A Few Thoughts
from ‘Miss High and Freakin' Mighty’
As someone who regularly engages in dialogues surrounding
the controversial topic of abortion on Social Media, newsprint, and in person,
I’m often asked, “Why do you bother? You’re never going to change someone’s
mind.” Well, first off, I have never once entered a conversation with someone
about abortion with the intention or hope of changing his/her mind. I
completely agree with my skeptics that no amount of facts, logic, narratives,
or pictures will ever change the mind of the majority of pro-abortion individuals.
There is only one category (I’ve concluded there are three) of pro-choicers who
are open enough to change their mind. And with abortion it’s not so much about
changing the mind as it is changing the heart.
The Ignorant
The first category of pro-choicers is the innocently
ignorant. They’ve been told by their parents, friends, teachers, and the media
that a human fetus is a clump of cells and that pro-lifers are white men who
wish to control women. They’re most often young and eager to challenge socially
accepted narratives. These are the pro-choicers who when confronted with
abortion procedure videos or POC (product of conception) lab pictures are
shocked by what they see. Their first encounter with the reality of what
abortion looks like and its contrast to the lies they’ve been fed can
sometimes, if you’re lucky, be enough to spark a slow change of heart that
grows as they further investigate and challenge what they previously believed.
Members of this group are hard to come by, especially online.
The Stubborn
The second group of pro-choicers have already been
confronted time and time again with the logical contradictions and horrific
implications of their beliefs, but they’re just not (yet) ready to let go. It’s
a difficult task for any person in relation to any topic to allow oneself to
let go of our previous belief when confronted with the beliefs of another,
especially a stranger. We are just too prideful. Pro-choicers in this camp
engaging in abortion-related conversations will jump around from viability to
rape to foster care to hangers to sex-education to health care to even
immigration policy in a frantic effort to grasp at any possible way out of the
true and terrible implications of their stance on abortion. And as I point out
flaws in each and every point they try to make, they stretch to another until
finally they have nothing left but to attack me. And it ends this way. Every. Single. Time. My religion, my age,
my color, my education. This is a sure sign that I’ve succeeded in exposing
their faulty logic. They cannot defeat my argument so they feel they must
instead defeat me personally. This group will not change their minds because of
me. But there is still hope.
The Evil
I have never personally discussed abortion with an
individual who falls into this category, but I have read their writings and
heard their speeches. Every once and a while we come across someone who admits
life at conception, admits abortion ends that life, and simply doesn’t care.
They feel no need to justify their position with logic, they simply believe in
a person’s right to do whatever he/she pleases with no consequences, even if it
means taking a life. I think we tend put more people in this group than deserve
to be. But they exist, and it is important we acknowledge this, though again,
not with the purpose of changing minds.
In my experience, it is only through sidewalk advocacy that
hearts are softened. These advocates speak with sincere compassion and
understanding to women in crisis pregnancies who want another way out. The very
personal experience of these women who walk away from abortion and choose life,
and the experiences of their friends, their family, and their children, are among
the few things powerful enough to change a pro-choice stance on abortion. So,
if I’m never going to change the opinions of pro-choicers in group two and
three while just talking to them, then why do I bother?
I unapologetically speak out against abortion every chance I
get because I have an obligation to speak the truth and to stand up for what is
right. I need to be able to look back on this day, this year, this lifetime and
say that I stood up, that I spoke out, that I fought hard and never backed down.
When abortion advocates are not confronted with the truth, they are empowered.
They mistake the silence for reassurance.
We cannot let evil works be left unanswered. We cannot allow
the pro-life side to go unnoticed. If you decide to speak out against abortion
on social media, newsprint, or face-to-face, know that you will be dragged
through the mud. You’ll be misjudged, you’ll be frustrated, you’ll be
discouraged, you’ll be devastated. But know also that you tried. You did not
remain silent. The unborn who have been lost are heard through you. You are on
the right side of history. If you’re interested in changing hearts and saving
lives, join the sidewalk advocates. But if time, circumstances, and location
does not allow it, simply use your voice.
I wrote an article earlier this year in a major state newspaper pointing out the gruesome practice of second trimester dismemberment abortion. Among the 250 comments online following its publication, all of which seeking to deconstruct me as a person and none of which addressing a single point I’d made, one woman addressed me as ‘Miss High and Freakin' Mighty.’ While she’ll never get the chance to know how deeply she mischaracterized me, she is right that the pro-life movement is the higher way. And together, when we speak out, we are mighty.
"Though argument does not create conviction, lack of it destroys belief." -Austin Farrer