The problem with Cecile Richards’ abortion
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards disclosed in Elle in October that she had had an abortion:
I had an abortion. It was the right decision for me and my husband, and it wasn’t a difficult decision. Before becoming president of Planned Parenthood eight years ago, I hadn’t really talked about it beyond family and close friends. But I’m here to say, when politicians argue and shout about abortion, they’re talking about me—and millions of other women around the country.
At the time I thought the “it wasn’t a difficult decision” line was terribly insensitive to Richards’ three surviving children. They certainly know it could have been any one of them who was snuffed, in which case so what, according to their mother?
But we know why Richards had to act blasé. There is a new campaign underway to destigmatize abortion, and to do that abortion has to be portrayed as nothing earth shattering to a woman and not necessarily done for awful reasons, like rape, or a handicapped baby. Explained post-abortive Merritt Tierce in a recent New York Times op ed:
By repeating only the gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, terrifying abortion stories, we protect a lie: that abortion isn’t normal. We have learned to think of abortion with shame and fear. We have accepted the damaging idea that a person who wants an abortion must grovel before the consciences of others…. We have to stop categorizing abortions as justified or unjustified.
Thus, Richards reiterated her abortion was no biggie in a video she made for the “1 in 3” campaign a couple weeks ago, adding, “[t]oday, I’m telling my story”:
But Richards didn’t tell her story. She gave absolutely no details other than she and her husband were indifferent about killing their baby.
Which leaves so many unanswered questions. How can it be that the premier leader of the abortion/contraception industry got pregnant by mistake? Was she using birth control? What kind of birth control? When did she get her abortion, before or after she was married? Why? Before, after, or between which child? Did she get her abortion at a Planned Parenthood or go to a private doctor? Did she do it for her career (which would be incredibly ironic)?
And how could Richards travel the country promoting Planned Parenthood and abortion for eight whole years as president and not disclose her own abortion? Wasn’t that living one huge, stinking lie?
The mundaneness by which Richards claimed to have procured her abortion began to show itself differently in an interview she gave to Cosmopolitan, published yesterday, in which she said:
I just talked to my kids the other day, and they knew I’d had an abortion, and they were sort of like, “Mom, it was no big deal,” but I could also tell it was important to them that we talked about it.
That sentence makes no sense. If their mother’s abortion was “no big deal,” it should have not been “important” for the kids to talk about. Clipping one’s fingernails would fall under the category of ”no big deal,” in which case kids wouldn’t think it important to discuss.
So what exactly was “important” for Richards and her surviving children to hash through? That they are missing a sibling? That there’s someone to mourn? That they are special to their parents, even if by the luck of the draw they could have been so unspecial as to have been killed – without a second thought?
The problem with Cecile Richards’ abortion is if it truly “wasn’t a difficult decision,” then she is showing heartlessness not just about the death of a child created with the man she loved, then killed in cooperation with him, but also toward their surviving children.
But we know Richards is lying, because it turns out she needed to somehow smooth things over with her children, I’m guessing during the Thanksgiving holiday. She needed to thread a needle of displaying callousness toward the offspring she killed but love toward the offspring she didn’t kill but easily could have – quite a feat, and good luck with that.
[tweet_box]How can @CecileRichards show apathy toward the child she killed but love to those she didn’t?[/tweet_box]
Which makes the latest pro-abortion campaign another impossibility to pull off. If even the president of Planned Parenthood cant do it, no one can.
If Richards were to ever show compassion in any way toward her aborted baby, she would be unlocking a compartment in her consciousness that would begin to unravel everything she stands for.
The thing is, I think Richards already knows all that.
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.
The kids of abortion moms I talk to on Twitter are always the most effed-up in the head about the whole thing. They’re the ones who will scream for hours about how the human being in utero is not *actually* a human being, even when all others long ago have copped to the science and admitted that that is the case, the human being in utero simply does not matter. In the aborted sibling’s mind, Mother is a saint who controls the universe, and their sibling is less than an amoeba.
