Some of us were raised to have a passion for the pro-life issue.
Some of us had an eye-opening conversation, or read something.
Some of us had a life-altering experience.
What sparked your passion on the abortion issue?
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Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I came from a pretty non-religious pro-choice home. When I was pregnant with my second baby, I was looking on the internet for something about second trimester pregnancy issues. I forget now what I was actually looking for. Among the search results, was Jill Stanek’s testimony regarding abortion. I was shocked and stunned. I never had paid much attention to the issue. The number of abortions per year seemed unbelievably high. I think there are so many people who don’t know all this because the media don’t cover it much. I mean we get obscure stories like the Zimmerman case, but truly huge stories like 56 million abortions, are just unreported. I never had much respect for the media. It is now just sensationalism and entertainment, little real reporting. So, discovering the transcripts of all the testimony really shook me up. It is not that it is not public information. It is out there. But it is not publicized. So, people are largely unaware of it. And not just low info voters. I mean, I was employed, educated with a master’s degree, nearly 40 years old and I didn’t realize the extent of the problem. Philosophically, I could never really buy that a child deserved to die at the whim of a parent. Even as a weak willed teen who could be persuaded to go along and get along, but not to believe that a “necessary evil” was good. No, it was still evil; a moral wrong. Anyway, the cold barbarity and the enormous scope took me aback. So, I have been involved ever since.
I was always one if those people that didn’t “like” abortion. I knew virtually nothing about the procedure, and figured there were reasons where it was necessary. Then I had my first baby. Upon her arrival, I found her so incredibly precious that it got me thinking about the procedure that would have prevented her birth (specifically wondering why ANYONE would want to prevent something so wonderful). I researched, and to my absolute horror I found out why abortion, in all its morbid methods, is so unparalleled in its evil. I just had my third baby in February. While life is certainly more hectic and expensive (and messy!!!) with kids, there’s nothing in the world that makes abortion ok. It’s tragic. I wish more people would research the procedure and think beyond the false “women’s rights” nonsense.
I was always pro-life, and raised in a very pro-life home. I live in the least restrictive state in the nation re:abortion, Oregon, and am constantly surrounded by those who believe in a woman’s ‘right to choose,’ though, so my feelings were complicated on the matter. *I* would never have an abortion, and I would consider it a win if abortion were illegal, but I wouldn’t dare to tell another woman what she should or shouldn’t do. I distinctly recall, fresh out of high school, a good friend of mine told me that if she got pregnant right then, she would have an abortion. I wish I’d had the courage and understanding then to say something, but I just said, “And that’s totally your choice” … ouch.
I’ll admit that abortion really was a non-issue for me during the majority of my pregnancy. I was pregnant in ’08, though, so towards the end as we discussed presidential candidates, it became more of a subject of concern. I learned through (mostly Catholic) friends and family of Obama’s voting record and of Jill Stanek and BAIPA. I began to become more interested in pro-life activism, and in speaking out against the victimization of women through abortion.
After I had my first son, my doctor strongly pushed for me to get the Mirena IUD. I considered it, even going so far as to take home a pamphlet to talk to my husband about the benefits. Then I went online to research just what the IUD really is. I had a vague sense, from my high school sex ed classes, that the IUD is linked to fetal abnormalities, and I wanted to make sure that the link was minimal. What I found completely changed my life.
I would say it was birth control and the way that I had been lied to about its functions, its safety, its necessity, that sparked my vocal pro-life activism. Learning what birth control really does to women made me want to know what abortion really does to women and babies. And once I knew, there was no option but to speak out.
Serving at a pregnancy care center. I went in with the mindset that I was going to convert as many sexually active girls to secondary virginity when the orientation took a turn and the trainees were exposed to very graphic abortion videos and materials. The 14 years that I served at the PCC, coupled with an event 5 years prior when I thought I was pregnant, fueled my passion for pro-life. LL
When I was in 5th or 6th grade I read a book, Days of Wine and Roses. This was just before Roe v Wade became law, though while reading the book I had no knowledge of what was going to happen in America. The story is a novel that describes family life in Rome around the time of Christ. I remember the horror and then relief I felt (since we weren’t so barbaric a society) when I read that the father had the right in Roman society, when a child reached age 2, to decide if the child would continue to live or not. If the father chose, he had the right to slay the child. The family had a child who was born with some disability and part of the story was the mother’s attempt to save her child from likely slaying. With the passing of Roe v Wade just a few short years later, I realized that mankind had not changed much at all that we are still capable of barbaric behavior and still completely the same in terms of ability to dehumanize others- and in this case mothers to their own children! In fact, I concluded the Romans were more honest, they at least saw they were killing a living child. Several years after Roe v Wade was passed, many laws were passed to stop parents from abusing and hitting their child. I am still very flabbergasted by anyone who isn’t consistent on both of these. Harming children is unacceptable, even by the parent since they are innocent and perfect and whom God has entrusted to us to care for.
I grew up in an extremely liberal part of California. I was in the “safe but rare” crowd. I started opening my mind to conservatism in college, when I began to face mistreatment from feminists for having long hair, preferring to wear skirts, being straight, and dating a white guy. That white guy (a political junkie) also faced mistreatment in the Democrat Party for being white, straight, not for unilateral disarmament, and for holding non-union employment. Neither of us were too keen on the notion of promiscuity either.
Then my boyfriend and I got married. I was forced out of my job because I was married and under 30.
Then we started our family. We were thrilled when the test came back positive. But the pregnancy ended when the baby died at 6 weeks. During those brief weeks, we both knew without a doubt that we were parents and this was a baby. And that baby, who was physically connected to my body died without my ever knowing that it was in trouble. The guilt was unbearable. I went through the miscarriage naturally, after being advised that a D&C would be similarly painful to childbirth and could adversely effect the future function of my cervix.
During that time, I researched embryonic development and frequency and causes of miscarriage–a major source of healing for me. As I read, though, and examined my own certainty that I was now the mother of a dead child, I became curious about the reality of abortion. That’s when I looked for pictures on the internet. I’ve never looked back.
I have since birthed three live sons (all quite large at birth) and miscarried two more children I will never hold. That makes me a mother of six, even though I cannot publicly acknowledge three of my children.
