Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the guest author. Live Action News has made minor edits for clarity.
As a pregnancy center director and pro-life activist working in a heavily Hispanic community in Los Angeles for almost two decades, I have learned that the abortion industry and pro-abortion ‘rights’ politicians prey on Hispanic families. With lies about the humanity of the unborn child and what an abortion does to that child, they convince many Hispanics to choose abortion and to unwittingly support pro-abortion legislators.
It is ironic that something so contrary to Hispanic culture as abortion can be so prevalent in our community. The rates of abortion in Hispanic women are double what they are for White women. As a decades-long advocate of pregnant mothers in difficult circumstances, I have observed that the high rate of abortion is due to the targeting of Hispanic women by abortion businesses, coupled with the lack of knowledge about the true nature of abortion.
READ: The latest reported US abortion numbers reveal a shocking 2,800 abortions daily
For decades, I’ve observed how pro-abortion politicians — even some with Spanish surnames — seek the vote of Hispanic families while camouflaging or minimizing their support for abortion. And for good reason. They know that Hispanics are largely pro-family, pro-children, and pro-life.
However, some pro-abortion politicians like Gabriel Vazquez are seeking to appeal to Hispanic voters, especially Hispanic men, by leading with his support for abortion rights. The only way he can garner their support is if he continues to mask the truth of what abortion really is: the destruction of an innocent human life. An article in the New York Times states:
When he was a child, Representative Gabriel Vasquez never heard his parents discuss politics, much less abortion, a topic that was off limits in many Mexican Catholic households like his. So he can see why some might think he is taking a risk by focusing on abortion rights in campaigning to Latino men.
“Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente” is a popular saying in the Hispanic community. It can be translated to mean, “If the eyes are not allowed to view [the truth], the heart will not be moved.” Not allowing Hispanics to view the images of what abortion does to the child is destroying our children and wounding our women and men.
I have observed for many years how videos such as Live Action’s “Abortion Procedures,” where former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino teaches the viewer what abortion does to the child with animations, have helped Hispanic men and women in difficult pregnancy situations reject abortion, choose life for their unborn children, and embrace the help offered to them by the pregnancy centers and the pro-life movement.
My husband, Antonio, lost a child to abortion in his youth — an abortion he did not want.
He shares his sorrowful testimony publicly to help prevent this tragedy from happening to other unborn babies and their parents. He stands by the conviction that Hispanic men and women, if allowed to see the truth of what the abortion procedure entails and to know the support that is available to them, would overwhelmingly choose life for their children.
He shared his thoughts about the New York Times article with me:
It’s a little scary to see the lengths that [pro-abortion politicians] go through to push their agendas. It is my observation that Hispanic women who have been convinced that abortion is a beneficial option, almost invariably end up regretting the murderous procedure.
And I can tell, by my personal experience speaking with Latino men, that we get pressured to respect the “pro choice” stance, but we would never support, nor endorse abortion.
Similar to Mr Vasquez’s parents, we Latinos disagree with abortion, but we’re just not informed enough about what we can do to protect life in the womb.
If anything, that’d be the information we Latinos, and specifically Latino men, would need. Tell us how to fulfill our protective role.
The Hispanic community is the fastest growing demographic in the United States. Abortion is antithetical to what the average Hispanic holds dear: children, family, and faith.
It is imperative that the pro-life movement makes it a priority to reach out to this sleeping giant, our natural allies, and educate them in an effective way (educating plainly and explicitly about abortion) while offering resources for pregnancy support and for post-abortion healing.
Author Bio: Astrid Bennett de Orduño has been the director of Los Angeles Pregnancy Services for 18 years, and has been a pro-life activist in the Hispanic community for 25 years.