It’s sad that they feel the need to destroy the humanity of their own sibling in order to protect their own mothers.
I am always amazed at the folks who abort in a marriage. I can’t for the life of me understand that. I know a lady in my hometown who had two abortions in her marriage. Her husband is a well respected “local” celebrity. She about had a nervous breakdown when a few years ago he started financially supporting a baby he fathered before they were married. Didn’t suprise me, messed up thinking all the way around. I always smiled when I listened to her try and justify it, too bad her husband wasn’t such a “gentleman” after all!!
I keep hearing “cognitive dissonance.” Orwell called it “doublethink.”
The children of post- abortive moms have to deal with the reality that their beloved mother murdered a sibling whom they never had a chance to know — and could easily have murdered any of them, as well. So hard to love the mom and mourn the loss, at the same time. Some can’t do it, and relationships break. Or the surviving child dies a little more inside, losing sight of the value of life…. as xalisae noted, they cling blindly to the notion that small lives do not matter.
This internal conflict is the reason why most women keep their abortion secret — to protect their living children. This “shame” is intrinsically linked to abortion, and does not go away even when pro-lifers are silenced and persecuted.
It has to stir in her kids’ minds that at one point in their vulnerable lives their mother, with little thought apparently, could have snuffed any one or all of them out.
That has to disturb them on some level.
Wow!! You talk about being schizo, the whole thing is schizo. “Isn’t she (Cecile) precious?” “I love my kids, they are so special to me and I would do anything for my kids but their brother or sister that I decided to abort not so much”.
Hey xalisae how are you doing? Good to see you back. Still praying for you and yours.
Cecile is smart; very smart. She knows that she is locked in a battle for the hearts and minds of Americans. She knows that we are the opponents whom she must defeat. She knows that politicians can be her allies, but this is not a political matter. The Culture War will be won or lost in the culture, not in Washington.
Cecile is different from most pro-abortion zealots. She respects pro-lifers as opponents who may defeat her; she respects the American public as people who are intelligent and moral. (Contrast with the likes of Amanda Marcotte, who insists that pro-lifers are idiots and Republican voters are dupes.)
Cecile is ruthless. She would sacrifice her relationships with her living children if that would advance her cause — but pressing her children into supporting her is even stronger, so that is how she uses them.
Just keep in mind that Cecile does not care about abortion. Her cause is the cash-flow survival of her stand-alone abortion clinics. She expected increased cash flows from Obamacare by opening many small clinics. That did not go as planned, so PP is preparing for defunding by squeezing out competitors and building spiffy and efficient abortion mega-marts.
Cecile knows that the survival of Planned Parenthood depends on widespread tolerance of abortion. She will always be able to sell her services to a fresh crop of frightened young women, as long as the culture is conflicted enough to allow her to sell. Cecile knows that she does not have to win the Culture War — she only has to keep the fight alive.
This is why Cecile is so bold and dangerous. We have to win the soul of America and restore a culture of life… and then we need to serve our people with love and generosity. All she needs to do is to keep the hook-up culture alive, keep abortion legal, and manage the cash flow of PP’s clinics.
If abortion is no big deal, then why would parents object so vehemently to public display of abortion victim pictures?
Why do abortion rights advocates steal the signs or try to destroy them or block the view of them?
Children can get “acclimated” to their mother’s unrepented abortions. The initial shock gets replaced by numbed apathy fueled by the need to survive childhood.
My message to my fellow Americans has been and will be: We are a nation that brutally tortures the most helpless among us – our own children.
Whether you want to argue about the victims’ sentience is irrelevant. WE, the adults, ARE sentient beings and we intentionally tolerate (or even promote) the torture of prenatal children to death.
I’m not an Abolitionist but I understand why they do what they do. However, similar tactics by Operation Rescue generated sympathy for the baby killers and not for their victims.
I try to avoid any tactic that generates sympathy for abortionists but I don’t criticize tactics by other advocates for prenatal children – even the display of abortion victim pictures at “children’s” events.
