A Journey to Life.

Getting into pro-life work 20 yrs ago, I recognized at the time the mistake pro-lifers were making. First and and foremost they were totally naive to the nature of politics and PR. They didn't understand either one nor did they try to. It was simply a calling to them to reach out to women in crisis pregnancies and to educate the public on the horror of abortion and the sanctity of each and every child's life.

But the other side was very savvy on politics and PR. In the late 70's through most of the 80's most people believed that abortion was being used only for hard case such as rape, incest, and health of mother. When in fact less than 1% of all abortions occur for these reasons. Planned Parenthood was the master of PR. The owner and operator of the largest number of abortion clinics in the country. It runs a muti-million dollar industry that profits off the agony of women.

It isn't that I believed them to be cold heartless monsters set out to destroy babies in the womb, I knew that they believed deeply that they were helping women at a terrible time in their life. They still believe that. But, they are wrong. When a wolf has her leg caught in the jaws of a steel trap, it will gnaw it's leg off because it sees no other option. I think this is how most women in crisis pregnancies feel. Isn't it more compassionate to gently help remove the steel trap and help the leg to heal so that the wolf does not spend her life knowing that there is something missing that was there before?

In the 70's I was pro-choice and had many friends who had abortions. What I couldn't understand was why they were not experiencing relief afterwards. I too had bought into the lie that it was just a blob of tissue, not a baby yet. It was later that I learned that abortions are not performed before 6 weeks. And it was later that I would see my daughter's heartbeat at 6 weeks on a special sonogram. The same heart that beats in her chest today. Same heart. Same child. I thought of my friends who had had abortions and now years later were having children of their own as well. They were looking at sonograms as well. Were they thinking of the child they aborted? Were they wondering why they were never told the heart was beating?

In these many years I have heard many post abortive women speak and their anguish is hard to hear. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece was on Fox News the other night describing the pain of her 2 abortions. She is an active pro-lifer now. Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of the infamous Roe v. Wade case is an active pro-lifer now, she describes how they used her in that court case and told her to lie and say that she had been raped. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortionist who spear headed NARAL (National Abortion Rights League) and was instrumental in the Roe v. Wade case, is now an active pro-lifer. He admits they lied about the number of women dying in illegal abortion.

The bottom line is that this is an issue that tears at the heart of us all. We all hate it. We hate discussing it. Arrows are thrown back and forth, but a true debate has never been put on the table for all Americans to see. In 1973 nine men decided a case that has divided this country since because we, the people, never got to decide how we felt about it. We never got the whole story.

I wonder if the democrats realize how much they lost in this debate. It is certainly one of the prime reasons I left the democratic party. At the very heart of what we believe in this country is right of every human being to live. Back in the 70's at one of the first Right To Life marches Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke and said "Never let them tell you that a fetus is not a human being, that is what they tried to say about the negro." Jackson changed his tune when he ran as a democratic nominee for President. But it didn't change the truth of his words.

Since 1973 we have averaged 4000 abortions a day in this country. And there is one question that is rarely asked. Are women's lives better for it? I don't see it. I see women in the past 30 yrs more prone to suicide, promiscuity, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, eating disorders, and depression. I don't see how this helped women. I only see heartache and regret.

Whether you agree or disagree with me, we do know that there is no celebration here. There is no good feeling. If we can agree on that, then let's work together on 2 things. Helping women to appreciate their fertility and the gift that it gives them. Not looking at children as burdens or birth control failures, but as the greatest gift we are given on this earth. Let us help women to understand that sex means something. And that even with all that we know to prevent having a child, it can still happen. Women need to carry that knowledge in their heart whenever they want to make love, so they will be ready to carry that child in their womb as well.