My husband and I eventually decided we want a large family, and now eschew contraception. Not long after that decision, we embraced the faith of my husband’s birth: Judaism.
From a purely secular standpoint, I find it abhorrent that the legal definition of personhood can be left to the emotional state of another individual. Legally, that is no different from vigilantism. I find it abhorrent that these surgical centers and their staff aren’t even held to the same health and safety standards as fast food joints. That is an issue of equal protection. I cannot understand why a woman would choose to put her health at risk and go through physical pain worse than miscarriage if she didn’t have to. Based on my experience of both birth and miscarriage (minus the emotional attachments involved), I would much rather put up with a few months of inconvenience for a better health outcome.
I have been pro life since I was around the age of 6. My Grandmother told me and my cousin about it. It was something hard to fathom at that age and it disgusted both of us. However, I never saw what abortion truly was, until I was in an eating disorder hospital at 16 yrs of age. I befriended a women there. Nicest person you could ever meet. She told her story of her abortion to all of us there. The despair, the heartbreak, the sense of loss she felt really got to me. She spent 25 yrs in and out of long term psychiatric facilities b/c of her abortion. She would cry everytime she saw a baby. She went through electric shock therapy every week there, had a severe eating disorder and suffered greatly. I had the opportunity of meeting up with her two yrs ago. She wanted to film her testimonial about her abortion. The truths she spoke were pure and heartfelt. She was a strong pro-life advocate. She was even teaching second graders the Catholic Catechism. She had finally found healing through God. She died f/ long term complications of her eating disorder last yr. I went to her funeral and I made a promise to never let the truths she spoke that day ever be silent again.
I grew up in a nominally Catholic home but birth control and abortion were “necessary in some cases” however those “cases” relied more on what people would think of my parents in having a knocked up, unmarried daughter. They forced me to abort my first child and I chose to abort my second child because I just could handle my family’s pressure, so I pre-empted them. Ironically enough, I had always known abortion was the killing of a child although I never knew what happened in an abortion. Not even with my first abortion because I was sedated and I never did any research beforehand. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my second daughter that I started to research abortion and became horrified. I also attended a Rachel Vineyards retreat and finally gave myself permission to feel the sheer anger at the unloving, self serving, selfish lack of support from those I should have expected help. I was also permitted to grieve. I jumped into being actively involved right around that point when I realized I didn’t want women to feel shamed into having an abortion or told they aren’t allowed to grieve. I wanted to help those that have had abortions to find their voice and to live again. I pray outside of abortion clinics, give my testimony to anyone that will listen but on an organized level, I give my testimony to women’s groups that ask me to give a presentation. I am also teaching all of my children that there is no such thing as a “right to choose” when it deals with pregnancy as the ONLY choice is to be a grown up and accept the responsibility for your actions. I can only pray that my generation is the catalyst to stop this foolishness of abortion by teaching our children the truth about sex and babies, not this dangerously ignorant junk liberals like to push.
In my case, there really wasn’t an event. It was more a matter of spending more time thinking about the issue, and reading what people on both sides had to say about it. I ended up finding that the pro-life arguments were generally better than the pro-choice ones, so that’s the direction I ended up going.
I was pro-choice for most of my life. I didn’t think a lot about abortion, but when I did I was of the opinion that men shouldn’t be legislating what a woman can do with her body. Even though I was Catholic, I was so poorly catechized I had no idea the Church taught anything about abortion.
When a friend needed someone to take her for her abortion, she asked me. The only qualms I had about it was the possibility of running into protestors at the clinic. I distinctly remember the slight fear I felt about that possibility. I now deeply regret participating in her abortion.
I remained pro-choice through my own pregnancies. I find that fact mind boggling now, but that’s where I was at. Even though I knew first-hand the stages of development, I simply never thought about abortion from the standpoint of the baby. I only considered the woman’s point of view.
Then I saw a graphic photo of a first trimester abortion. BAM! There it was, right in front of me. The reality of abortion that I never bothered to consider. I instantly turned pro-life and I’ll never be the same. I only wish I hadn’t spent so much of my life being so accepting of the killing.
Three events:
I was twelve years old in 1973 when Roe v. Wade hit the headlines. My mother had to explain abortion to me (she could barely pronounce the word; she sounded like “aborption”). My beloved little sister was 2-1/2 years old at the time. I knew where babies came from, and the thought that a child could be killed before she was born horrified me from the start.
I grew up opposing abortion, and I have voted pro-life in every election since.
In the fall of 2007, we had our first 40 Days for Life vigil in Madison. That was my introduction to the sidewalk. Abortion ceased to be a political issue and became a personal one. I met post-abortive women, and came to understand that children are not the only victims of abortion.
In January, 2009, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital Surgery Center voted to sell second-trimester abortion services at their facility. Steve Karlen (a young pro-life activist who now works for 40 Days For Life) asked me to assist him in organizing an emergency response rally. My part was small — but I saw 2000 concerned pro-life residents turn out in February, braving the sub-zero cold and snow. They rallied and marched on the hospital, encircling the whole block, overflowing the sidewalks, standing in snow drifts piled three feet deep.
We eventually convinced the UW Hospital to abandon their killing plans. It took persistent prayer on the sidewalks, deft political and legal action, and a quiet revolt by the medical staff within. A devout Catholic heart surgeon resigned. An anaesthesologist quietly provided legal forms to staffers asserting their conscientious objection, and the registered nurses’ organization completely refused to cooperate with abortionists. We learned later that the interior resistance was fortified by the prayerful presence on the sidewalks. They could not have done it without us.
For my part, the initial rally was an epiphany. We can resist abortion, publicly and with large numbers — and we can save the lives and souls of women and children. We just have to show up.
I’m an old fart, well really a ripe-old-fart(ROF). This seriously diabled ROF is blessed with people who find human life very special .. so much so that the momentary pain that marks me 24/7 is just a very small part of who I am as God’s kid (aka St John). He has gifted me with eternal Love. There are too many who think eternal life means eternal love. Sorry eternal Life and life are not the same thing. Life (as a capital ‘L’) stems from Living as ONE IN my Abba. Life (with a small ‘l’) is an endless blindness .. something our Reality rightly rejects.
