The pro-choice crowd is in the business of influencing–encouraging a young girl to believe she is not equipped, not strong, not able to carry a pregnancy to term. You think they just leave women to “make a choice?” Well in so doing, they play upon all the fears we know women feel–mostly because we have ourselves already felt them in one way or another.
This is something Sarah Palin highlighted as she spoke at a Right to Life gathering yesterday. You can watch part of it below, and I’ve transcribed a little bit here:
We went through some things a year ago that now lets me understand a girl’s temptation to maybe try to make it all go away–if she has been influenced by society to believe she is not strong enough, or smart enough or equipped enough or convenienced enough to make the choice to let the child live. I do understand what these women, what these girls go through in that thought process. Maybe you are going through a battle right now. I want to encourage you. In my moments of doubt that I just went through a year ago I clung to a faith that taught me that we could face the challenges, that we won’t be given anything that we can’t handle and really at times that faith was all that I had. … Trig is the best thing that ever happened to me and I want other women to give this a chance and experience this.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZIf-ZUWRzo]
Maybe you are going through some things right now. May you be encouraged that you are strong enough, and smart enough and equipped enough to deal with it. And may people walk into your life who are savvy and kind enough to know this, and to speak those words.
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Brigitte adds: whoops, both Andrea and I wrote about the same story at the same time. And we did it without calling each other first (“what you gonna write about today?” “I don’t know, what you gonna write about?”). My take on the story is this: Even if, like me, you’re not big on “image of God” references, her speech is powerful stuff. I will not claim unplanned pregnancies aren’t inconvenient. I’m sure they are in many, many cases, and not every woman is as strong and determined as Gov. Palin. But as Andrea likes to say, we don’t kill to solve our problems.
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Andrea adds: I know Gov. Palin means faith in God when she speaks of faith. And the Bible does expressly teach we won’t be given more troubles than we can handle. That is encouraging, but only for those who believe the Bible. But I think for non-religious types you could simply have faith in something better coming down the pipes. I think it’s called optimism. I have come to understand that pro-choicers suffer from a frightful lack of creativity–an incapacity to see how healing in an unplanned pregnancy could occur with the baby living, not dead.
by 
If you haven’t watched it all ready, her entire speech is wonderful and available on youtube.
Brigitte – I am agnostic at best usually, but the God references she uses don’t bother me. They are mostly to reinforce the fact that our rights as individual human beings are ‘God-given’, which to me means inherent. All this talk of ‘ordained rights’ are to point out that it is not some politician or judge who gives out rights. They are naturally there, whether other humans choose to recognize them or not. This is a philosophical position I believe is so important to hear in this messed up times of “Babies who won’t die”.
Anyways, I love her honesty and genuineness – as well as the courage to admit she did contemplate how easy it would be for someone to “make the situation go away”. Some are already using this as ammunition that she ‘considered abortion’ or was glad she had a choice. She tears up at one point telling people to speak out and not be scared into silence.