Always amusing to see the frenetic, finger-nail clawing attempts to demonize this lady and construct all sorts of fantasies about what she’s thinking and feeling and why.
Hey xalisae, if I win the free trip to DC for the march would you like the ticket?
As I have stated before, I work with at-risk kids. Some of them have expressed gratitude for not being aborted; even though, their lives are far from perfect. They knew how real the possibility was for them. One has to live with the fact that his mom went to a nursing home when he was eight years old because a botched abortion left her comatose.
Awesome post at 2:09 pm, Del.
Fortunately neither of my grandmothers aborted the several kids they had during the Depression or World War 2.
Fortunately my parents didn’t abort any of us five…tho we sometimes had very little.
fortunately the moms of all the adopted kids in our family did not abort.
fMy son’s underage teen mom carried him to term. fortunately!,,
So, 10 likes for paygrade’s no-abort family tree but nothing said about his son’s underage teenage mom. Interesting.
Is there something you’d like to add, Reality?
Only if you’ve missed the point Navi :-)
Reality,
What is the point you are trying to make? I must have missed it.
Reality expects pearl clutching at the thought of teen pregnancy perhaps?
Or perhaps he/she is surprised we haven’t echoed comments of thanksgiving for teen moms that place their children for adoption instead of aborting?
You don’t surprise me truthseeker :-)
I see repeated allegations here that PP or whoever don’t report what amounts to statutory rape. As in underage teenage girls being pregnant. Now paygrade gets a round of applause for his no-abort family history and no one even wonders what happened about an underage teenager becoming pregnant.
Reality expects pearl clutching at the thought of teen pregnancy perhaps? – if she had had an abortion the pearl clutching over an underage teen being pregnant would have been vast. She didn’t abort – crickets. Inconsistent.
Or perhaps he/she is surprised we haven’t echoed comments of thanksgiving for teen moms that place their children for adoption instead of aborting? – no.
If it was statutory rape, what makes you assume it wasn’t reported?
I made no assumptions. I’m just wondering why no one made any mention whatsoever or asked any questions. Just lots of ‘likes’. If abortion had been involved the responses would have been quite different. Inconsistent.
LOL. If you say so.
It speaks for itself Lrning :-)
Of course! I mean, to not comment the same about a *possible* statutory rape that *might* not have been reported as an actual statutory rape not reported by a mandated reporter is just inconsistent, or something.
It was a possible statutory rape yet no one seemed to be at all concerned about that. Because…no-abort!
As much as I love my mom, if I found out she had aborted my sibling, it would change our relationship. I would still love her but it would be different. I would start to think that it was never about me her child but rather all about her. I would have just be an accomplished goal she could check off her list. And if she didn’t feel like pursing that goal for whatever reason, then I would be dead. Not her child, just a check or a X.
And if circumstances had been such that without an abortion you may never have existed or may have been born into a deleterious situation joeg? It may have been more about you than her.
joeg, many post abortive women experience deep grief when they realize what they did. They carry that sorrow and regret always. My two living children are alive not because I needed to check a box. They are alive because of my horror at what I did to their sibling and my vow to never do that to another child. I was suicidal when pregnant with my second child. The only reason I didn’t do it was that I would be killing the baby too. My abortion has impacted our relationships, but I am thankful they are willing to work through it with me.
Hang in there Laura. Everybody makes mistakes; especially when we are young and look to other so called adults for counsel. Praise the Lord that you have seen the Light and may it continue to shine on you and your family.
@Reality
I am simply expressing an honest emotion as I ponder a would be situation. No rhyme or reason, just emotion. That said, one of the few things in the world that I do not question is my mother’s love. Knowing that she capriciously killed my sibling would bring that love into question. It could have been me. The deleterious situation you bring up speaks directly to the point. I have known, and would expect, her love in good times and bad. Otherwise, that love(and consequently me) isn’t worth much. The non existence situation you bring up is irrelevant. If I don’t exist, there’s nothing for her to love or not love.
