Friday, 16 January 2009
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Picketing Abortion Clinics
'Former Abortion Escort Returns to Old Battle Lines'
In the name of saving unborn children, there are people dedicating their time and anger towards picketing abortion clinics. I do not believe that serves any good, neither are their actions done in love.
Women who had to resort to abortion clinics usually have had to make a very difficult and heart-wrenching decision. Perhaps the father of the foetus has abandoned her when the pregnancy was discovered. Perhaps she was impregnated through rape. Perhaps she feels that bringing her illegitimate child into this world would unfairly burden the child. Perhaps the wrath of her family if they find out about her pregnancy would be catastrophic or even fatal. Perhaps she needs to get out of an abusive marriage and her pregnancy would only keep her and her other children trapped. Perhaps her husband and her simply cannot cope with another child. The bottom line is, we do not know their situation.
Instead of giving them their privacy and just secretly pray for them, picketers choose to shame them and make the process even more torturous than it already is. To me, picketing is gathering to throw stones at all who pass, the women going for their abortion procedures, their companion, clinic volunteers, clinic staff. And the picketeers conveniently forget that "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone."
I'm a single woman who has chosen to abstain from pre-marital sex. I would like to think that I would never have an abortion, for I have a great love for children and to be a mother would be an enormous blessing. Yet, I can never be sure. Perhaps one day, I may be forced by circumstances to consider an abortion. I don't know. And so I feel ill-equipped to judge. And I refuse to judge.
All I know is, the clinic staff and volunteers have to face this angry crowd every single working day. That is how they start their day. Women have to do a walk of shame to get their procedures done, so in addition to the physical trauma and emotional struggle and whatever other burden they have, there is shame and humiliation thrust at them by the "religious".
Before abortion was legal, women resorted to drastic measures to remove their unwanted foetuses. Coat hangers, punching their stomachs, violent falls, drinking poison. They suffered and some died because society denied them a safer option. Yes, the unborn child is innocent and a life too. But I choose to support safe, legal abortions as a choice for women who would otherwise be forced into a desperate corner. I choose to support a variety of options for them, adoption and safe homes for them to carry their pregnancies to full-term included, so that women will no longer be the subjugated, repressed, second-class people of the world. So yes, I am pro-choice. I am pro-woman.
If the intention of these picketeers is to serve the rights/needs of unborn children, surely there are more effective and loving ways. Instead of forming a mob of hatred and anger, wouldn't it be better and more Christian to direct their efforts into services that support women? Into women's shelters that allow the women to carry their baby to full-term then organise for adoptions? Into thinking of new support organisations and systems for women who choose to raise their babies, so that their motherhood does not mean doomsday for them? Into providing pro-life information in a discrete and understanding way to these women without condemning them or forcing them?
What would Jesus do?
This is the Jesus I know... "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:28
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