Posted on 05/05/2008 4:22:34 PM PDT by wagglebee
LifeNews.com Note: Maria Vitale is a LifeNews.com Opinion Columnist and the Education Director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. Vitale has written and reported for various broadcast and print media outlets, including National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and AP Radio.
Mother's Day will be bittersweet in some segments of our nation this year.
For some women, there will be no flowers, no chocolates—just the painful memory of a child lost forever to abortion.
It may seem incongruous to talk about abortion in connection with Mother's Day. After all, this is a holiday meant to celebrate the amazing, life-affirming gift of motherhood. Yet, in our schizophrenic society, it's possible that some women will go in to facilities to have abortions on Saturday and be expected to join in the celebrations of Mother's Day on Sunday.
I've seen the anguished face of a woman reliving the moment of her abortion. It's a portrait of pain that is indescribable in its torment. At times like that, there will be no abortion facility personnel around to hold the woman's hand, to treat her post-traumatic stress disorder, to bring her healing and hope.
And abortion is certainly not a rare occurrence in our nation. An estimated 1.2 million abortions occur each year in the U.S. Since 1973, the year that Roe versus Wade was decided, an estimated 50 million unborn children have died as a result of legal abortion.
Abortion has become a major public health problem, in terms of its effects on the health of women. Study after study shows the devastating impact that abortion can have on the physical and psychological well-being of America's female citizens. For instance, one study shows that one in five women who have had abortions will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder—the illness most commonly linked with soldiers returning from the battlefront. Research has also shown that post-abortive women are likely to have worse health overall than other women.
As many as 60 percent of women who have had abortions think about suicide. Abortion has been linked with a two-fold increased risk of alcohol abuse, and women who abort are twice as likely to become heavy smokers. Yet, when was the last time you saw a local news segment focused on the harmful health effects of abortion? Have you ever?
Part of the problem is the disinformation campaign waged by the abortion industry. To hear abortion providers tell it, you would think that there are no side-effects from abortion at all. Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion operation, claims abortion is safe but available medical research contradicts such a contention.
The wall of silence surrounding abortion can cause a woman to suffer alone. Following an abortion, there is no wake, no funeral, no graveside service. Women are expected to tough it out in isolation, with no one around to join them in their mourning. The grieving process is heightened by the fact that this was a death which could have been prevented.
The pro-life movement is reaching out to women who regret their abortions. Retreat programs such as Rachel's Vineyard help post-abortive women to cope with their losses. Women can visit www.rachelsvineyard.org and be put in touch with someone who can share their pain. Women can reclaim their motherhood, naming the babies lost to abortion. They can find consolation in the forgiveness of an all-loving God.
This Mother's Day, please remember those mothers who never got to see their children's faces…those who were coerced into abortion…and those who chose abortion based on misunderstandings and misinformation. Their losses are deep, and their emotional scars can last a lifetime.
And the Lord's Forgiveness and Grace is ALWAYS available.
Pro-Life Ping
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
We’re supposed to feel sorry if women who’ve murdered their babies feel like crap on Mother’s Day? Give a break. If THAT’S all they suffer, they’ve gotten off too light.
Gee, maybe we should ban mothers’ day to stop these women from feeling so bad. It’s all our fault for celebrating mothers’ day. We are so cruel. We should all be ashamed.
Women who have had abortion MUST be told that forgiveness is available.
How long before they try to outlaw Mother’s Day because of those who had abortions - it makes them feel bad and is a needless injury to their well being for exercising their pro-choice decision?
I agree. I think a minority of the women have an abortion for convenience. Many are forced into making a decision without much thought and information. Heartless people leverage their fragile emotional instability, shame them and leave them with little time. They paint a picture of hopelessness against a background of time running out. They need forgiveness and strength to move on and make better choices.
Abortionists will lie to commit infanticide and even perform abortion on women who aren’t even pregnant.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2009400/posts
The Apostle Paul directly participated in the martyrdom of early Christians and he was surely forgiven, how can we deny the same forgiveness to a woman who was quite possibly tricked and to coerced into a grievous sin. The Lord’s Forgiveness and Grace is either available to ALL of us or NONE of use, to believe anything else would be to deny His Love.
I had a friend who had an abortion at 16 and never told anyone, including me. She seemed to have no problems with it - and then she had her first child, years later.
The night she told me she cried and cried. And she kept saying, “Why didn’t they tell me?”
It took me a while to realize that they had lied to her in the clinic about “the spot of blood”.
Though I agree that many women feel trapped into abortions, reducing abortion, and the entire life destroyed by it, to just a poor choice — “make better choices”— is horrific.
Would you please explain what caused you to think that?
And let’s not forget the women who chose abortion for purely selfish reasons knowing full well what they were doing.
You seem to have forgotten that category...and it is not a small one. It’s not always someone else’s fault or bad information when it comes to decisions women make.
Well, it is forgivable, but the problem is that what consequences are they being given for the act of murder? If another person would murder their unborn baby, they would be charged and given prison time. If mom goes nuts and kills her young children, she may face prison time. When ‘mom’ kills an unborn child, nothing happens to her. Them going through bad feelings is not prison time. They have not been sentenced to do their time for murder (ie they are not held responsible legally for their actions). I think what you are reacting to is that there does not seem to be any justice meted out by a court to a mom who murders her unborn baby. Being torn up inside about it is not punishment enough. If that is true, then all criminals who act remoseful and say they are haunted by what they did should be freed.
There is forgiveness by God, but forgiveness does not mean not facing consequences for your actions. That is why we forgive people that wrong us, but still want justice done and having that person be brought to justice. Part of being able to forgive is because we know that that person ultimately will be held responsible, both in this lifetime and the next. That is part of God’s justice as well. That is why altough Christians are forgiven, we still are under a sentence of temporal death, ultimately. We are forgiven, but because we are sinners, we will die one day. The fact we’re forgiven because our faith is in Christ means we’ll be resurrected one day to eternal life.
Suicide is unforgiveable. Cold blooded pre meditated murder is unforgiveable. These are basic fundamental christian concepts. Everything else is forgiveable. But those two big ones are automatic eternal damnation. I’m pretty sure I’m not mistaken on this. Sorry I don’t have a link. Someone else on this thread maybe can set me straight or back me up with some kind of proof.
“I think what you are reacting to is that there does not seem to be any justice meted out by a court...”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No. What I’m referring to is what I posted in post 18
Thanks to wagglebee for the ping.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
FReepmail Huber or sionnsar if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (sometimes 3-9 pings/day).
This list is pinged by Huber and sionnsar.
Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com
Humor: The Anglican Blue
Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.