ASHAMED TO BE PRO-ABORTION?

THE EDITOR: Instead of playing with words, let us be truthful. A small but vocal group lobbying for the legalisation of abortion claims that they are not “Pro-Abortion” but “pro-life” and “pro-choice”.  Can killing unborn children be “pro-life”?  Is “pro-choice” not “pro-abortion” when the object of their choice is the ability to legally kill babies? Planned Parenthood Federation of America understands that for the unborn  baby, abortion is never safe — it is meant to be lethal.  Faye Wattleton,  Past President, PPFA stated: “I think we have deluded ourselves into believing that people don’t know that abortion is killing.  So any pretence that abortion is not killing is a signal of our ambivalence, a signal that we cannot say yes, it kills a baby.”  (Ms. Magazine - June’97).  They accept murder in the name of “choice”.  Our local groups also need to admit to that fact. If abortion is not an evil, why be ashamed of the term “Pro-Abortion”? ‘Pro’ and ‘Anti’ are well-understood prefixes meaning ‘for’ and ‘against’ respectively.  Classifying someone’s position on abortion as “Pro-Abortion” or “Anti-Abortion” merely states one’s aims or objectives.

It is also noteworthy that while this group speaks empty words about caring for the health and well being of poor women (aside from pushing for legal abortion) nothing is done by this group to assist these women.  They criticise the very people who put their words into action and care for both women and their children.  Allow me to repeat, as they may not remember, or have chosen to forget. Homeless and abandoned babies are welcomed at Christ Child’s Convalescent Home run by the Carmelite sisters and at Emmanuel’s Cradle.  Eternal Light Community houses battered women and children at Goshen House; Goshen Boys’ and Amica Girls’ homes care for abandoned boys and girls, and Vision of Hope Halfway House in La Brea houses homeless, battered women as well as a learning centre for children.  There are homes for pregnant mothers right through to childbirth and after (Mary Care Centre in Woodbrook is one such). Thanks to these centres, hundreds of women each year find solutions to their pregnancies that they and their babies can live with.  Just enquire — it may surprise you as it surprised me when I took the time to check.

If this group truly cared about our women there are many ways they could help — but their only plan for the poor women of our nation is to kill their babies!!!  Why is it so easy to target the defenceless baby in the womb?  The fact is that in every abortion there are two victims:  the mother and her child. The goal of any doctor, lawmaker or government should always be the protection of both mother and child. If anyone is zealous about ensuring the provision of legal abortions in our country but is uneasy about being labelled pro-abortion, perhaps their conscience is telling them something to which they would be wise to listen! I said before and I’ll say again. ASPIRE, coming together with all their academic training and God-given natural intelligence is a good thing — but allowing themselves to be sucked in by the International Planned Parenthood Federation just to become another arm of that organisation is a shameful waste — Trinidad and Tobago needs your talents to work for the true good of all our women and children.

MARIA ANNETTE DOPWELL
Port-of-Spain