A talk I gave earlier this month on Women’s Equality Day

Women’s
equality day marks a major victory for women’s rights, including the right to
vote and to take part in our nation’s great moral debates. Unfortunately,
somewhere along the line, in the name of false compassion, the right to abortion
was included, as if the taking of the life of the unborn was equivalent to
casting a vote, or equal pay for jobs. Originating under the pretense of caring
for women, the issue is no longer about women at all, but about the
enshrinement of abortion with no restrictions, for any reason, at any time.

 Due to
scientific advancement, we can no longer deny the existence of a baby in the
womb, and sadly. some people have become so desensitized they no longer seem to
care. The right of abortion trumps all others under the guise of “women’s rights.”

 In the
36 years since the passage of Roe vs. Wade, 51 million unborn babies have died
in our country. Groups like NOW (National Organization of Women, NARAL
(National Abortion rights League) and Planned Parenthood, have used “women’s rights” as a catch phrase. They
have somehow managed to make a voice against abortion seen as a voice against
the equality of women. In truth,
this so called “right” has instead
brought many women into bondage.

 The truth is, countless women have found that this so
called “women’s right” that was
suppose to bring freedom, has in fact, done the opposite, bringing women into
the bondage of spiritual, emotional, psychological and often spiritual
bankruptcy. This impacts not only women, but countless marriages, other
children and society as a whole. The act of abortion has left us in a society
that not only destroys the dignity of women, but her family and society as
well. Never has there been a more divisive issue.

 Interestingly
enough, the founders of the Women’s Equality Movement knew abortion was not a
good thing. Susan B. Anthony occasionally mentioned abortion which she opposed.
She believed abortion endangered the health and life of mothers. This has not
changed. Even though abortion is legal, women continue to die from abortion,
they also may be left sterile or with other physical problems. Many develop
psychological illnesses because of the overwhelming guilt and shame and the
denial of their experiences by society which refuses to speak the truth about abortion’s harm.

 Susan B.
Anthony blamed men, laws and the "double standard" for driving women
to abortion because they had no other options. To quote her, “When a woman destroys the life of her unborn
child, it is a sign that, by education or circumstances, she has been greatly
wronged." (1869). She believed, as did many of the feminists of her
era, that only the achievement of women's equality and freedom would end the
need for abortion. Anthony used her anti-abortion writings as yet another
argument for women's rights.

 Susan B.
Anthony was right on. How ironic that the women’s groups of today promote
abortion, yet show no outrage when women are injured, killed, coerced by others
to abort, or are murdered by boyfriends or husbands’ because of a refusal to
abort. Today abortion is synonymous with women’s rights.

 But abortion
is a danger to women, not only through the act itself but the attitudes
surrounding pregnancy termination. In 2001 George W. Bush, in his Women’s
Equality Day message spoke about our efforts to ensure women equal rights which
must include “protection of women from
violence and equal access to justice”. Though not the case in all
abortions, women are constantly victims of the violence of supposed “safe,
legal abortion”. They are coerced by husbands, family and boyfriends to abort
their babies and many women fall victims to acts of violence for refusing abortion.

 Here are
just a few of numerous examples:

July 2009: Algerian pop heart-throb faces trial in France on
kidnap and abortion charges. He goes on trial in France accused of
conspiring to have his former lover drugged, kidnapped and subjected to a
forced backstreet abortion. (guardian.co.uk)

Sept 2006: A Maine couple, infuriated that their
19-year-old daughter was pregnant, were being held Monday on charges that they
tied her up, loaded her in their car and headed toward New York to force her to
get an abortion, police said.(Foxnews.com)

Man Allegedly Tries
To Force Abortion By Poisoning

Police in O'Fallon, , arrested
Michael Travis Bullock, 21, on charges of felony assault for allegedly putting
ant killer in his pregnant girlfriend's drinks in an attempt to abort their
baby, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. (www.nrlc.org/news/2001/NRL12/news.html – 6k)

Jan
2001:
Dr. Stephen
Pack pleaded guilty in Bronx Supreme Court yesterday to charges that he tried
to abort his lover's pregnancy by injecting her with a labor-inducing drug. Pack,
44, of Chappaqua, will serve up to three
years in prison for two counts of assault and one count of abortion in the
attack on 31-year-old Joy Schepis. At the time of their affair, Pack, a married
father of two, was an emergency room doctor – and Schepis a nurse – at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.
In a soft voice, Pack told the court yesterday that he "attempted to
inject methotrexate for the purpose of causing a medical abortion on Joy
Schepis." (Daily News)

Many New or Expectant Mothers Die Violent Deaths

Donna St.George ,Washington

Post Staff Writer

Sunday, December 19, 2004; Page A01

Their killings produced only a
few headlines, but across the country in the last decade, hundreds of pregnant
women and new mothers have been slain. Even as Scott Peterson's trial became a
public fascination, little was said about how often it happens, why, and
whether it is a fluke or a social syndrome.

 The list
could go on and on. Why if they support women do we not hear outrage from
NARAL, NOW or PP on these?

Sadly,
the women’s voices that still seem to remain unheard are those of post abortive
women. But, that is changing. Each year, we at Lumina serve around 200 new
women who come forward for healing from a past abortion. Many are locked into
the guilt and shame of abortion and are hesitant to speak for fear of people
finding out or being judged. For every woman who comes forward, I know there
are countless others still living in silence and shame?

 In 2004
George W. Bush spoke about women being leaders in business, government and many
other fields, but sadly, to this day many women still feel pressure to abort
because of education or the quest for career.

 Unfortunately,
even today, college campuses provide abortions but we are hard pressed to find
child care accommodations so women can choose life, a sign that over 100 years
later, women are still, as Susan B. Anthony said, “greatly wronged”.

 I
recently read a blog from “Penelope’s Trunk” (http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/).  Penelope laments her abortion decisions to
further her career telling women she should not have had to make that choice
stating you can be both a mom and successful. She has received close 500
comments on her article, a sign of the relevance for women.

 In 2000,
William Clinton spoke out about heroic women such as Susan B. Anthony and
Elizabeth Stanton who, “refused to remain
silent in the face of injustice speaking out at rallies, circulating pamphlets
and petitions lobbying legislatures and risking public humiliation and even
incarceration, suffragists slowly changed the minds of their fellow Americans
and the laws of our Nation”.

 My
prayer is that post abortive women will do the same as the women of the suffrage
movement. They will change the minds of their fellow Americans and the laws of
our nation regarding abortion. Through groups like Silent No More, Operation Outcry
and countless post abortion ministries including Lumina, and Entering Canaan,
women are finding their voices. They are refusing to remain silent in the face
of injustice, speaking out at rallies, circulating pamphlets and petitions,
lobbying legislatures and risking public humiliation and even incarceration.
Post abortive women are changing the minds of their fellow Americans and the
laws of our Nation”. They are learning true equality is being the women we were
created to be, and that it is in this true dignity of women we find the true freedom
and happiness of who we are.