Reality, I still don’t see the relevance; are you suggesting the Cecile Richards committed an abortion while he was an unemancipated minor?
As president of the largest chain of abortion mills in the US Cecile Richards could be have the title on her business cards be “mother of abortion”
Or some might call her the ‘womb ripper”
@Reality
I came into existence at conception and I would hope that her love came into existence at the same time. She might not have known me at conception, but her love has never been based on knowing me. It has been based on me being her offspring. I have been her offspring since conception.
“She might not have known me at conception, but her love has never been based on knowing me.”
This reminded me of ‘playing house’ as a little girl with my siblings and friends. Little girls often play with baby dolls and they talk about things like what they will name their real babies when they grow up. In this sense, I loved my children before I knew them even through my play. Play was practice for the real deal and I don’t remember one little girl ever pretending to hurt or kill their doll. I do not understand the disconnect of some adults who would be concerned about a child that showed violence toward a doll but are still okay with legal abortion.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” – Jeremiah 1:5
Abortion is sold by a small number of evil people to many good people. We need to shut down the evil.
“Today I’m telling my story.”
‘I had an abortion’ is not a story, Cecile. It’s a sentence — oh, and a Tshirt.
Dear Cecile,
Please give us some details. I’ll give you some examples of questions to get you started but please add other details as they come up:
WHO? Who brought up the topic of killing your child first? You or your loving husband? Who was in the room at the time of death?
WHAT? This is the question that you could give us all the story details. What were the circumstances in your life at the time right before the death of your child? How much money did you and your hubby have in the bank? Where were you living? What were your assets? Did you check around to see if there was anyone that would have adopted your child? Do you and your husband not have it in you to love a child? Did you have food in your bellies and clothes on your back? What where you driving at the time? What have your living children said about the fact that they have lost a sibling to death? What kind of of tools were used on your baby? What did the tool(s) sound like? What did they look like?
WHERE? Where did the execution take place? What were the conditions in the mill? Or was it a house call?
WHEN? When was your baby due to be born? When did the execution take place? How old was the child when he died?
WHY? Just this – Why?
If “no woman should have to justify having an abortion”, why the heck did you bring up aborting you child?
You’re a funny gal, Cecile, and we will shut you down.
Wait, I thought Cecile Richards was “educated” about and had “access” to “effective” birth control which she says reduces abortion. Is Cecile just to incompetent to use it correctly, or is “effective” birth control not really all that effective?
Well, the truth is that “effective” birth control is not that effective.
It quite plainly has nothing to do with Cecile truthseeker. You obviously need more help than I can give you right now.
joeg, the point is that it may well not have been done capriciously.
Reality, you say it has nothing to do with Cecile Richards but she is the subject of the blog-line….let’s just say peopleI often find it to be a waste of time looking to you for an explanation of anything…even including an explanation of your own comments.
My comment that you asked about was in response to what paygrade and then Lrning said truthseeker. Which wouldn’t be very difficult to pick up on using basic reading and comprehension. Is that enough help for you?
Or perhaps you are applying the same critique towards the others who made non-Cecile related comments here too?
Wasn’t that living one huge, stinking lie?
“Lie” is a tricky word. Imagine that someone says something that is demonstrably false, like “It is true Christians took on poverty, slavery, and genocide as core issues – a couple thousand years before any other movement came along.” Does that mean that person is lying? Not necessarily. It could mean that the person who made the hypothetical statement doesn’t know the truth, or that the person can’t tell the difference between what is truth and what she wants to be truth. “Lie” should be used when someone deliberately says something she knows to be false.
Did Cecile Richards ever deny having an abortion? No? Then why invent the story that she has?
@Reality
Almost all abortions are done capriciously, except for life of the mother(and some would argue rape, incest, fetal deformity)
@Praxedes
“Abortion is sold by a small number of evil people to many good people. We need to shut down the evil”
We need to stop telling that lie. As a society we have become too accustom to denying the wickedness of women. Yes there is wickedness in women, just like men. Women murdered their children long before the laws changed to allow it, and will continue to murder their children if the laws change back to deny it. Most women who murder their children do so for the same reason as men who murder and steal do. It is beneficial to them. The evil that needs to be stopped is within us all, not just a few.
joeg, Where did I mention gender? Cecile is female and she sells an awful lot of abortions.