PL comes my way for a totally different reason than young-human-abortion. I’ve always wonderyed about the ‘when’ … not the ‘if’ of my own ROF-abortion … and YOURS too! Will we ever learn to accept that we are gifted by Abba?
I’ve told a lot of this here before, I know. . . but some things may be new.
The big event for me was nothing less than the passing of Roe v. Wade in 1973. I was sixteen. Before then, I don’t think I knew that there was such a thing as abortion, much less that some people wanted it to be legal. (I was pretty innocent). Nevertheless, I already knew what an unborn baby looked like at all stages of development. I’d known since I was 9 or 10, from my mother’s baby book, used through 9 pregnancies with all the detailed drawings of pre-natal development. (There was no real excuse, even in pre-ultrasound days, for not knowing this). Because of that, when I heard of the court decision, I instantly knew This is wrong, completely wrong, wrong in every way.
My family was Catholic, but it wasn’t Church teaching that decided me on this. I may not have even known explicitly what that teaching was at the time. But I did know it was wrong to kill a baby, at any stage of development.
I was so upset that I remember talking to my classmates about it — something I never did otherwise in regard to hot topics. I got nothing but derision in return. The general consensus was that this was necessary, because after all, people can’t be expected to always control their sexual desires, and pregnancy shouldn’t be forced on any woman. etc. And these were high-schoolers in 1973!
Three years later, my mother had her own unexpected late-in-life pregnancy, at age 42. She was urged to abort because of the danger of a Down Syndrome baby. I don’t know whether the amniocentesis method of testing was even available yet, but the justification for aborting DS babies was already there. She also had potential for serious complications because of the RH blood factor. She refused, saying “We are Catholics and I would never do that!” — and eventually gave birth to my youngest sister, who was perfectly healthy and normal, and is now a wife and the mother of teenagers herself.
All that was the beginning of my pro-life activism, from letter-writing to participating in the local March for Life, long-time work for Birthright, praying outside abortion clinics, becoming a Feminist for Life, and now a pro-life blogger. That’s almost 40 years of activism.
I want to see an end to this soon. I want to see justice done at last — please, God!
Abortion was never an issue that I thought much about and for the most part I was in the camp of I won’t judge your decision to abort. It was not personal to me since each time I was pregnant I was trying. When someone I knew had a late term abortion I counseled against it unsuccessfully. The issue to me was the late term . I became very personal to me when my teenage daughter got pregnant and I freaked out. I tried to convince, coerce an abortion but she resisted my strong arm tactics. I even took her to an abortion center for counseling and paid for a session hoping they could help convince her.
We then went to a CPC for help and the night my grandson was born God orchestrated it so I went into the delivery room to watch the C section. I was the first family member to hold him and I was overwhelmed looking into the face I had tried to snuff out. The local CPC asked me to speak at their banquet and that led to a video for their trainee counselors. I heard a sermon about why were you born at this place and this time…for such a time as this. I knew where my calling was. My grandson starts college in a few weeks. The next time I was at that center was as a sidewalk counselor. After the death of my husband, I knew life was too short to put anything off and I retired early to devote more time to my pro life causes.
I can still remember where I was sitting almost 40 years ago in Queen of Peace Catholic Church (God bless the Catholics!) when they showed the film by Dr. Bernard Nathanson, The Silent Scream. I remember watching the little baby’s heartbeat begin to race as it tried to avoid the suction cannula before it was torn apart.
I witnessed an actual abortion via ultrasound and I was horrified.
I could not understand how anyone could perform such an evil horrific act on a defenseless little baby.
Over the years it continues to amaze me how people can view abortion and not see the barbaric cruelty. I’ve learned the human mind has a tremendous capacity for lying to itself. ”The human heart is deceitful…” the Scripture says.
Like all of us, I’m quite the sinner myself. The abortion front is one of many cultural battles I fight as a soldier of the Cross
I’ve always been pro-life. It just made sense. I certainly wasn’t taught it by agnostic parents who didn’t really discuss topics of interest.
It was a simple matter of logic, like civil rights for blacks When I was young at least half the country smoked, and I never desired to try that. It stank, so why would I want to inhale that? Not only an obvious assault on the senses, but of course it had to be unhealthy, no matter if everyone did it.
It was just as apparent that young life should be nurtured, not disposed of. Roe vs. Wade happened just before my high school graduation, and I guess that’s when it first became a topic for young people to consider.
Thereafter I always considered myself in the pro-life camp, but never really got involved till I saw Jill on Bill O’Reilly and found this blog.
Wow what powerful stories! Rachel did you officially convert to Judaism? Just curious. Its sad that there are so few Jewish people that are prolife.
I grew up in a very proabortion home. Before Roe my father, a pharmacist, illegally dispensed medications that would cause miscarriages. He also took my cousin, who lived with us for awhile, to have an abortion. I remember her sitting and crying by the toilet vomiting.
I also knew of two women who suffered from having an illegal abrtion including an aunt who was rendered infertile and a next door neighbor who nearly bled to death. I was young at the time but because of this I became just like my parents.
I mentioned my mother had a saline abortion. I remember her lying in bed crying. Her abdomen was bright red. I know that my father talked her into it; she was traumatized. My older sister had an abortion also
I cant say there is one event that changed my POV but one incident affected me deeply. I was living in Erie Pa and typed paper for students at a Catholic nursing school.
Research on line. Also knowing several women who regret their abortions…I’m a pro life nurse. I have always worked with the elderly and I see them being discarded. Finding Jiils site helped me to see what was REALLY going on and I was mortified. I always have been pro life and I always will be.Take a look at how society has fallen . More and more women on drugs and alcohol because of abortion . Angry young men being recycled through the prison system . Society is fractured ever since we’ve destroyed the family unit. Killing our children has destroyed America
Oops hit the send button too fast. Meant to say that at this school there was a young woman who was pregnant. She wrote about how the nuns and the students were supporting her and how grateful she was. I was really moved. On another occasion I overheard another young woman talking about how prolifers had helped her during her pregnancy. I was shocked because I thought that “those people” just wanted to bomb clinics and harrass and oppress women. I did a grest deal of reading and was devasted when I learned about the high rate of abortion in the black community. The rest as they say is history.
