Is Abortion Really About Freedom for Women?

I am going to be honest. I didn’t want to write this post. Nope. I wanted to write a nice post about capsule wardrobes or decluttering your home. But then I got writers block and as I sat staring at a blank screen, I spontaneously said, “Lord what do you want me to write about?”

(Warning: don’t ever do this if you just want to write a puff piece and call it a day.)

And then it just popped into my mind, “Abortion is the new slavery”.

“Um, no. I won’t be writing about abortion. That’s sooo controversial and not pleasant at all”.

But darn it, then I went off to Mass and that same thought just flooded my head and I literally could not think about anything else but that fact that “Abortion is the new slavery”.

And then I went home and googled “Abortion rates amongst Catholics” and found that about 25% of Catholics have had abortions — and of those Catholics who have had abortions, just under 25% were married at the time.

Which really got me thinking. If I call myself Catholic, what am I doing to reach out to women who have had abortion — what am I doing to help free them from the sadness and pain and isolation that they feel?

What am I doing to let them know how desperately God loves them and wants to offer them the forgiveness that will set them free?

And so I decided I’d finish this post and press publish and just trust that there is at least one person reading this, who needs to read this.

Abortion is a very isolating action. Not only are most women who have had an abortion not accompanied by the fathers of their babies, but after she has had the abortion, that feeling of isolation increases.

Something has changed within her, she has lost something — and she doesn’t know how to get it back.

Often, a woman chooses abortion because she thinks it will mean her freedom — but in the place of freedom, she discovers that a piece of herself died on that clinic table.

She finds herself full of shame and self-hatred and regret.

And the Devil takes this chance to continue to isolate a woman who has chosen abortion.

This morning, I felt that heaviness of those people on my heart — and I couldn’t shake it.

It’s like God was giving me the littlest inkling of an idea of the love that he has for those men and women who have chosen abortion and the sadness He feels at seeing their pain.

But here’s the thing. If you don’t acknowledge it, you can’t move on. You will find yourself stuck in this place of self-loathing and destructive behavior that will hurt you and the people you love.

If you have had an abortion, God wants to set you free. If you know somebody who has had an abortion, God wants to set them free, too.

He wants to free us from the slavery of our sin — and abortion is one of the sins that very directly impacts the life of at least one other person.

Which is why it is so hard to get over.

Mother Teresa once said that there are two casualties of abortion: one dead baby and one wounded mother. Nobody wins.

The truth is, the second that mother takes that pill or walks into that clinic something changes in her.

She killed her own child because somebody convinced her it was the way to freedom — but it only led to slavery.

Though one can’t see the shackles that were tied about her in that moment of her child’s silent scream, they are there — and will remain there, until God has set her free.

We no longer have legalized slavery in our country — but I dare say, many a woman has been enslaved by an ideology that tells her to deny her own nature — an ideology that says taking the life of her own child will lead to freedom.

When you start to examine the peoples who have been enslaved throughout history, you begin to realize that innocent men, women and children of all colors, creeds and races have been subjected to slavery — and still are, to this day.

The common thread that seems to ties all victims of slavery together is the powerful and elite of a particular culture downplaying their “personhood”.

In “decent” societies where slavery was allowed to continue, the “personhood” of the slave was always in question.

Money was almost always the motivation, and it was why many looked the other way when it came to the injustice of slavery.

Abortion continues the injustice of slavery. The strong and influential are allowed to determine the “personhood” of the weak and the vulnerable for their own personal benefit.

Which is exactly what groups like Planned Parenthood have successfully done — going into schools, convincing young children that it’s just a blob of tissue.

But science makes it very clear, abortion stops a beating heart and it leaves the mother a shell of the woman she once was.

Without a successful attack on the “personhood” of the baby, Planned Parenthood would not be thriving as a billion dollar business in our country.

Make no mistake, abortion is not about healthcare — it’s about cold, hard cash.

Former President of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, drew in $900,000 a year for her “non-profit” work — doesn’t sound very “non-profity” to me.

Look at the 1.5 billion in federal funds that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, received from 2013-2015.

Contrast that with the volunteer based Crisis Pregnancy centers across America. They are truly “non-profit” and looking out for the best for women.

Planned Parenthood stands to gain billions of dollars by perpetuating the lie that abortion leads to freedom — which makes it awfully tempting to continue to push this lie on women, even when science begs to differ.

And they have done it very well. Just look at the Hollywood elite standing up in support of Planned Parenthood.

Problem is, the abuse and manipulation of those same women in Hollywood — often part of the #MeToo movement — could never have had gone on if Abortion wasn’t the easy way out for those predators in Hollywood.

They are victims of the same lie that we have all been told in our health classes and in mainstream media: Abortion is the only path to freedom when you have an unexpected pregnancy.

But it is not only the baby whose personhood is being attacked with abortion — it is also all women of childbearing years — they are the potential “customer” and their value amounts to little more than the income they can provide by choosing abortion.

Both woman and child must be degraded in order for the abortion industry to thrive.

Which is why we are living in the midst of a new slavery, and we need brave men and women to stand up, once again, and fight.

Only this war is not to be won with guns or violence. It’s to be won with love and determination and honesty.

It begins by recognizing the personhood of the baby in the womb. But it can’t stop there.

We must begin to reach out to women who have chosen this path and help them back to freedom.

We need to be a listening ear, a loving friend determined to help women recover that piece of themselves that died in that clinic on that awful day.

Finally, it also means recognizing that abortion is a serious sin that cries out to God — and it must be confessed.

This is not about condemning or judging — it’s about telling the women to “Arise” and face this awful reality and allow God to make her new.

To that one woman who might read this, who has had an abortion and never sought God’s forgiveness — please know that God’s been bugging me all day to write this post, just for you.

God wants to forgive you if you had an abortion. He wants to set you free and help you to learn to forgive yourself.

Run — don’t walk — to the nearest confessional and you will find His mercy and Love just waiting for you.

He never wanted you to suffer in so much isolation and silence. He’s wept with you and wept for your baby and now He’s letting you know it’s time to be set free.

If you don’t know where to start, maybe start here.

It’s time. It’s time to undo the shackles and be set free. He wants so much good for you.

So what are you waiting for?

Sharing over at Kelly’s