Teresa was a 14-year-old from South Carolina when she came to
New York City with her mother for a late term abortion in 1971.
Her story is one of many testimonies of women who regret having
abortions and have posted their experiences in detail on the Web
site of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, which began in
late 2003. I first became aware of this nonprofit organization
when I went to Washington last year to cover the annual March for
Life. This year, the terrible weather and my crippling arthritis
kept me home, in body but not in spirit.
Not many New York women want to hear me discuss my pro-life
views. They have been indoctrinated in the belief that abortion
is a woman's right. I get e-mail messages from women who have
achieved high positions in the business and academic arenas,
claiming I am anti-choice and anti-woman. I am amazed that these
women, who are obviously intelligent, aren't clued into the fact
that it is men who have benefited the most from Roe v. Wade.
Most of the women I have met through pro-life activities are not
pious or self-righteous. They are, in fact, women who have had
abortions and have no illusions about what it has done to their
lives. Now they have a chance to unburden themselves of their
secrets and to warn other women about what the decision to kill a
baby will mean to a mother for the rest of her life. I believe
the voices of those pro-life women will have a greater impact on
the hearts and minds of Americans than those of priests and
politicians.
In a testimony entitled "Remembering My Son, " Teresa
writes:
It all was so traumatizing, I
cannot remember if I was given
the choice of adoption. At any
rate, the procedure to have the
abortion was arranged and plans
were made. My mother and I a
week or two later, flew to New
York, where Planned Parenthood
said this was the only legal and
safe place to have an abortion. I
do not know the amount that was
paid.
The rest of her testimony is quite detailed, but the reason I
selected hers to write about is that her legal abortion took
place in New York in 1971, before Roe v. Wade. The hysteria about
ending abortion rights mounted by Democrats like Senator Schumer
against conservative judges nominated by President Bush has no
basis in reality. The issue of abortion rights will simply revert
back to the states. Women will always be able to travel to
"blue states" such as New York to terminate their
pregnancies.
Another element I noted in Teresa's essay was that she saw the
remains of her aborted child, a boy, and wrote that it was the
only son she ever had. She was blessed, thankfully, with a
daughter years later. Many of the women I know personally who are
now in their late 50s and had an abortion are childless, and
their own mothers, who were so anxious to rid their families of
inconvenient grandchildren, never had the pleasure of knowing
what joy our children's children bring.
Yet somehow it is the women's groups who laud the freedom we now
"enjoy" over our bodies. How ironic. Roe v. Wade made
the idea of "shotgun weddings" unnecessary. It also
facilitated irresponsibility in sexual relations, reducing the
sexual act to instinctive behavior rather than emotional
commitment. Pray tell, how does that benefit women lives?
Frankenstein scientists have been salivating over the prospect of
experimenting with human embryos in their quest to engineer an
immortal being. How they must be rejoicing in observing our
congressmen trolling for the women's vote by pushing for budget
money for research on embryonic stem cells.
In the 32 years since Jan. 21, 1973, when Roe v. Wade was
decided, there have been more than 44,670,000 abortions. The
enlightened Western Civilization has achieved and exceeded the
vaunted zero population growth. The Catholic religion has always
been blamed for the overpopulation of the planet, yet neither
China nor India, the world's most populous countries, is
Catholic. The native-born majorities in France, Italy, Spain, and
other Catholic nations are rapidly eroding, giving way to growing
Islamic immigrant populations.
The passage of Roe v. Wade was built on a tissue of lies. Norma
McCovey, aka Jane Roe, and Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of
Naral, have testified to that. Intelligent women should remove
their blinders, unplug their ears, and observe and listen to
their sisters' warning about the harm abortion does to women,
men, their families, and our nation.