Posted on 12/07/2008 10:40:47 AM PST by wagglebee
The smartest thing “abortion rights” advocates ever did was to coin the phrase “pro-choice.” That shifted our attention towards the act of choosing and away from what was being chosen—the dismemberment of a human being in utero.
Eventually, however, at some point, “choice” has to go from mere rhetoric to an actual deed. Somebody has to actually perform an abortion if “freedom of choice” is to become a reality, as one medical student learned recently.
The November 23rd issue of the Washington Post Magazine told the story of a medical student named Lesley Wojick. She plans to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology and is unapologetically “pro-choice.” She even helped organize a “day-long abortion seminar” at her medical school.
At the seminar, a medical director for Planned Parenthood of Maryland asked the attendees, “How pro-choice are you?” She asked them what their families and neighbors would think of their performing abortions.
Wojick was determined to “walk the talk,” to make her “actions to be consistent with [her] words.” She thought that if “pro-choice” doctors like her didn’t do this, “the right to abortion might be rendered meaningless.”
Wojick then attempted to “walk the walk.” But not for long. During her obstetrics rotation, she realized that “vacuuming out a uterus and counting the parts of the fetus” wasn’t for her. “Somebody else . . . would become an abortion provider. But it wouldn’t be her.”
It’s not surprising. Once you get past the rhetoric of choice, what’s left is a bloody and, for most people, disreputable business. As Wojick discovered, even people who insist that it’s a right want little to do with the actual practice or the practitioners.
Someone else who understands what abortions really mean is Stojan Adasevic, a Serbian doctor who performed 48,000 abortions in 26 years. Studying medicine in communist Yugoslavia, he was taught that abortion was simply removing a piece of tissue.
Then he began to have nightmares about a field filled with children playing and laughing. When they saw him, they ran away in fear. In the dream, a man in a black and white habit explained to Adasevic that these were the children he had aborted. The man in the habit was St. Thomas Aquinas.
Adasevic insists that he had never heard of Aquinas. In any case, he knew what he had to do. He stopped performing abortions. What he calls his “conversion” came at a cost—the then-communist government “cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university.”
Today, Adasevic is a leader of the pro-life movement in Serbia and persuaded authorities to air the pro-life classic, The Silent Scream, on television. Not surprisingly, he has returned to the “Orthodox faith of his childhood.”
These stories are reminders that rhetoric can only obscure the truth for so long. Then those on both sides of the abortion debate will have to decide how to “walk the talk.”
I guess realizing that it's more than just a "lump of cells" has an impact.
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Oh, those poor little babies ...
Yes, “pro choice” gives the shallow a refuge. They can claim they are NOT for it and want others to have a SAFE haven for their babies to be murdered. The label allows them to be “compassionate” hypocrites.
Sure it is a CHOICE whether you murder your own or advocate for OTHERS to murder their own. I advocate consistency - no abortion. If it’s wrong for me, it’s wrong for OTHERS for the SAME REASONS.
Good story. Chuck Colson is a good man. I think he understands well how to preach beyond the choir.
How about pro-death!
America's culture of death is nothing to be proud of.
When someone tells me they are pro-choice, I start asking them about what other choices they support women having.
Do they support a woman’s right to carry a concealed firearm?
Do they support a woman’s right to redirect her Social Security taxes into a private account which she can control?
Do they support a woman’s right to choose the school her child will attend and to have that tuition paid via a school voucher?
It usually turns out they don’t support any choice other than abortion and then they get angry at me for pointing that out.
When my wife of 26 years and I were young we had 2 abortions. I gave it little thought at the time and saw it as a way to avoid complications in my life. Now a father of three and a grandfather of four I sometimes cannot bear the thought of what I did. I have cried at night thinking of what my children would have been like. I pray they and God have forgiven me and still I am not real sure I will be able to face them in heaven. I take every opportunity to tell others about the horror of abortion and how it IS the taking of an innocent life. Do all you can to help others to not make this horrible decision.
Praise God that even abortion providers can repent!
OOooooo!
I will remember those questions!
Seriously, You and your wife did not have abortions. She did.
My boyfriend wanted me to abort. He is now my husband and we have great kids. Because I said “NO!”, and took all options for support out of the mix. Had he insisted, I would have told him I did and then walked away from him, to support my own baby.
While I understand that you feel responsible for not stopping her, in this world you could not have stopped her from doing it if she wanted to.
Fathers have no rights in it.
Thank you for being so forthcoming about your past, I believe that it is vital for people like you to understand that God can and will forgive you, but it is also necessary for you to work to show others how to avoid your pain.
Rachel’s Vineyard is doing incredible work in this area:
http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/
Excellent questions!!!
God’s forgiveness is infinite for those who turn to Him. Or else every one of us would be in big trouble.
That is true. If a woman is hell bent on abortion; she will do it.
However, there are numerous women who wouldn't have abortions if they felt the father would support her decision. Often, the only thing standing between a woman and an abortionist is a loving, supportive husband, boyfriend or parent.
I will not eloborate but trust me WE had at least 1 of those abortions. Without my direct involvement it would not have happened. I will not allow my wife to shoulder that decision by herself. We acted in concert and in unison and have done so in all the years of our marriage. We became as one when we said our vows. Though I know we will stand individually before God our decisions here on earth have always been as one.
My heart goes out to you. I’m impressed by the fact that even when someone tries to “let you off the hook,” you still take responsibility for what you did, and you’re also trying to help others avoid doing the same thing. I believe that what Jesus did on the cross was big enough, and good enough, to forgive ALL of our sins. God bless you, sir, and your wife.
I would suggest that you volunteer at a Crisis Pregnancy Center. There's no better way to help others not to make the same mistake. Believe me, I know!
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