopped, even though millions have died during them.
A million deaths in this country of the not yet born a year is a holocaust.
It takes discipline, dedication, compassion, and determination for women to live without resorting to abortions. But it has been done and it can be done again. The power of the human spirit should not be underestimated. Women who believe can commit themselves to non violence, and those who will not will have to be in defiance of the law, once abortion is no longer legal.