I have been able to talk to my older sister about the issue but my younger one, who is also a pharmacist is also proabortion. She has no problem dispensing RU 486 and thinks it should be given out gratis. My brother even applied for a job with PP but didnt get it. They dislike mentally handicapped ppl and cant fathom why Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig. My dad is in his nineties and still talks about how who “should” have abortions, mainly poor women. He is in failing health and I hope he asks forgiveness for the lives he helped snuff out, including that if his own little son, before its too late.
“I can still remember where I was sitting almost 40 years ago in Queen of Peace Catholic Church (God bless the Catholics!) when they showed the film by Dr. Bernard Nathanson, The Silent Scream.”
Uh, The Silent Scream came out in 1984, which was 29 years ago. There’s no way you saw it almost 40 years ago, unless you have a broad definition of almost.
Phillymiss, that’s just terrible; so much death in your own family through abortion. I’m so sorry :-(
I am sitting here rocking my nearly 6 mo old son to sleep, reading the comments…and the last sentence of your comment just killed me. Your precious baby brother… ;*-( I cannot imagine my husband trying to get me to abort. How awful would that be. Although I’d tell him where to go real fast…I am so sorry for all you’ve lost through abortion, but I am so glad you aren’t pro-abort yourself :-)
Many of the very same people who are so smug in congratulating themselves for being anti-slavery and pro-civil rights (maybe just because they grew up in the era when this was expected of us) haven’t thought twice about supporting or even promoting abortion.
Yet they say I would never do it or condone it in my family. Well, why not? What’s so special about you and yours? Those who stood by while slavery and discrimination was going on must have said the same thing to themselves.
Up until high school, I had heard of the abortion debate & the pro-life movement, but it wasn’t an issue that important to me. But then, & I realize this probably sounds cheesy, I was in high school church youth group and a guest speaker from a local pro-life organization came in & spoke about sex, abstinence, & abortion. They handed out these newspapers with fetal development & abortion images in it & that was the point at which I actively became pro-life.
At first, I had a pretty hard core view: Abortion should be illegal, women who had abortions & the doctors who preformed them are murderers, but my pro-life views were softened & I began to feel compassion & want to help the women facing unplanned pregnancies once I began to read the testimonies of women who experienced post-abortion disorders & listened to women in distress on unplanned pregnancy message boards.
Then in college, I viewed the PBS Frontline episode on the two sides of the abortion debate & the abortion decision in which they actually showed two women going through the abortion “counseling” and then undergoing a vacuum aspiration abortion, their physical and emotional pain moved me to tears & cemented my pro-life views & that’s when I decided that pregnant women need better support & options than abortion & I became a pro-life feminist & became involved with the pregnancy help movement.
On the flip side, could we have a weekend question part II, in which we ask pro-choicers if there was an event that sparked their pro-choice passion, as a means of opening up dialogue with them & challenging their views?
* Moderators, on the flip side, could we have a Weekend Question Part II, in which we ask pro-choicers if there was an event which sparked or specific reason behind their pro-choice views, as a means of opening up dialogue with them & getting to them to think about their viewpoint more in depth (beyond rhetoric)?
Well said Hans. Quite a paradox.
I grew up uninformed and ignorant of the abortion issue. It never came up in conversation, and I never really thought about it one way or the other. As a college student, if anything, I was “personally opposed” but wouldn’t “push my beliefs on someone else.” When I was married, and we started having kids, that is when I really started to have a strong opinion about it. Having seen my own wonderful children in ultrasounds, feeling them move in the womb and witnessing their births, I can not fathom how anyone that has experienced parenthood could feel differently. And over the years, as my faith awakened, I was blessed to meet and befriend many good pro-life people. But although y opinion on the topic had solidified, I was still pretty quiet about it and not an “activist” in any sense of the word.
A few years ago, I was leaving a soccer practice, and took a different route for no particular reason. And I passed the local 40 Days campaign in front of PP. I turned around and went back to speak to them. And as I have become better informed and really learned the truth of abortion (through a great number of sources, not the least of which is our own Jill Stanek), there has been no turning back. Now, life issues are common topics in our house, and our entire family participates in events including 40 Days, walks for life, PSC support, pro-life student organizations, the March for Life and advocating for adoption (we have 4 adopted children and 4 birth children).
My family has always been pro-life, but I was only somewhat involved when I was younger. A couple years ago though, Martin Haskell moved one of his abortion clinics to Cincinnati, OH. He is notorious for partial-birth abortion and I became more active because of it.
I was born to unwed parents, placed in foster care for five weeks, and then placed with my adoptive family. My parents (both sets) are pro-life and Catholic. That is the way I was raised. I bore my first child when I was young, single, poor, in a new city, with a new job, and surrounded by liberal pro-choice people some of whom seemed less than helpful. My circumstances were typical of those who abort. My employer and another even offered abortion as a solution when I told them of my unplanned pregnancy. However, I looked on my first born as my first blood relative. The first one that I would get to know. That as an extension of my adoption experience solidified my pro-life views.
DeniseNoe says:
August 11, 2013 at 12:59 pm
Does anyone have a “passion” to prevent problem pregnancies?Does anyone have a “passion” to ensure that those who get pregnant are those who look forward to having babies?
Yes.
The whole point of the dignity and chastity movement is to prepare young people for lifelong marriage, as well as the prevention of pregnancy, diseases, and the emotional destruction of premarital sexual activity.
Unwanted pregnancies, diseases, divorces and heartaches are caused by the “contraceptive mentality” — the false idea that humans can have sex without any consequences. This error is epidemic in America.
GK Chesterton: “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies when they become fashions.”
I would say that I was always pro-life but prior to the day I read a description of a partial birth abortion I did not comprehend how really gruesome abortion is. It was unbelievable to me the gruesome accounts of abortionists and how they kill these babies ‘legally’. Some like Tiller would deliver babies to their shoulders and stab them in the head with scissors or inject the womb with saline to burn the baby alive. The fact that we haven’t been able to stop it or even make it illegal is a blight on humanity.
Mods: My posts to this thread were set aside for approval by moderators. I don’t know why.
