Abortion-Some Choice
theophilus October 29th, 2009
The 40 Days for Life Fall Campaign is coming to an end on Sunday. The organizers keep a “babies saved” account which counts the number of babies saved (at least for the moment) by their prayer vigils. This number represents the number of women who come to the abortion clinic with the intention of killing their child and leave with their baby still kicking and breathing.
For this campaign, the count stands at 460. They also just passed a milestone of 2,000 since these vigils began.
These babies represent the miracle of divine intervention brought about by the prayers of the courageous and faithful opening up the hearts of pregnant mothers with a “choice” to make.
But in all truthfulness, what is this choice?
I was born to a single mother. It was pre-Roe v. Wade, but I know full well that my mother had a “choice” to make. Thankfully for me and my family, she listened to God and placed herself and me in the hands of Christ and his Blessed Mother.
I was thinking about this “choice” the other day when I read the Daily Devotional that the 40 Days campaign puts out every day during the campaign. This particular devotion was written by Fr. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life and National Pro-Life Religious Council. His reflection on this day centered around the nature of this “choice”-
Norma McCorvey (the former Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade) used to work at an abortion mill named “A Choice for Women.” She now realizes what a cruel irony that title was. She saw first hand, just as pregnancy resource center counselors see, that women don’t get abortions because of freedom of choice, but rather because they feel they have no freedom and no choice. They feel trapped, abandoned, desperate and afraid, and have been led to believe that abortion is their only option.
As Frederica Mathewes-Green has written, no want wants an abortion like she wants a Porsche or an ice cream; rather, she wants it like an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg.
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” That doesn’t mean that the Spirit allows us to do whatever we want or to decide for ourselves what’s right and wrong.
Rather, it means that the Spirit gives us the freedom to do what is right, the power to choose what is good, when we see it before us and yet feel pulled in the opposite direction. Liberty means that we no longer have to feel doomed to do what we know is wrong.
We are the people of the Spirit of the Lord, and when we take action on behalf of life, especially by being present at abortion mills, we are acting on behalf of true freedom, and imparting to those who are in bondage the power to do what is right.
As a kid, I always wondered why God allowed evil to exist. It’s only really recently that I’ve realized that it’s not necessarily that God permits evil to exist, but that he so loves man that he gives us our freedom. It’s this freedom that either leads us to embrace the goodness and love of our Father and his Son and his Spirit, or leads us to turn our back on God and allow evil to occur. It’s not God that permits evil to occur; it’s man. We have a choice to make; it’s up to us to make the right one.
For the past 40 days, the choice for many throughout the nation has been to exercise their freedom to pray outside the abortion mills. At times, they were even able to get information in the hands of the mothers entering these abortion mills so that these women would know exactly what choice they were making. It’s the fact that this information isn’t given to the mother by right that makes the “choice” so ironic. What kind of choice is it if mothers can’t even see an ultrasound of their baby before they give a nod to the doctor to proceed? Who truly loves these women and who is trying to hide the truth?
This campaign is the first one that I followed and I wish I could have done more. The problem is that I’m too chicken to go down there alone. But I have been to two vigils and I’ve prayed the devotionals everyday. I’ve been with them in spirit.
But I know that’s not enough. The Holy Spirit is kicking into gear. It’s up to all of us who believe in the sanctity of all life and the dignity of all men to step forward to ensure mothers make the right “choice” – just like my mother did oh so long ago. We have to get off of the sidelines and do something. Christ is calling us to follow him. Our Blessed Mother is imploring us to get moving.
BTW, the next campaign starts on Ash Wednesday. Details to come.
- Culture , God's Call , The Battle , U.S.A. , pro-life
- Comments(2)



