All Posts – Page 24

A feminist writes about miscarriage…

December 22, 2015 by Andrea Mrozek 1 Comment

…Her own miscarriage. She acknowledges a major point here:

The more I considered it, the more I became convinced that the silence around miscarriage was connected to feminism’s work around abortion. How could I grieve a thing that didn’t exist? If a fetus is not meaningfully alive, if it is just a collection of cells – the cornerstone claim of the pro-choice movement – what does it mean to miscarry one?

…but this appears to never sink into her consciousness. It’s as if that idea is the swimming pool, but she just sits on the edge, never taking a dive in to embrace the reality that if we abort a collection of cells in utero, we cannot mourn the loss of a son or daughter, also in utero.

Oddly, I also think that the abortion culture creates an expectation that we don’t have children when we don’t want to, and we do have children at the precise moment we decide we are ready. Perhaps the result is the kind devastation she experiences at her own miscarriage. It’s as if she blames herself for not being able to sustain the pregnancy, not realizing this was never within her personal sphere of power.

She also only mourns the child she wanted, not the one she aborted. Another inconsistency that the article never grapples with.

Safe medicines for pregnant women

December 17, 2015 by Andrea Mrozek Leave a Comment

This article makes an important point. Pregnant women need safe medications. All the more so if they are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. Obviously, you could better persevere through an unplanned pregnancy for the sake of giving a person life if you aren’t depressed, sick, or otherwise suffering. I don’t know how they will ethically proceed with this; it’s obviously tricky terrain, because experimenting with fetal health is obviously problematic. However, I think this is important.

Our current model for dealing with pregnant women and medication preaches abstinence. Expectant mothers are cautioned to avoid both prescription and over the counter drugs (as well as alcohol and even caffeine) to mitigate any possible harm to the baby — after all, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

The problem is, telling pregnant women to avoid any and all medication for nine months ignores one very glaring truth: pregnant women get sick and can be injured. This leaves them with an impossible choice: either take medication that poses unknown risks to their child, or refuse treatment and put their own health (and potentially the health of their child) in danger.

Her crisis pregnancy just turned 15

December 16, 2015 by Andrea Mrozek Leave a Comment

Liked this, a lot.

The panic is temporary. The fear is temporary. The crisis is temporary. The days when you wake up thinking “how did I make such a huge mistake” are so few in retrospect.

You have nine months for all that, but then it gets good. Still difficult, don’t get me wrong, but so so good…

By now it should be obvious to all that I am no fan of abortion. But perhaps the biggest reason why is because it sidelines the strength women have and capitalizes on panic and fear. Whoever, on any issue at all, said that fear is a good reason to do something? And most abortions are done for that reason: Fear of a future a woman can’t see or yet understand, fear of a lack of finances, fear of what people will think, etc. etc. etc. The fear is temporary, the strength is permanent. This is why helping women find strength to carry on in face of a crisis is an act of compassion.

“The God I believe in isn’t short of cash, mister”

December 13, 2015 by Andrea Mrozek 2 Comments

Sassy writing and a Princess Bride reference within the first ten lines. I like it.

Furthermore, anytime someone living within the shadow of the CN Tower expresses a pro-life point of view, an angel gets his wings–so I feel it’s important to highlight these miraculous moments.

I don’t believe in coincidences. If you or someone known to you is on the horns of a dilemma with an unexpected pregnancy and planning to terminate it, have the child and I’ll find a way to raise it for you.

This isn’t a first-come, one-off proposition. I’ll do it for as many as ask. If you’re wondering how such an undertaking could be accomplished, as the Irish philosopher Paul Hewson put it, “The God I believe in isn’t short of cash, mister.”

I’m not doing it because I think your kid is the Messiah. In fact, if the child grows up with much exposure to me, chances are he’ll be a world-class jerk. Nevertheless, he has a right to live.

Now, this is a sincere offer, but let’s please not make it the focal point of this prose. What I’m saying is that if those of us who are pro-life mean what we say, we must be part of the solution beyond stating what the law should be or what other people should do.

I believe Mr. Caldwell is perfectly serious with his offer, btw. Therefore, I would like to broadcast it further here. If you need help, please get in touch. That said, I am filled with sadness knowing how many expressions of total and complete generosity are met with no–because people believe they cannot accept help, or that it isn’t real, or they just can’t. I often wonder if someone out there needs to model vulnerability–a simple expression that no one has it all together all the time. We are all fond of the idea, however false it is, that we are self-sufficient and we don’t ever need help. (Is this why Trump wins support?) Then, come a crisis, we actually prefer to go it alone, thinking we are very strong for doing so.

The tone deafness of strident pro-choice activists

December 7, 2015 by Andrea Mrozek Leave a Comment

Faye already commented on the Scandal episode. This article does so again, from the perspective of a woman who had an abortion. I thought it was pretty worthwhile to read her perspective, since only but rarely does real-life experience match up with the Hollywood version. (And yes, that’s true whether the story line is pro-life or pro-choice.)

With this episode of Scandal, my heart broke not only because of the abortion experienced by a character I’ve come to like but also because of the soundtrack. To play a beautiful Christmas hymn about easily the most famously celebrated birth in history during a scene that terminates a pregnancy is distasteful. “Silent Night, holy night / All is calm, all is bright / Round yon virgin Mother and Child / Holy infant so tender and mild / Sleep in heavenly peace.” I’m sure the playing of this song during this scene was intentional, politically driven, and meant to stir things up. But I wonder if the writers and producers of this show realize how incredibly damaging images such as these can be to post-abortive women, causing reactions such as flashbacks, nightmares, or increased anxiety.

