A 17-year-old girl, a refugee from Mexico, is seeking an abortion in Texas. The U.S. government has stated that it cannot take her to an abortion facility, as taxpayers would be funding abortion – something that is against the law. The saga is currently playing out through the courts, but it cannot be forgotten that there are actual human beings living out this scenario — a scenario that involves the consideration of an abortion at 15 weeks.
This 17-year-old girl, whoever she is, has a name and a face. She has suffered pain and hardship in her short life. And she sits, somewhere in Texas, holding two lives in the balance.
Her story is unique, and it is her own. And yet, there are countless other girls and women also considering an abortion today. Some are 15 weeks pregnant, just like this girl. Others are 5 weeks pregnant, 6 weeks pregnant, 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 11 weeks, 17 weeks, 22 weeks, even 34 or 36 weeks. Each one of these mothers holds two lives – her own and that of her child’s.
A child does not become a child only upon her birth, just as a woman does not become a mother only at the moment her child exits her body. Motherhood, childhood, and humanity itself begins far sooner. At the earliest moment a new, unique human being begins to exist, she is a real child, and her mother is a real mother.
American women are told they have the “right” to choose abortion. But what is it – to choose abortion? It is to choose whether this already-existing, currently developing human being will live or die. And not just die, but die violently. Whenever an innocent human’s life is held within the hands of another human, allowing life to continue is the only humane choice.
Many women and girls have suffered at the hands of those who should have cared for them – just as this 17-year-old refugee has suffered and fled from her home. Many have been abandoned, shut down, carelessly cast aside, pressured, forced, pushed into a corner, left to live a life – and raise another life — alone. But the experience of suffering must lead a person to the path of peace and nonviolence towards those human beings they are responsible for.
No woman chooses abortion because she’s dreamed about this day her whole life long.
Abortion is a choice empty of true power, stripped of dignity, and clothed in suffering. When a mother holds two lives in her hands and lets one of them slip away violently, by her own choice, it is never only the life lost who suffers. Both suffer. Her child, in the act of abortion – while her arms and legs are ripped off as her heart continues to beat, while a chemical that causes cardiac arrest is injected through a thick needle into her heart or skull, while her body is suctioned violently into a tube as she struggles to escape, or while a chemical acts to starve her and uproot her body from the only home she’s ever known. How many know that those things are what abortion factually is?
Abortion is not a word. It is a violent, inhumane taking of a real human life. Abortion is not a few minutes. It is a lifetime of experiencing another’s death. Abortion is not a choice. It is a sentence that no mother or child deserves. One mother wrote, seven years after her abortion:
I am a budding pro life activist now because I want better for my children than what I experienced and I dont want them to believe the lie that abortion is empowering because I am proof that it’s not. Having 3 of my babies here with me and giving me the greatest joy I have ever felt is what is empowering, not the life I was living in self destruction. I don’t know a single post abortive woman that isn’t self destructive. Our choices have consequences whether we see it right away or not.
One thing that mothers share in common – that they are rarely told – is strength. Strength to provide a place of safety for their children, whether inside their wombs or somewhere in this great, big world. Strength to protect the helpless, voiceless life that a mother feels and knows first. Strength to push out the voices telling her she is not capable, she is not worthy, she is not able. Strength to reject the claims that tell her she is too damaged, too young, too old, too weak. Strength to protect her child and make a new life for her child and herself.
To the girl who wants a 15-week abortion, and to every girl and woman considering an abortion today, know that you and your child have more to offer this world. You can be an overcomer. You can be a voice showing mothers what it is to step outside the mold that has been cast by those who push abortion, and you can set the new standard of love for a world that is desperate to experience it.
A love that goes beyond the confusion of this present moment.
A love that reaches outside the boundaries that have been set on your strength and abilities.
A love that defies all you have suffered.
A love that looks to the future where the two lives you hold in this moment can blossom and grow as they were always intended to do.
Together, love can make both of you into survivors.
Editor’s Note: If you or anyone you know is being pressured or forced to have an abortion, please check out this article for help and resources. If you are making a decision about abortion, and need more information, see the article Questions About Pregnancy or Abortion? Here’s What You Need to Know. The articles at Clinic Quotes, 10 Reasons Not to Have an Abortion, and the videos at Abortion Procedures are also informative. Stand Up Girl, Option Line, and Pregnancy Line will help you find local resources, help, and trained people who can support you in your area.
If you’ve begun an abortion and are regretting your decision, the 24-hour, nurse-staffed hotline at Abortion Pill Reversal (1-877-558-0333) may be able to give you information on reversing your abortion. Men involved in a pregnancy situation can check out Abortion and Men and Abortion Exploits Women.