Is this happening to everybody?
knowing over sixteen women, personal friends, who have had an abortion, one or more. When I started getting involved, the plot thickened, and there was no turning back. I was a pro-lifer for life. I just wonder phillymiss, if you felt like you needed therapy for all you had seen from it? It seams like there should be something for helping with the healing process of friends and relatives. Yeah, I think Saline abortions were outlawed because they were too slow, and the child suffered too violently and for too long, and women could see and feel the child violent death happening. I mean, it really is a trauma, and you healing knowing what happened and what was lost, weather you a bystander or directly involved. I don’t know how to cope with all the friends I knew who had it done to them. We were so innocent, beautiful and full of dreams. One by one, I watched those die. Reconciling with why it happened time and time again to over half the friends I knew is hard work.
There needs to me more awareness of P.A.S..
I never thought I would need an abortion until my third pregnancy. The twins I was carrying were diagnosed with Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. We went to one of the finest fetal care centers in the country, and all five doctors agreed that our best chances of giving birth to one of the babies was to abort the sicker one. I have never regretted my decision, and have a healthy 6-year-old.
@ CityOfAngels.US: Saline abortions are not illegal. Most 2nd trimester abortions are dismemberment because that is less likely to damage the pregnant woman and causes her less pain.
Oasis Catholic Youth Movement was my first “organized” pro-life experience. Other than that, before joining this youth ministry, I was fortunate to have always been surrounded by pro-life oriented individuals.
@ Del: There is too much sexual activity in this culture, especially casual sexual activity and promiscuous sexual activity.
We need to go beyond “Just Say No.” As a society, we must recognize that we have constructed a system that tends to delay marriage and make promiscuity more likely. The educational system leaves people unable to support themselves until they are in their mid-20s — if then. We have to change so that most people can support themselves and marry when they are relatively young.
Societies in which wedding night virginity is common are societies in which people marry relatively young. That doesn’t mean we need child marriages. It means we should make it feasible for people to marry in their late teens and early twenties.
Tiffany says:
August 12, 2013 at 12:45 am
I never thought I would need an abortion until my third pregnancy. The twins I was carrying were diagnosed with Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. We went to one of the finest fetal care centers in the country, and all five doctors agreed that our best chances of giving birth to one of the babies was to abort the sicker one. I have never regretted my decision, and have a healthy 6-year-old.
These tragedies are rare, but they do happen. We mourn the loss of your little one.
Pro-life efforts and laws to protect unborn children would not interfere with ethical medical cases like yours — there was evidently a clear need to save one child or lose both of them.
However, we would like to stop the retail slaughter of children with cleft palates, club feet and Down’s Syndrome.
@Denise: Efforts toward education reform are still pregnant, and of course the ruling regime will try to abort them.
Pro-lifers need to multi-task: We need to understand that natural marriage, complete education, and genuine healthcare reform are all part of our mission. Abortion is merely the biggest part of the Culture of Death.
Concerning education: We need to cultivate more homeschooling and charity-based private schooling. Echoing far off in the hills, you can barely hear a battle cry forming: a cry for Separation of Education and State.
@ Del: I’ve been accused of “ranting” by Carla for my advocacy of chaperoned dating. The reason I advocate this is that young people often have very strong emotions, very strong sexual desires — and a brain that hasn’t developed to its maximum in the area of judgement. The simple fact is that we need to avoid placing people, particularly the young, in situations of great temptation. College has spawned a massively destructive “hook-up culture” that can’t do anything but cause problem pregnancies and spread STDs.
My three cents to this discussion DeniseNoe: Although your advocacy has noble underpinnings, I disagree. There is a time when autonomy must be respected. We do not raise our children for ourselves but for the world and trust is a big part of that.
We must incorporate preparation for dating in our parenting. Being open, honest and willing to discuss the tough topic of sexuality allievates holding our children’s hands later on. Providing a supportive environment during dating goes a long way as well.
Other than that, what would remain is over-protecting our children by locking them in the proverbial closet.
Hi CityofAngels US,
there is a ‘natural’ explanation to the ‘unnatural act’ that is abortion. Humans often comment on the blatant immaturity of an abortion decision made (often) under duress. However such ‘pressure’ from-others does not fully explain the acceptance of this barbarity as MY(personal) SOLUTION. Rather than accept that there is a depression about this decision as if depression itself is somehow ‘natural’, as if any death produces a ‘natural’-grief.
Adolescence begs an unusual period (beginning with puberty) that poses an unusually hard burden on rational processing often noted lin ten-year-old-nerds. The cerebellum is part of each human brain and often coordinates muscle movement and emotions ,, like ‘flight and fright response’ or ‘peeing-in-pants response’ to fright. The emotional-stability, the balancing role of cerebellar structures is directly attributed to the zinc levels in the mossy fiber layers.
This is some of the ‘science’ behind any decision at all. Behind the decision to abort there are some period-specific occurrences that make zinc-deficiency: the mother herself may be zinc-deficient due to the onslaught of puberty; plus a high fever; plus healing from a burn/physical trauma AND then, there are the two specific (time related) stages from baby-gestational-development that require extra-zinc. The mood-swings/depression surrounding the whole abortion phenomenon are not so unusual.
To make matters even worse a newer crinkle comes through via lipid (fat) research. All people need a quantity of a specific family of fats called omega-3. Research was done on mice to see what would happen if omega-3 deficient. [This is now happening to humans because cattle-meat that were grass-fed animals have been switched over to grain-fed animals, so voila total loss of omega-3 in the diet.} I am sorry to say, but ADHD is only a small part of this problem.
The lipid research found that only second-generation (mice) were marked with anxiety/depression. This means your kids/young-people … pregnant young people! [ ref … Life Extension Update]
Abortion is not a “treatment” for twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome and does not increase the likelihood of survival for the stronger twin, according to a study I read a few years ago. Sadly, most doctors default to killing people these days if they can’t fix the problem, they treat people more like dogs in a vet clinic run by Dr. House. If anyone finds themselves in difficult situations, they need to check out patient support groups first before listening to their doctors recommendations. There is a twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome foundation: http://www.tttsfoundation.org
Right, Chris. My friend’s granddaughter is a survivor of TTTS. She was the stronger twin and unfortunately her sibling passed away. However, she was not purposefully killed through abortion.
Around 1977 I was confronted with the inescapable and undeniable truth that I am complicit in the murder of my own pre-natal son.
