Control the Conversation About Abortion

So many times I hear media personalities, who are trained in communication skills, divert the truth of abortion. They say things to control the conversation like, “Would you deny women the right to get an abortion?” or “How can you force a woman to carry the pregnancy to term?” or “If you outlaw abortion, what happens to women who need one?” or “Would you have women brought up on charges?”

Control the Conversation

All of these devices ignore what abortion actually is. It is an invasive surgical procedure for the singular purpose of killing the smallest and most vulnerable human beings on earth.

If an interviewer says, “Would you deny a woman’s right to have an abortion?” Candidates, legislators, judges and activists should always reply with, “Would you deny a child’s right to life?” We care about women. Pregnancy can be hard. They may even be in a crisis situation, but killing the baby is never the best answer. It is the worst possible response, according to many studies.

If they say, “So, you want to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term?” We should say, “So, you want her to kill her own baby?” It’s not honest to call the child a pregnancy. Pregnancy is a state of being that is temporary. Women, who know it is a child, are likely to have severe emotional and psychological complications. Many who don’t know the developmental stage of their child and find out later, feel betrayed and suffer relational difficulties. Temporarily, she is the only one who can protect her child. Once they are born, others can.

When they insist, “If you outlaw abortion, what happens to the woman who needs one?” We must say, “No woman ever needs to have their child torn to pieces.” In the rare case when a woman’s life is in danger, early delivery is always an option. Opening the womb, with the sole intention of killing the child is never appropriate medical care.

Effective Conversation

If they demand, “Would you have women brought up on charges?” We should say, “We would see them receive immunity to testify against the abortionists, so that other lives would be saved when the abortionist is stopped.” Women who under go abortions are not criminals. They often have no idea what abortion actually looks like. The abortionist does though. One 15-year-old girl said, the abortionist showed her the remains of her child after her second abortion and said, “Look what you did.” She had been 14 when she had the abortions. It was traumatizing for her. She didn’t know what would happen, but he did.

I’m writing this because I saw president-elect Trump on 60minutes being manipulated by the host. I watched a clip of the video. He didn’t look comfortable with the subject of abortion. I think it’s because of perspective, denying a woman abortion vs defending innocent human life. Sadly, many calling themselves prolife are similarly uncomfortable and therefore ineffective.

Of course, we care about women. Pregnancy can be hard, especially in crisis situations. There are many resource centers. If the perspective is to keep women and their children safe from abortionists, it is easy to defend. We must not let those willing to harm women and kill their children control the conversation.

Words are containers for power and unfortunately, these words mean life and death.