“Abortion was supposed to kill you, Mom, and if it would have, I never would have lived…or gone to kindergarten…or taken gymnastics. I never would have gotten a hug from you or ate pizza.”
My mind and my heart have been reeling from these insightful words that Olivia spoke up from the backseat of the car recently, while we on our way to meet her dad for lunch (and yes, we did eat pizza).
Although I am grateful to be raising Olivia with the fullness of truth about the sanctity of life and the culture of death, these are the moments that shatter my heart. I have never spoken to her about just how abortion has affected us personally, but I didn’t need to. She has come to that conclusion on her own, after years of traveling with me and being actively involved in pro-life events.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how not a day goes by that I don’t reflect upon my biological mother’s abortion and its’ effects on my family and the world. Olivia’s statement, and the ones like it that she makes on a near-daily basis, drive home the point to me that I’m not the only one in my house that is affected by the reality of abortion daily. I know that our life circumstances as a “survivor family” are unique, but I know that we are not alone in our reflections. All of us are affected by abortion. As pro-life individuals and families, we all reflect upon the reality of abortion daily.
But maybe, like me, you sometimes wish that you could wipe away all that you know about abortion and its consequences, if only for just a second. Maybe, as a parent, you wish that you could build a wall around your child(ren), to protect them from the painful truth about abortion, if even for a moment.
As I was turning all of this over in my mind recently, photos from the Texas legislature crossed my Facebook newsfeed, and I came to the sudden realization that although the reality of abortion is hard to take some days, and I certainly want to shield Olivia’s heart from the pain of abortion, the alternative is far worse than what we suffer.
Here is a collage of pictures that were compiled by Jennie MacGregor, Operations Director of And Then There Were None:
I would rather have Olivia understand the depths of the devastation of abortion and allow her the opportunity to be involved in pro-life activities that help her process that information and share it with others in ways that highlights the dignity of every life, in ways that aren’t vulgar or disrespectful to her or others, and is something that she can be proud of now, at the age of 5, and years from now, than experience otherwise (as shown above).
As you will see in the picture below, taken from the National Right to Life Convention a couple of weeks ago in Dallas, a child can have a profoundly different experience when it comes to talking about life and abortion than the ones shown above from the statehouse. Olivia organized the fetal models that she was “caring for” from their smallest stage of development to their largest and then proceeded to talk to her other little friends about them.
When I compare the pictures from Austin and my picture from Dallas, I see a dramatic difference. And now that I weigh all of this over in my mind, I wouldn’t change a thing about what Olivia knows when it comes to abortion. I hope that as a pro-life parent, family member or friend, you wouldn’t either. We are raising up a generation of young people who, although touched by the truth of abortion, touch others’ lives in return, and they do so with love, dignity and respect, something I wish every child could experience.
