Posted on 01/24/2017 12:19:58 PM PST by Altura Ct.
We will all teach our children the word abortion someday. But what will we say about it?
The conversation happened in the car. I can’t remember exactly why the abortion doctor’s name was mentioned… I think it had something to do with an article my husband and I had read in the news… but our curious children in the backseat wanted to know more.
“What are you guys talking about?”
“Did you say someone was bad?”
“Why are they bad? What did they do?”
I had thought they weren’t listening. I was wrong. They don’t miss a thing. Our kids never miss a thing. They’re always listening. (Something we should always remember.)
I did my best to change my tone from the serious whispers I had been exchanging with their father.
“Oh. Daddy and I were just talking about a man who did some not so good things,” I offered, hoping it would be enough to satisfy their often relentless questioning. It wasn’t. I should have known. Like most children, they always want more information.
“What not so good things did he do, Momma?” My daughter asked.
I wasn’t prepared to answer her. How do you begin to explain abortion to children? How do you “sugar coat” it? Is there a version appropriate for kids? Is there a way to gently explain to children what is happening in those clinics?
I looked up in the rearview mirror.
Innocent. Completely innocent. Abortion is a word they’ve never heard. In their world, abortion doesn’t exist. The word has no meaning. No value. No fear or disgust or lament attached to it. It’s just a string of letters… Abortion.
I studied their faces until the light turned green. They waited. Silently. It was as if they could tell whatever I was about to tell them was important.
“Momma? What did the man do?”
I took a deep breath.
“Well, he takes babies out of mommies tummies…. But not like the doctor I went to see when I had you guys. He takes them out when they’re not ready to be born yet. He takes them out early.”
I waited. I could see my daughter thinking about what that would mean. Just a few years earlier I had been pregnant with their younger brother. They lived through the terror of frantic trips to the hospital as I tried to keep their baby brother safe inside my tummy longer. They knew how hard and important it had been to keep baby brother from coming out of my tummy early.
“Why does he do that? Why does he take babies out early?”
I paused, searching for some other truth. Some other reality I could share that wasn’t so terrible… something other than what really was…
“Because the mommies don’t want the babies in their tummies anymore. They don’t want the baby, or they are afraid the baby won’t be healthy when it’s born, or they just don’t want to be a mommy. The man takes the babies out of the mommies’ tummies because the mommies want the babies out.”
Another pause.
“So… what do they do with the babies?”
I looked in the mirror again. My daughter… my precious girl… the same age I was when my momma told me… How? How and why was this conversation still real? Why is this something we must teach our children at some point?
“They get rid of them, honey. They get rid of the babies. They can’t live when they’re outside the mommy’s tummy. So… the babies die.”
Silence. It hung in the air for a few minutes. I could feel the reality settling in around us.
…Mommies go see a man who takes babies out of their tummies and the babies die…
It was horrible. And worse… it was true.
We were almost home when my son broke the silence.
“Momma? Is there a way to stop them? Is there a way to stop that man? *pause* Is there a way to stop the mommas from having their babies taken out early?”
And I wish that I could say that I answered profoundly. I wish that I could say I came back with some eloquent response about the way the world works. But I didn’t. I just said,
“We can try, sweetheart. All we can do is try to save the babies.”
There were children who participated in the Women’s March on Saturday, and while the march was not exclusively a discussion of reproductive rights, it was certainly a central theme. There were children adding their voices to the ones demanding the right for abortion to continue. Children holding signs. Children marching. And I think about the conversations that were had with these children explaining to them what was happening… explaining why they were there.
I wonder if they talked about the babies. I wonder if when they spoke to these children of their future right to decide, to have a safe procedure, to govern what happens to their own bodies… I wonder if they told them the truth about abortion. I wonder if they told them about the babies, too.
– Because we cannot say women should get to decide without addressing the removal of human life from her womb.
– We cannot discuss that a woman should have the right to a safe procedure without discussing the procedure is the removal of a human life from her body.
– We cannot talk about a woman having the right to govern her own body without mentioning the other human life that dies as a result.
The discussion of women’s reproductive rights cannot be held without mentioning the other human rights involved. Because the baby’s basic right to live outweighs the woman’s right to not be pregnant anymore.
And when we begin to teach our children that there are things we should honor above another person’s right to live… we are all in danger.
This Friday will be the next annual March for Life in Washington, and today is Tuesday. We are right in the middle of the two marches. We are standing squarely between the two, and our children are listening.
They don’t miss a thing. Our kids never miss a thing. They’re always listening.
My question is… what are we telling them? What will you tell your children about abortion? And can you teach your children the word abortion without also telling them about the babies?
Yea,.... to Kill a Baby!
I just received “Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer”-Kindle Edition today.
I am posting this comment on all abortion threads.
This is a subject (legalized murder) that needs more regulation;
1. Any woman who has an abortion must have a tubal ligation immediately following the infanticide.
2. Before any abortion, the sperm donor must be DNA tested and grant permission for the abortion. He must then undergo a mandatory vasectomy.
3. All abortions must be performed in a licensed medical facility, by a gynecologist whose fees will be paid by the requesting baby terminator.
4. No taxpayer monies will be paid for any of the above procedures.
5. No tissue from the dead infants will be harvested for body parts - for any reason. No organ donation - period.
If you can go to prison for causing a death in an automobile accident - then you should face penalties for intentionally killing an innocent child.
Abortion is legal killing
Very good.
One reason abortion continues to be legal in this country is because the word itself is a safe, non-descriptive euphemism masking the reality of a horrendous and barbaric act.
If a pro-life group could regularly broadcast - without restriction - a primetime program showing exactly what happens during an abortion, we might sicken enough people, and change enough minds to stop this carnage in less than a generation.
I’m not sure what prevents the airing of such a program. Perhaps Trump with his new FCC head would remove any restrictions.
Something to lobby for, something to pray about...
It is infanticide. The word ‘abortion’ was chosen to soften the killing.
A conversation as important as this doesn’t take place while you are driving. You need to concentrate, and not have your attention divided.
Second, there are some topics children are no old enough to handle.
Third, if you have more than one child, your children may arrive at a place they can handle this talk before the other kids do.
If a child isn’t old enough to handle murder, let alone the genocidal aspects of abortion, it’s not time yet.
Correction: Third, if you have more than one child, (one of) your children may arrive at a place they can handle this talk before the other kids do.
“This is a subject (legalized murder) that needs more regulation”
You’re holding on to a logical contradiction there. If it’s murder, you can’t regulate it, any more than you could regulate rape or kidnapping.
If we try to stake out some middle ground where we allow it with regulation, then we have to give up the moral high ground and join with the left in the lie that this is not murder we are talking about.
Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t back every regulation that would reduce abortion. We shouldn’t sacrifice the good waiting for the perfect, but at the same time, we should not forget that the only truly moral goal is to end abortion, not to regulate it.
My kids know the word and the definition. They know exactly what it is and they find it deplorable.
I sure did have that convo with my kids. And they were taught what an abortion was/is and what happens to that baby and why it happens, because the woman chooses to get rid of her child! Yep, I taught them.
I do agree the father should have a say in this. Should not be just a woman’s right to choose to kill. What a (fill in the blank) up society we live in.
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