You may wonder how I could know the gender of my innocent child.
His mother was in the second trimester of her pregnancy when ‘WE’ chose to ‘choice’ our unborn child.
The method of execution chosen by the abortionist was injection of a highly concentrated saline solution into my pregnant girlfriend’s uterus.
Hours later when the lifeless corpse was expelled from her body she observed his gender and some time later informed me that we had killed our son.
In the early 80’s I viewed two movies, ‘The Silent Scream’ and ‘Gandhi’.
Silent Scream requires no further elaboration.
In ‘Gandhi’ there is a reenactment of the Amritsar massacre and subsequent inquiry.
The LORD inquired of me, “How does a prenatal child who is about to be murdered make ‘proper application for aid’?”
It was NOT a rhetorical question.
Link to Silent Scream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gON-8PP6zgQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Link to 6 minute clip from Gandhi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hgRLqBZuMQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I had a part time job in college working at a Catholic bookstore. (I was one of maybe four Protestants who worked there.) I had been asked to reorganize the collection of rental videos they offered. I noticed several of them were pro-life. I asked if I could borrow a few, and they said I could. I don’t honestly know why I was curious… I had always known I was “against abortion.” And I had friends who aborted, and it made me sad. But I took the videos home anyway.
I watched the Silent Scream first and that one bothered me, but the next video I put in was only 9 minutes long. How bad could it be??
The actual footage of that second video, “The Hard Truth,” was only about 6 minutes long. I watched it, and have never been so gut-wrenchingly grieved before or since. The abortion footage just horrified me beyond words. I sat on my couch and cried and just prayed, “God, if there is anything you want me to do to help stop this, I will do it.”
A couple years later, I was working as the office assistant at my local pregnancy center, and several months after being there, the director resigned. The executive director and president of the organization requested that I interview for the job. I did, and they hired me, at 23 years old, to run the center. I did that for almost four years and decided it was time to step down right before our second child was born. While I was director there, though, I attended a local Right to Life meeting because they were having a guest speaker who had witnessed “live birth abortions” happening in her hospital.
I went to hear Jill Stanek speak about her experiences, and I was amazed by her story.
Little did I know that about ten years later, I would stumble upon this blog which would later lead to me working for Jill, serving in the pro-life movement in a different way.
My friend’s twins are “unequal” but the stronger, bigger brother has always been protective of his smaller brother. Both are in high school. Abortions are recommended by doctors, sometimes, to protect themselves from a malpractice lawsuit. They’d rather mothers killed a baby on purpose than be blamed at delivery. Sorry, but that’s a sad fact.
I can’t help but notice how many pro-lifers are telling stories of having been pro-choice. No wonder our pro-abortion trolls can’t get anywhere with you! I was also pro-choice for a few years. Then I longed to be more pro-life, but it was just so sticky with the surviving family members who have been affected by the lost of my child. Not everyone is willing to “out” themselves and I have to respect their privacy. Many years ago, I was at a family funeral for a friend’s mom. The mom had begun having her own children late in life and lived to see the first of many grandchildren. The grandchild was so comforting during the funeral. She had a beautiful little perspective that brought her aunts and uncles joy during sorrow. Years later, I was at a family funeral of my own relative. How I missed my child!! How I looked around and realized that everyone else in my family HAD A RIGHT TO THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CHILD. Despite what my ob/gyn’s dire prognosis, I had no right to sever personal relationships between family members by having my child destroyed before birth. She had a right to her relationship with her own father, her grandparents, her uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. I had no right to have an abortion. My doctor should have referred me to another ob/gyn if she didn’t want to care for me during a risky pregnancy. I should have sought out another doctor. It’s too late for me, but it’s not too late for moms today and future moms tomorrow.
@Denise & chaperoned dating: This is a novel idea, but it is on the right track.
The important thing is that we, as parents and a culture, need to start showing that we care about safety and purity before marriage. Lots of ways to do this.
If a few concerned parents started blogging about chaperoning their children’s dating adventures, it would be a sign and encouragement to other parents and kids to share their ideas and experience. We could get a whole cultural dialogue going about the restoration of courtship!
Actually Denise I agree with much of what you said about supervision for teens. I think that ”one-on-one dating” is a ritual that breeds (pun intended) sexual activity instead of saving sex for marriage, preparation for marriage and fidelity in marriage. Courtship for teens and young adults is a better choice with parents involved, this would be the ideal very countercultural and would give our children male and female the protection they really need and desire (teens/young adults won’t tell you this but most want to get off the “hook up”, booty call”, “friends with benefits, and “your gonna have sex anyway” merry-go-round that causes tremendous heartbreak, depression, increased odds of suicide, STDs, unplanned pregnancies, unwed parenthood and ABORTIONS.
http://www.fetalhope.org/patients-families/condition?cid=168&p=1
Chris, read treatment option number five.
I did want to give my prolife story btw. Grew up in a prolife family but was on the fence in college due to indoctrination by some of my pro-choice professors. After marriage and having my first-born that changed my life and sealed the deal holding my child in my arms. A few years later starting volunteering at my local CPC, working with some other pro-life organizations and like they say ”the rest is history”. I’ve heard it said “once you’ve got the Pro-Life bug you’ve got it “for LIFE”. I’ve probably been involved for 20 years.
Regarding courtship being better for teens/young adults than dating; I have young family members who have awesome, stable marriages who have done this. Many of them saved sex for marriage or started over with secondary virginity, and some are still waiting, combined with making a serious commitment to Jesus Christ and having strong parental-family accountability relationships this is possible. They don’t put themselves constantly in tempting situations, are mostly around family and friends and most of them married in their mid 20s some later. We can change the culture.
I had medical “professionals” recommend that I choose a “treatment option” as well when I was pregnant with one of my children (he was growing near a large uterine fibroid). My “treatment option” is now almost 17 and my fibroid is older than that. It comes as no surprise to most prolifers, Tiffany, that many doctors and others working in the medical field support abortion and recommend and even push it.
For any prolifer that may have not yet come across Tiffany’s story, here are a few links to get you started:
http://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_c9672e2c-48e1-11df-b990-001cc4c002e0.html
https://www.jillstanek.com/archives/planned-parenthood-desperate-l.html
http://kansansforlife.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/disabled-unborn-children-no-defense-for-abortion/
Tiffany, I’m curious. You obviously believe abortion is ok if the prognosis is bad, but do you support “abortion on demand?” or do you think it should only be allowed for certain cases? If you believe in limits, can you list them?