People of both genders have been duped about the history and facts surrounding abortion. The young, desperate, abused, poor, naive and/or uneducated are easy prey for the Snakes. It is an indisputable fact that females on the whole are at a disadvantage based on size and strength alone — and are the ones who carry the babies.
With the internet and ultrasound though, less people will be able to claim being duped. This doesn’t mean that women won’t continue to be coerced/threatened to abort their children as they always have been.
Yes, I agree that wickedness/evil is in all of us, including women.
@Praxedes
“Abortion is SOLD by a small number of evil people TO many GOOD PEOPLE”
Since women are the ones who purchase abortion, I assumed they are the good people you were writing about.
” The young, desperate, abused, poor, naive and/or uneducated are easy prey for the Snakes.”
They are also the majority of men who are in prison for their crimes. Like women, those men still knew right from wrong regardless of who or what situation lead them to their crime.
“With the internet and ultrasound though, less people will be able to claim being duped. This doesn’t mean that women won’t continue to be coerced/threatened to abort their children as they always have been.”
And this is the lie. The majority of women in the western world who have abortion, do so of their own free will, and with full knowledge that they are killing their offspring. The so called evil people are just entrepreneurs trying to meet a demand. That is why the abortion rate exploded after legalization. There was pent up demand, not pent up coercion. The third of women who have abortions is again demand, not a third (literally 10s of millions) of women being coerced. The gains of the pro-life movement have not occurred because they were fighting supposed coercion. The fight has been for the hearts and minds of women and against the entrepreneurs’ distribution network. We tell women the lie because it eases their guilt, but guilt is necessary for true repentance. Only with true repentance will there be lasting change.
@joeg, your statement is incorrect. Most abortions are not done capriciously. 64% of women report coercion. The most common other reasons are lack of financial support and lack of emotional support. Women choose abortion like an animal in a trap chooses to chew off its foot.
The father of my baby told me I needed to get an abortion, which meant, if I didn’t I would be on my own. This is an incredibly common scenario.
There is an active, evil lie that is pushed by a few, determined people. The lie that it’s just a blob of tissue and abortion will solve all your problems. The Liars keep it up because they are making a living off it.
Information about fetal development is much more accessible but you have to actively seek it, and even then the most common search results are cartoon drawings instead of photos. Planned Parenthood actively pushes the lie that it’s a blob of tissue. That is why they fight so hard against ultrasound laws – women will see the truth. A huge percentage of women who see their ultrasound choose against abortion.
@Laura
“The most common other reasons are lack of financial support and lack of emotional support. Women choose abortion like an animal in a trap chooses to chew off its foot.
The father of my baby told me I needed to get an abortion, which meant, if I didn’t I would be on my own. This is an incredibly common scenario.”
Try using that excuse for any other crime.
@Laura
“There is an active, evil lie that is pushed by a few, determined people. The lie that it’s just a blob of tissue and abortion will solve all your problems. The Liars keep it up because they are making a living off it.”
They tell their lies for the same reason that pro-lifers tell theirs: to absolve women of their deserved guilt.
Joeg, abortion is not a crime in our country.
@Praxedes
“Joeg, abortion is not a crime in our country.”
It should be. Isn’t that why we are all here?
Joeg, I hope abortion becomes illegal in my lifetime. I talk with teens about making good decisions and choosing Life. I come here for fellowship with other prolifers – to hear their stories and to share mine
How about you? You’re new here. What’s your story? Is there an abortion(s) in your background?
@Praxedes
No abortion history, just a concerned christian.
Nice. By working together, maybe we will see the end of legalized abortion in our country in our lifetimes.
You’re not over the age of 100, are you? (: