This the subject of a Flare magazine point/counterpoint, with some lovely women representing team life, Natalie Sonnen and Marie-Claire Bissonnette.  

I might add, in response to the Planned Parenthood spokeswoman that I am prepared to see women make mistakes–we all do that. But we have to be able to call abortion a mistake freely. We have to stop funding it, thereby incentivizing this huge mistake into something routine–which is what abortion has become. It’s used as backup birth control. If even one of the early activists for access to abortion envisaged it being used as birth control–could she please stand up? They don’t exist–they all thought abortion would be used in extreme circumstances–so very, very far removed from our reality today. Far, far too many women suffer from the effects of this mistake primarily because agencies like Planned Parenthood gloss over what the abortion choice actually involves. As movies like Hush are made, we are already seeing the start of a new way of thinking. 

The truth about feminism is that the majority of women who pioneered the movement, early suffragettes who fought long and hard to bring equal rights to women, strongly opposed abortion. They very clearly saw it for what it is—the taking of human life—and did not insist on securing their rights by taking the lives of their children. In fact, early feminists would be horrified to see the extent to which modern day feminism has appropriated abortion as one of its hallmarks.

Equal rights for women have always and should always entail equal pay, equal opportunity and equal treatment. It should seek to eradicate sexism while instilling a deep respect for and celebration of innate femininity which includes the right to bear children. Modern feminism all too often ridicules femininity, medicates fertility, resents pregnancy and demonizes the unborn child in an effort to annihilate what is ‘woman’ and turn her into a man. This, to any pro-life feminist, is the ultimate sexism. There is nothing incongruous about pro-life feminism. Rather pro-life feminism extols what is best about women while staying true to its roots.” —Natalie Sonnen, executive director, LifeCanada

Natalie Sonnen, not a tool of the patriarchy.

An article about the March for Life in the USA: 

Glorya Jordan, a mother of four from Woodbridge, Va., said not enough is being done to give black women options to abortion. She brought a sign to the march that read “Black Lives Matter, born and pre-born.”

“It’s important for the African American community to realize that we’re doing this to ourselves,” Jordan said, noting that in New York City the number of abortions exceeded the number of births among black women. In 2014, the most recent figures available, the city’s health department reported 23,680 births and 27,367 induced terminations among black women.

The stay-at-home mom said she voted for a third-party candidate, shunning both Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Trump. “Some of the comments he has made about women — and really about every other group — were inappropriate to say the least,” Jordan said. “However I do want him to stand for life. I do want him to stand for both the born and the pre-born. I’m hoping he will do that.”

Lots of women want to hold Trump accountable, just not in the manner that the Women’s-March-That-Excluded-Pro-Life-Women wants.

It’s not often a statistic is so conclusive: 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In a survey conducted in the nation’s capital Saturday, a full 100% of the people marching on the nation’s capital for abortion rights as part of the “Women’s March on Washington” were found to have not been aborted by their mothers when they were yet to be born.

The controversial study indicates that there may be a connection between participating in any kind of protest, and having a mother willing to carry you to term beforehand.

Rachel’s Vineyard is a safe place to renew, rebuild and redeem hearts broken by abortion. Weekend retreats offer you a supportive, confidential and non-judgmental environment where women and men can express, release and reconcile painful post-abortive emotions to begin the process of restoration, renewal and healing. Rachel’s Vineyard can help you experience God’s love and compassion on a profound level. It creates a place where men and women can share, often for the first time, their deepest feelings about their abortion. You are allowed to dismantle troubling secrets in an environment of emotional and spiritual safety. 

 

Please email soon to register as space is limited (rvr_ottawa [at] yahoo.ca) 

Date – The next retreat in the Ottawa area is March 3-5

Cost – The 230$ cost covers all meals and lodging from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. Financial assistance is available.

We may be seeing a defunding of Planned Parenthood soon, something I would celebrate. 

There is a large break in the public mind between what Planned Parenthood in the USA actually does and what people believe they do. 

That’s why I’m re-posting this very succinct, fun video about the numbers, most expressly debunking that only 3% of Planned Parenthood USA’s business is abortion. 

Enjoy and inform others when they say the false statistic, too. 

(PS and FYI: Planned Parenthood in Canada does not do abortions.) 

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtgqxvaV-8U]

Photo courtesy of JillStanek.com

This is emphatically a good news story. Reported by the pro-choice Guttmacher, abortion is down across the United States. My question would be around chemical (early) abortions and whether those are included. But for now, this is a great news story. 

The abortion rate in the United States fell to its lowest level since the historic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion nationwide, a new report finds.

The report by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports legalized abortion, puts the rate at 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age (ages 15-44) in 2014. That’s the lowest recorded rate since the Roe decision in 1973. The abortion rate has been declining for decades — down from a peak of 29.3 in 1980 and 1981.

The report also finds that in 2013, the total number of abortions nationwide fell below 1 million for the first time since the mid-1970s. In 2014 — the most recent year with data available — the number fell a bit more, to 926,200. The overall number had peaked at more than 1.6 million abortions in 1990, according to Guttmacher.

Happy, free, empowered women who don’t choose abortion: That’s the goal.