LAURA’S STORY
For decades, legalized abortion has been slickly marketed, or “packaged,” by the feminist movement and the abortion industry as “empowerment” for women.
Ironically, the very movement that claims to champion equality for women views women as inherently incomplete – needing something to “shore up” their deficiency. This need, they argue, can only be met by granting mothers the “power” to impose lethal force against their unborn children.
The International Planned Parenthood Federation states, on its website,
“Denying women the ability to choose to end an unwanted pregnancy under safe and legal conditions is a violation of human rights and flies in the face of the empowerment agenda.”
As Jeffrey Ventrella of Alliance Defending Freedom wisely stated, “When the most dangerous place for a young person today is in his mother’s womb, that is a work of the devil.” Indeed, and when it comes to abortion’s false promise of empowering women, the devil is in the details.
After speaking at a church recently, I was approached by a woman who shared her heartbreaking story with me. I pass this on to you with her permission, though I’ve changed her name.
“Laura’s” childhood innocence was stolen by a string of her mother’s boyfriends who repeatedly molested and raped her. Her own mother turned a blind eye to Laura’s abuse, and in 1977, at only 12 years of age, Laura became pregnant.
Realizing the legal consequences and the relational upheaval this could cause, her mother panicked. And so, five months into Laura’s pregnancy, she put her daughter in the car and drove her to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. Laura had no idea where she was going or what was about to transpire, but she remembers having to sign something at that clinic at that tender age.
Before long, this little girl, who should have been home playing with neighborhood friends, was instead lying on a table experiencing tremendous physical and emotional pain while her mother sat next to the abortionist, coldly narrating the horrific details of her abortion in real time.
Nothing could be added to this story to make it any worse, except for the brutal fact that this scenario was repeated two more times during Laura’s childhood: two more times she became pregnant by her mother’s perverted boyfriends. Two more times, Laura underwent forced abortions.
As Laura pointed out to me, had abortion been illegal or unavailable, the abuse would likely have ended, her abuser would have been locked up, and her first child would be alive today. Instead, legalized abortion provided cover for immoral men, paving the way for more abuse and more destruction.
The only “empowerment” in this scenario was realized was by the men who raped a preteen and by the abortionists who killed her children for financial profit.
Thankfully, the night before Laura’s 14th birthday, a friend led her to Christ. Starting at that moment, the One who promises to give rest to those who are weary and burdened began His sanctifying work in Laura. As a result, she has experienced real comfort and healing and is now happily married to a godly man.
Laura’s story is living proof that abortion does not empower women or little girls; it makes them victims. For all its bluster, Big Abortion victimizes the very ones it claims to champion.
Don’t women and young girls like Laura deserve better than this? The next time you hear the lie that abortion has anything to do with empowerment, remember Laura. I know I will.