“We don’t need another Morgentaler”

December 7, 2015 by Faye Sonier Leave a Comment

Slaw is a Canadian legal commentary blog. It’s not pro-life. But here’s a perspective that doesn’t line up far from my own…For a wide variety of reasons, I hate that assisted suicide has been decriminalized in Canada, but we cannot allow unregulated assisted suicide.

If the current government does nothing, and it’s impossible to see how they could broach such a complicated and sensitive subject as physician-assisted suicide in such a short period of time, then we will be left in a situation where these provisions under the Code are invalid and there is no comparable law to replace it. This would be a similar situation as abortion following R. v. Morgentaler 27 years ago, where no law has followed the Court’s decision.

Unlike abortion though, where most Canadians are content to live in a country where we turn a blind eye to the subject and allow it to continue based on individual preference, there are far more compelling interests at stake here.

The implication of inaction over the Carter decision would be to allow all consensual killing and assisted suicide in Canada, whether there was physician involvement or not, or any oversight for that matter. The vulnerabilities of individuals at the end of life, and potential for a rise in elder abuse, necessitates that some for of legislative reform is undertaken.

Read the rest here.

Alberta minors could request assisted suicide

December 7, 2015 by Faye Sonier 4 Comments

According to the draft policy by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, minors could request physician assisted suicide:

The old document restricted consent to competent adult patients, but that has been amended to include mature minors. The document states, “legal precedent recognizes mature minors as adults in their ability to consent; the college recommends physicians take a careful and conservative approach to mature minors.”

CPSA Registrar Dr. Trevor Theman said there’s no strict age limit on the requirement for consent, suggesting medical procedures aren’t typically based on age.

“It’s somebody who would not yet be of adult age, who is fully capable of understanding the options and the choices that are available–and the consequences of each–and is understood to have the capacity to make that decision,” he said.

Slippery slope? What slippery slope?

photo credit: i wear your heart on my sleeve via photopin (license)

A note from the past

November 30, 2015 by Andrea Mrozek 1 Comment

The source needs to remain anonymous, but someone just emailed me this:

Just read a letter from a doctor to the Therapeutic Abortion Committee of a hospital from 1979 where the family doctor requested approval for a therapeutic abortion. The reason it was “recommended” was that the father was a married man who had been living apart from his wife but who had since gone back to her. Then, I read the description of the procedure which occurred at 17 weeks gestation. Horrific. But it demonstrated that abortions really were granted for just about any reason at all.”

This lends credence to the decidedly anti-feminist proposition that abortion serves to conceal a man’s indiscretions. The woman lives with the consequences regardless.

Tune in to Veronique’s YouTube channel

November 26, 2015 by Andrea Mrozek Leave a Comment

Veronique Bergeron is one of my favourite people in all the land. She has a large family. She used to blog with us at PWPL. People were sad when she stopped. Good news: Now she has her own blog about her large family. She has a YouTube channel; it’s new! She also has a sense of humour, which isn’t new. Miraculously, even with nine children, she has kept that around. I look up to Ms. Bergeron and her whole clan. There’s no white picket fence around her property, she keeps it real. Tune in.

This one is interesting because I swear to you: Having given speeches to audiences in the hundreds, having testified before hostile committees, having talked to biased journalists about being pro-life, one of the most stressful things I’ve ever done was get both my nieces out the door for a walk on a fine summer day when I was the only adult. There were shoes on the wrong feet, there were water bottles and changes of clothes stuffed into the back of the stroller, there was general mayhem, there was a stressed out Auntie. It is no great surprise to me that this is one of Veronique’s first videos, as a result.

[youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHaqTxjO4Bw]

Planned Parenthood shouldn’t have celebrated that episode of Scandal

November 24, 2015 by Faye Sonier 4 Comments

I saw a number of pro-lifers posting about the latest Scandal episode on Facebook. It’s one of television’s top shows. In last week’s episode, the main character apparently undergoes ‘the most realistic’ abortion ever shown during prime time.

I’ve watched Scandal. But I didn’t watch last week’s episode as I caught a story about it on LifeSiteNews, and I won’t be watching it. I’m four and a half months pregnant, and watching an abortion scene (and the scenes that follow) while Ave Maria, Silent Night and Hallelujah are played in the background would bring me to hysterics. Abortion is horrific. Abortion celebrated is a horror that I have difficulty imagining.

I just came across an article that explains why perhaps Planned Parenthood should stop celebrating this episode:

Because ultimately, I bet most viewers won’t remember the filibustering scenes or the political chatter about Planned Parenthood.

Instead, they’ll remember the episode’s most emotional moment: Olivia getting an abortion, all by herself, holiday music overheard, her dad’s voice denouncing family as a “burden.”

That’s not a moment any woman wants. That’s not a moment any man should want to happen.

I don’t know what story Rhimes, who serves on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, and the “Scandal” writers set out to tell. But the one they ultimately told is the true one: Abortion is a tragedy—not just for the unborn children whose lives are lost, but also for the women who have abortions.

Read the rest here. Even with the best writers, it’s impossible to portray abortion as something great and wonderful – because women feeling like they need to choose abortion and end the lives of their children just isn’t.

photo credit: i wear your heart on my sleeve via photopin (license)

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