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ABORTION A SYMPTOM OF DEEPER PROBLEM

There is an ever-growing movement of women who have been conditioned to believe that abortion is a glorious right to be celebrated and protected at all costs.

The message is distributed almost universally – by their favourite celebrities, at school, in their peer groups, social media, most news sources, as a recurrent theme on television shows created for them, and (in Australia) even on the publicly-funded ABC network. Pregnancy termination is viewed as a sterile, innocuous ‘healthcare’ procedure that should be freely and readily available to women all over the world.

I recently viewed footage of a group of young girls at a Women’s March in California jumping up and down, working themselves into a fervour, screaming and chanting “My body, my choice” over, and over again. It was frightening to watch – like a sad combination of wild animals crossed with toddlers throwing a tantrum. It’s difficult to understand how someone can be so young and possess that kind of rage, to be filled with a truly misplaced sense of injustice.

I wonder what kind of psychological gymnastics these young women must have to perform in order to convince themselves that they are on the side of goodness and virtue. The same generation that will campaign to protect calves from slaughter or start an online petition to save the eggs of a baby eagle, view ending the life of an unborn child as one of their own basic human rights. Fighting for the Pro-Choice movement is worn as a badge of honour. They have bought the same lie the pro-choice movement has been selling to women for 3 generations. ‘It’s not a baby. It’s just a clump of cells. It’s a parasite. It is part of their body.’ Birth control and then abortion were marketed as the key to freedom – a life where they could focus on their career, make their own decisions and have sex however and with whomever they pleased.

Fast forward fifty years and there are 125,000 abortions performed across the globe each day, the equivalent of the entire population of Australia being terminated every six months. Since 1973, almost 2 billion unique and irreplaceable lives that were never given the opportunity to take their first breath. At the Oscars Ceremony 2 weeks ago, actress Michelle Williams proudly declared that without abortion she would not be up on stage receiving her award and was met with cheers and applause for her ‘bravery’. We are quite literally living in a time where it is publicly acceptable to sacrifice a child for a shiny, gold, false idol.

In the Western world today, information and birth control are at our fingertips, yet millions of women are still having abortions. Unplanned pregnancies should be a thing of the past, but abortion is now used as birth control. It is taken for granted as a solution for being careless. Of all the symptoms of entitlement in modern society, abortion is the most insidious. Women all over the world chanting “My body, my choice” are correct. You do have choices as a woman in relation to your own body. The choice to be responsible and use a reliable method of birth control. The choice to select sexual partners whom you trust and that it would not be a complete disaster to have a child with. The choice to abstain from sex completely. The choice to stop believing that you are somehow winning the battle against the patriarchy by participating in dating and casual sex apps in a way that not only devalues yourself, but women in general. That’s where ‘choice’ ends. Once a child is conceived, you are making choices for persons other than yourself.  

Abortion is not only fatal to the unborn, but incredibly traumatic for women on a physical, psychological and spiritual level.

According to a 2011 study conducted by the British Journal of Psychiatry, following an abortion, women are 34% more likely to develop anxiety, 37% more likely to suffer from depression, 81% more likely to have mental-health issues, 110% more likely to abuse alcohol, 220% more likely to abuse marijuana and 155% more likely to commit suicide. If there was a medication with a list of side-effects like that of abortion, people would lobby to have it banned, yet it is heralded as essential female healthcare. It also cannot be overlooked the fact that many women are pressured to have abortions by parents, health care providers and their partners.

So how do we combat the deceptive propaganda that has been force-fed to women since the 1960s? Beliefs that in many cases have become inter-generational and deeply embedded. It can feel overwhelming, like an unwinnable battle against a tidal wave of misinformation and immorality.

The answer is simple.

         We start at grass-roots level.    Reach one woman at a time.    Save one child at a time.

As parents, friends and community leaders, we need to instil young girls with unwavering self-respect. Help them to see that true empowerment and happiness are found by making real and lasting connections, with others and yourself. Give them the gift of personal accountability.  

Teach them that abortion is not a magic delete button. It is not a right. The impact of making the decision to end a pregnancy will stay with them for life. The loss, the grief, the shame. We need to encourage women who have lived through it to tell their stories and protect other mothers and children from the same fate. Above all else, we must not lose hope. Regardless of how you contribute to the pro-life movement, if you can convince just one woman, save one innocent life, then you have impacted the world in an immeasurable way.  

 

FEELING UPSET ABOUT YOuR PREGNANCY?  CONSIDERING ABORTION? Afraid? Alone? 

PREGNANCY COUNSELLING AUSTRALIA IS here to help you through this difficult time.

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