@ Del and Prolifer L: As an atheist, I have little concern for sexual “purity.” Rather, I have much concern about the brutal consequences much of sexuality wrecks: 1 1/2 abortions per year, rampant STDs, and unstable relationships.
The “making out” that is almost inevitable if young people who are attracted to each other are alone not only causes problem pregnancies and spread STDs, it short circuits the process of getting to REALLY know the other person — values, attitudes, interests, skills — that can lead to a healthy marriage.
The brutal consequences of sexuality is a direct result of the little concern people, including yourself, have for sexual purity, Denise.
Common sense really.
What do I say, now? It is obvious that doctors (ob/gyn) have a HUGE influence on a woman’s pregnancy decisions. How to derail such influence to abort – KNOWLEDGE- for the 7+ years of medical training, 95% have NEVER studied anything about nutrition at all … not even 1/2 of 1 lecture. Just one glaring example Chris, is the site about twins, where their ‘expert’ recommends Ensure. This is the stupidest possible supplement to ever recommend to anyone, let alone someone carrying twins. A better place to BEGIN, would be http://www.drrons.com or [from personal preference] a mild-ketosis diet during winter months
Denise, I am already aware you consider yourself “an atheist” that is why I qualified my agreement regarding “much of what you said” not all that you said. It is not often that I agree with you but I do appreciate your pro-life stance so I am glad you come to this blog. We need everyone we can get to fight against the barbaric slaughter of innocent unborn babies. You are correct when you say “making out”…short circuits the process of getting to REALLY know the other person-values, attitudes, interest, skills-that can lead to a healthy marriage.” Take care
I also hate pie-in-the-sky answers like Denise’. [I suspect she thinks my proposals are just pie-in-the-sky too, But mine are absolutely necessary to end all societies of abortion FOREVER! F YOU DO NOT ENSURE THE ADEQUATE INTAKES OF ZINC AND OMEGA-3, THEN EACH SUBSEQUENT GENERATION OF ALL (pc AND pl TOO) WILL EXPERIENCE THE SAME CONFUSION AROUND SEXUALITY.]
I have worked and listened to teens for decades, and it is obvious that many are more mature (more responsible) than their parents. Maturity does not come from age. Remeber the axiom: the number of years means a person is growing – older not growing-up!’
DeniseNoe says:
August 12, 2013 at 1:59 pm
@ Del and Prolifer L: As an atheist, I have little concern for sexual “purity.”
I don’t see how it matters, whether one is Christian or atheist or Hindu. Perhaps you would prefer a word different from “purity,” but the concept is the same.
You like pure water and pure, clean air. You don’t want polluted water and air. And you know the damage that polluted sexuality does to a person’s life. You want to keep your children pure.
You want to chaperone your kids’ dating because you want to guard their purity until they are wise enough to protect themselves.
I went to pro-life rallies with my church youth group based on the idea that God hated abortion. Later my mom tried to explain how she disagreed with abortion but thought it should be legal. In college, my topsy-turvy chapter, I could imagine myself crying “do as I say not as I do” if I had been in a circumstance to consider abortion for myself.
Finally, in my mid-twenties, God was doing some work in me, teaching me in the general sense about Himself and life and love. I began to think differently about abortion as an issue, pausing to realize that it was a permanent solution to a possibly temporary situation. And I realized that, at least for many of “my” crowd, it was a deadly cover-up of another issue (pre-marital sex for example).
But I was married and not so personally affected so I mostly just waxed philosophically about it. And then my daughter died unexpectedly at full-term delivery. And within a couple months a newborn was discovered in the garbage not a block away from my house… and in my deep grief it hurt even more knowing that someone had willed that child out of this world rather than give that child a chance with a mother (maybe me) who would love him or her as a treasure.
In the work God did in me through the experience of losing my daughter, I have changed in numerous ways. I trust Him in ways I didn’t know that I was failing to do before. And part of that is that I trust Him to work out the ugly in not just my own situations but in other people’s too. And I feel like I can know that every time a mother submits her life to let her child live, then He will bless that and make it good in His timing. And I just want to be a part of that for people.
And I’ve taken more time to really understand the issues and I know it’s not just about “God says” but about basic human rights and respect, so those are really the heart of my arguments today.
@ Del: Yes, it is the concept that matters. What does promiscuity lead to? STDS at pandemic proportions. 1 1/2 dismembered embryos and fetuses per year. Much psychological trauma.
I used to correspond with a woman named Renee Nicely, imprisoned for the beating to death of her son, 3-year-old Shawn Nicely. The prosecution asked for the death penalty for this heinous crime. The jury decided on life imprisonment. Why? Because they believed her attorneys’ argument that her mind had been unhinged. She had undergone an abortion the day before Shawn was brutally beaten to death.
It is quite possible that if his mother had not undergone that abortion, Shawn Nicely would be alive today.
DeniseNoe,
When you continually bring up the same topics(your very handsome friend who would ensure an abortion of anyone he got pregnant, chaperoned dating, the Oldenberg baby, Jayne Mansfield, sex that doesn’t lead to pregnancy)I call it ranting.
I don’t accuse you of it. I call it ranting. And it is beyond tiring.
After my abortion and subsequent drinking, partying, depression, suicide attempt I began to seek healing. I found the truth about what I had done. I took responsibility for it and ask God to forgive me. I wanted to do more!!! I joined some larger groups of women that were speaking out. I began to feel empowered.
I will keep speaking. I will tell others that abortion hurts women and ends the precious life of their child.
I will be silent no more.
After experiencing a kind of a religious conversion (or more like “coming back to church”) I’ve bought my first Bible from a Catholic store on internet. They sent the Bible together with a copy of Pro-Life Times. Having some time I’ve read it, and it’s as if a light went off – “that’s not right!” I did some more reading online and here we are 5 years later.
Praxedes,
You seem like you are obessed with me. I stand by my decision. I saved my son’s life through abortion, and my story kept abortion legal in SD.
Ah Tiffany. You have been here before.
