The actual women’s march was today – the March for Life. You didn’t hear about it on the Today Show, but it’s actually much bigger than any of the Women’s Marches this past weekend.
Feminists claim to support all women, to be marching for the rights of all women, especially those on the fringes of society. The problem many of us have with feminism is that it’s being shoved down our throats that we’re being treated unfairly even though this is THE best time in history to be a woman, in the country where we enjoy the most rights. Everyone has struggles and may experience discrimination in some ways, but are these struggles occurring SOLELY because we’re women? Highly unlikely.
The most frequent puzzling thing I’ve read in the comments sections of these pro-life vs. feminist articles is the claim that pro-life people aren’t really pro-life, they’re just “pro-birth” and don’t care what happens to babies after they’re born or to the women affected, and that pro-lifers want to force women to have babies, etc.
My first thought is, where did they come up with this claim? Where are their statistics to back them up? In an online conversation with a self-proclaimed “feminist”, I asked her those exact questions when she made the above accusation. And her response was that pro-life supporters are opponents of Planned Parenthood, so they’re inherently unsupportive of women and their babies.
What?!
Planned Parenthood doesn’t actually provide prenatal care, and NOT supporting Planned Parenthood has nothing to do with supporting women and their babies. Being in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood means that we would love for more babies to be saved from this abortion factory. I’ve heard many claims that Planned Parenthood is the only place for low-income women to receive healthcare, but again, where are the statistics on that? There are thousands of other real health facilities all over the country to provide basic healthcare for men, women, and children.
When pro-choice people say that we’re only pro-birth, they fail to take into account the thousands of Christians that adopt and foster children in their own homes, volunteer their time at soup kitchens and food pantries, donate clothing, toys, household items, and more to charitable organizations that give these things away for free to the needy, and donate BILLIONS of dollars per year in this country alone to help the poor with housing, healthcare, childcare, etc. The Catholic Church and other Christian organizations have done more for the poor in the history of the world than any other organization. For example, Catholic Charities USA (just one of the many, many Christian charitable organizations in the United States alone) was #9 on the Forbes list of 100 Largest US Charities last year. So how does this make us “only pro-birth”?
As pro-life supporters, we are called to a higher form of social justice. When we see that the dignity of the human person is threatened (in any situation, not just abortion), we have no choice but to speak up. We are called to be active in our communities and to help the poor and marginalized in our society. Which is why hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children marched today.
I saw many photos of people and their pro-life signs today, and one sign said, “1/3 of my generation is missing.”
Photo Credit: March for Life Facebook page
One third. This is completely heartbreaking when you really think about it. I was born a little more than 10 years after abortion was legalized in the United States, so I wonder how many people were missing from my kindergarten class, from my high school graduation, from my life.
The genocide that is abortion needs to stop. We need to be part of the culture of life that supports women in need, supports children and their parents, and truly believes that life is sacred from conception until natural death. It’s our duty and our responsibility as pro-life supporters to show others that this kind of world is possible. What will you do today to show that you’re truly pro-life?
