I’ve seen my baby’s tiny heart beating at six weeks, when she was made up of entirely of her heart. You could argue she still is.
I’ve seen my little baby at 14 weeks, wiggling and sucking her thumb, when they announced she was a girl. I’ll never forget the perfect image of her tiny face.
I’ve seen my babies at 32 weeks, beautiful and fully formed.
I’ve felt both of my babies kick back at my pokes during pregnancy.
I watched as both of my babies were born and wiggled to life with tiny cries. Now legal to kill just moments before.
Today I spent the day in mourning. I held my babies and thought of the ones no one wanted. How the only difference between the ones in my lap and the 50 million murdered was just that – unwanted. Precious babies, unwanted. Murdered in painful silence by the one who should protect them the most.
I don’t let myself think about abortion very often. I get too angry and upset and it ruins my days. But today is different. 50 million people have been killed since 1973. The largest legal genocide in human history. The largest human genocide. And it’s celebrated. Celebrated as advancement in women’s rights. And today one more step in brutality was added, so today I’m done being silent.
So as a woman I want to say:
I don’t want your rights. Your rights are not helping me. They are not helping my daughters. They are not helping my future granddaughters. I’m tired of people treating motherhood as a burden that can be cast of with a pill or a knife. I’m tired of people seeing motherhood as something that holds women back, something that they need to be freed from. I’m tired that men are being allowed to use women for sex, because there are no longer “repercussions”. I’m tired of hearing that I need to have access to abortion in order to have control over my life, and that my control is more important than another person’s lack of control. I’m tired of hearing that my children’s lives are only worth living if they’re lived free from poverty, as if poverty is worth evading with death. I’m exhausted of living in a culture that is so centered around the self that it has become an idol on which we are willing to sacrifice our children. I don’t want your rights if it means they are bought with the blood of our children.
My value and identity as a woman is not determined by you who want to create laws that will make me equal to men, making me, like men, able to shirk the responsibility of bearing children through barbaric laws. My value and identity as a woman is not determined by my ability to control another person’s body. The value of my children is not determined by whether or not they are going to be born into poverty. The value of my children is not determined by whether I want them or not, but by the God who created them.
I want to see a culture that casts off not babies, but laws created to harm them. I want to see a culture that will come alongside precious women in need and offer to help, not stand in judgement and condemnation. I want babies to be seen as people whose lives are just as important as yours, where babies are for once treated better than criminals. I want to see a culture that treats mothers not as a lower class title that can be celebratorily thrown away, but as sacred. I want to see men that are held accountable for their decisions as much as women are, instead of using women without consequences. I want to see people held accountable for mutilating the cause of true women’s rights – rights to respected, protected, celebrated and cherished by men – to be made to call their cause what it really is – genocide. Someone else’s life and body is not the sacrifice needed for you to have the freedom to yours. Life is not your choice.
Friends in the Church:
Our complacency will be on us as much as their laws are on them. We can’t change the laws. But we can change the culture. Instead of being known for our complacency in caring for the unwanted in all forms, let’s be known for our passion and willingness to help. Let’s be the church, where if a woman does not want to keep her child, we are so known for our help that they could walk into a church without judgement and find a home for their child, financial support, and emotional support after the birth if wanted. Let’s be so known for this that it changes the culture and abortion is no longer needed. We need to start by saying publicly:
“If you are considering abortion now or anytime in the future, I will adopt your baby.
“I will come alongside you without judgement emotionally and financially, if you decide to keep your child or choose adoption.
“If I cannot adopt right now, I know so many people who can.
Those in need of help: hold us to our word and ask us for help.
Friends, if you like this article, can you share it? Our message needs to be heard. Silence is the only way to guarantee that lives will continue to be lost. Talking and discussing is the only way to begin to save lives. And let’s not only be louder than the other voices, let’s be more compassionate, encouraging, welcoming, gentle, and kind. We can start by being a safe place that offers to care for both women and children in need of support, something we have not often been. But before everything, let’s remember the most important issue: that on top of losing babies, women considering abortion most likely do not know Christ. They are who Jesus has compassion on and commands us to love. They are not our opponent. Compassion is your choice.
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