I am wondering why you would comment on a post titled
Was There An Event That Sparked Your Prolife Passion?
Are you going to share that part of your story now?
It is hardly obsessing when you post a comment and others engage you.
What other reason is there to come to a prolife blog except to engage others in conversation?
I will engage you in conversation. Carla, what would you do if you were given the choice to abort one child to save the other? And don’t blame my doctors, I went to the top fetal care center in the US. FIVE highly educated doctors told me it was the best option.
You may have guilt, cause you didn’t have a medical reason to abort, that was your choice, but I do. Therefore I have no guilt.
Tiffany,
Did you ever consider that you losing both your twins would be a lesser evil then the continued legal slaughter of thousands; or even millions of healthy unborn children?
Tiffany appears to have been faced with a VERY special and morally problematic situation. It is not relevant to the majority of abortions that are of healthy embryos and fetuses.
And YES, there is a good case for saving the one who can be saved even if it means deliberately killing one. My mom has never had an abortion. She did have an ectopic pregnancy in a fallopian tube that was treated. That is not an abortion but a treatment and it is not morally problematic as there is no way the unborn can be born.
“You like pure water and pure, clean air. You don’t want polluted water and air. And you know the damage that polluted sexuality does to a person’s life. You want to keep your children pure. You want to chaperone your kids’ dating because you want to guard their purity until they are wise enough to protect themselves”
No she’s right – she doesn’t care about purity. If her “kids” – which she can’t have b/c she sterilized herself so she could have sex without fear of pregnancy- wanted to go have lesbian sex all night, she would be like “bravo, try to convince your friends to try this. Oh and slip this birth control in their water.”
Tiffany,
I remember you now. The debate over whether killing one child was necessary to save the other aside, you will have to answer for using a case of medical necessity (if that’s what it was) to pimp for abortion on demand.
You seem like you are obessed with me
Lol. I’m sure in your mind I do. Your mind is lying to yourself again, Tiffster. You stopped by here and no one searched you out. I just wanted to let any new readers know who you were before they thought you were actually prolife.
.
and my story kept abortion legal in SD.
Well isn’t that special? It’s seems that you are obsessed with yourself in addition to being obsessed with killing innocent humans.
Your story is filled with lies and narcissism. Is it that difficult to be out of the prokilling spotlight that you feel the need to visit a prolife site?
highly educated doctors
Yeah, because we all know that the highly educated are also always ethical. Lol again. My doctors have all been highly educated but only the prolife ones have also been ethical.
Therefore I have no guilt.
We had no doubt about this, hon. Lol’d louder a third time.
I do not have guilt anymore Tiffany. I have remorse. I have regret that I paid someone $250 to kill my child.
What would I do? I wouldn’t kill one child even if it meant saving the other one. I wouldn’t end the life of my innocent child.
Been there. Done that. Am now prolife.
You are here to justify your abortion. When 3500+ abortions that happen today are for CONVENIENCE.
Your child died just the same as mine no matter the circumstances.
DeniseNoe,
What do you call it when you continually are asked to STOP posting on certain topics and you do?
You keep doing it. Over and over and over and I ask you to STOP and you don’t.
Call it whatever you want.
PS
I receive quite a few emails about your comments btw and THAT is why I delete so many of your comments. Your words are disturbing to others.
@ Carla: Are you referring to the post about my mother’s ectopic pregnancy? I’m pointing out that, like Tiffany’s case, an ectopic pregnancy is a VERY special circumstance. A pregnancy in the fallopian tubes CANNOT be brought to birth (at least at the present time). Thus, treating such pregnancies are not in the same category as “abortion” even though they might be REFERRED TO as “abortions.”
Even when abortions were illegal across the board, women with ectopic pregnancies were legally treated.
You know what I am referring to DeniseNoe as I continually ask you to stop posting about it!!
We have been over this!!
Do not post on adoption/serial killers. I get emails when you do from those that have been adopted or adopt and they are deeply troubled by your comments.
Do not post about “sex that does not lead to pregnancy.”
Do not post about your own sexual experiences etc. Nobody wants to read about that.
You throw out unrelated questions on threads.
Should we encourage chaperoned dating? And Jayne Mansfield and the Oldenberg baby etc. etc. etc.
We have had this conversation so many times here and through emails and I don’t know what it is that you do not understand.
The short answer would be, 40 Days for Life.
For a very long time, I thought that abortion was too big an issue to tackle – and I knew I wouldn’t last long alone. When I was introduced to 40 Days for Life, I resisted it, because I mistakenly thought that it was another version of Rescues – and I didn’t want to get arrested. The friend who brought me to the vigil assured me that it was peaceful and prayerful. I went to that vigil in the spring of 2010 – and have been sidewalk counseling ever since. This last Saturday, the 390th baby was spared from abortion since August of 2010, at the local abortion mill I counsel at. It’s been an amazing faith journey.
God bless you Dan!!!
@ Carla: I have written NOTHING about the adoption-serial murder statistical link in a long time. SOMEONE ELSE wrote about it and I wrote and AGREED with that person that adoption per se may NOT be the reason for that link.
Sometimes statistical links exist when a third factor that happens to connect is the reason. For example, let’s say we have green haired women and they are more likely to get abortions. Someone might say green haired women are therefore less opposed to abortion than other women. It could turn out that the only reason green haired women have more abortions than purple haired women is that men are more attracted to green haired women, they get pregnant more, and thus they abort more. Similarly, the adoption-serial murder link might not be due to adoption but to something else.
I have nothing against adoption.
@ Carla: Let me remind you of the ONE post I wrote that you DID like. That was what Denise Noe would do with abortion-seeking females if she had her “druthers”:
“Here is a photograph of what is in you right now. [Show photograph of embryo or fetus at her stage of pregnancy.] Here is a photograph of what will happen to what is in you if you have an abortion. [Show photograph of embryo or fetus dismembered into a pile of body parts that have been ripped to pieces or photograph of fetus after saline abortion with skin cruelly burned and reddened.] Here is a photograph of what will happen if you carry for the next [x number of] months and give birth. [Show photograph of a healthy newborn baby.] So what is it going to be? Do you want to create something ugly and dead now? Or do you want to wait [x number of] months and create beauty and life?”