A little more than a week ago I participated in a virtual presentation on reproductive justice. It was hosted by Platform Women and the University of Iowa Women’s Resource and Action Center.
I highlighted 10 of the quotes I thought stood out most, at least to my listening ears.
Here is the first:
“The good news is so many of us believe in reproductive rights, universal healthcare, what you would consider to be fundamental, no-brainer things. We are fighting for ourselves, but we are also fighting for each other. That’s what keeps me sane. I’m standing up for myself and I’m standing up for so many other people.”
Let’s be pretty clear about reproductive rights means for the most part – abortion rights as well as abortion access. I’m sure there are other details included, but abortion certainly seems like it is the sacred cow.
So, to call abortion something that is a “fundamental, no-brainer” thing is mind-numbing.
Fundamental? Abortion?
How on earth is abortion fundamental? And for those who consider it fundamental, the question is fundamental to what?
Let’s just presume we’re talking about the fundamentals of life. How could anything be more fundamental to life than, well, life?
As for a no-brainer, consider this quote from Congresswoman Maxine Waters:
“I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion.”
No further analysis is necessary on that one.
It is true that the pro-abortion crowd is fighting for themselves. However, Mother Theresa addressed this idea, sort of:
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
Then the reproductive justice panelist goes on to say we’re fighting for each other.
Who?
Are they fighting for the unborn girls whose only experience in “reproductive justice” will be their own death sentence?
Perhaps the most heart-wrenching part of the quote is the end:
“That’s what keeps me sane. I’m standing up for myself and I’m standing up for so many other people.”
What keeps her sane is what keeps me up at night. The idea that in a civilized society, unborn human beings are still allowed to be killed and no punishment exists.
She may indeed believe with all her heart and mind she is standing up for herself and standing up for others, but is it possible to have her consider for just a few seconds who she isn’t standing up for?
Because in her fight for “reproductive justice,” which includes abortion services and abortion access, she is failing to stand up for innocent, unborn babies who have no voice and no say in the debate.
She’s failing to stand up for the only person who loses more than a mother when an abortion is performed – an unborn baby boy or baby girl.
While mom is losing her little boy or little girl, that unborn baby boy or baby girl is losing his or her life.
Of all the people she’s standing up for, she’s failing to stand up for the most defenseless among us.
I hope that one day, through some divine thought, action or word, those who believe like this panelist reverse course and humble themselves to understand that abortion is exactly what it is – the intentional taking of a human life.
There is no justice in it.
