I have been hearing a lot from the pro-abortion movement lately about how pro-life “slacktivists” aren’t doing anything but waging a “war on women” by “elevating clumps of 32 cells above the level of a living, breathing, thinking human woman.” Obviously, I know (now) those misguided, ill-informed pro-abortion folks couldn’t be more wrong, but it reminds me too much of what I was like when I was one of them.
At the abortion clinic where I worked, I readily believed all of the misinformation fed to me about the “antis” holding those gory signs outside. I was told that pro-lifers cared nothing about women or families or children—only babies, and only unborn babies at that. I was told story after story about how this pro-life group or that crisis pregnancy center lied to women to “trick” them into staying pregnant and then would abandon them after the growing baby was beyond the legal limit for abortion. The most vivid (tall) tale I remember was of some unnamed group who extended financial assistance, prenatal care, and even drove a young mother to the hospital while she was in labor only to drop off a box of diapers the next day and refuse to return her calls after that. Or the rumor of the CPC counselor who showed a terrified teenager her pregnancy test stick with the two tell-tale blue lines indicating a positive (pregnant) result and explaining that the two lines meant she was pregnant with twins.
This is pro-abortion propaganda.
Since coming over to the side of life, I have been thrilled to confirm that these stories are baseless lies. It is shocking to me that the pro-abortion side continues to propagate these blatant untruths in spite of real evidence to the contrary. The pro-life movement is peopled by honest, dedicated, generous, and often pious people. The pro-life movement includes individuals and families who adopt “unwanted” babies, “imperfect” babies, “disabled” babies and donate time, money, and energy to stopping abortion. Some lobby Congress, some volunteer at local pregnancy care centers, some donate money, and some adopt. I have a friend who after giving birth to two biological children with her husband felt called to adopt a little boy with Down syndrome. He has happily been a part of their family for over a year, utterly charming and bringing joy to every person he meets. There are countless others like her and her family: selfless souls appalled by the brutality of murdering the unborn and who DO something about it. The pro-life movement reaches out to pregnant women and families. Many crisis pregnancy centers don’t just do pregnancy tests but also offer relationship counseling, parenting workshops, family counseling, babysitting co-ops, post-abortion support, and much more—for FREE—and without hundreds of millions of dollars from American taxpayers.
The truth is out there, and it’s not hard to find. CPCs and Pregnancy Care Centers reduce the number of abortions, and if the pro-abortion side is truly pro-CHOICE—and truly strives for the goal of fewer abortions (their rallying cry is “safe, legal, and RARE,” right?) then they should be welcoming assistance from CPCs and similar organizations, not constantly fighting to shut them down. If the pro-abortion side is truly pro-CHOICE, they should not take issue with laws passed to ensure informed consent prior to irreversible elective “surgery” that always ends in the death of the living growing human fetus. If the pro-abortion side truly cares about women—indeed their favorite battle hymn is that pro-lifers care more about cells than women—they would be fighting alongside us for fully informed options and support for all pregnant mothers. They would be welcoming pro-life sidewalk counselors out of the hot sun or the driving rain or the freezing snow to take up residence inside one of the counseling rooms in the clinic, letting the pregnant mothers learn all of their options completely. That would truly be pro-CHOICE.
