Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. – Luke 23:28-29
It was a
Wednesday that I went to the Adoration Chapel and decided to pray my scriptural
Rosary. The verse for the bead had the
beginning of the above: Do not weep for me… but for your children. Yet I was compelled to read further, so I
turned on my Bible application and was dumbfounded. It hit me in that very moment that we are in
the midst of the days when people are “blessing” the “barren, the wombs that
never bore and the breasts that never nursed.” As I picked my Rosary back up and continued
to pray the mysteries of the Passion of our Lord, I did begin to weep.
On
September 1, 2021, the state of Texas enacted Senate Bill 8, more
commonly known as “The Heartbeat Act” which states that “a physician may not
knowingly perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman if the physician
detected a fetal heartbeat for the unborn child.” Once news broke that the bill was passed, a
social media frenzy began, and news feeds were flooded either supporting the
enactment of the bill by pro-lifers or denouncement of the bill and expressed
disappointment in the legislation of the government of Texas by pro-choicers. As my Facebook and Instagram feeds became inundated
with outrage for the law, it became even more apparent that the legal status of
abortion is not the issue. Instead of
fixing the problem, it seems to have caused an even greater rift and division
in society. The problems go deeper than
can or can’t. It is about will and
won’t.
How have
we come to this? How can people,
especially women, be so willing to even consider the possibility of ridding her
body of the innocent child in her womb, essentially killing her unborn baby? We as a society have found ways to get
immediate gratification for our desires without any thoughts of the long-term
effects of our actions. But methods we
have manufactured to fix the consequences in a broken society are merely
bandages that cover the surface. Yet the
wounds run deep, without any sign of healing.
And as we continue to hemorrhage out the very dignity of the human
person, we are barely clinging to life as we attempt to hold on to the ideals that
diminish our humanity.
The
paradigm shift began in the 1960s and spilling into the 1970s. The babies born around the time of World War
II were now adolescents and adults who rejected the conservative values set by
their parents. The sexual revolution began, along with the first FDA-approved oral contraception and the eventual 1973-ruling
of the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade which ruled that women had the
right to an abortion. The 1960s also
brought about the second wave of the women’s rights movement in which women
fought for equal opportunities and equal pay as men. Women felt empowered with the ability to
control their bodies and to achieve success in ways that historically was not
allowed. Children would be seen as a
hindrance to achieving goals. The option
to not have children also gave women the freedom to be as promiscuous as their
counterparts without fear of consequences.
As women
have striven to become more valuable in positions outside of the home and
worked for equality with their male counterparts, the value that they hold as
women have been reduced to mere objects of fantasy and pleasure. As Pope Paul VI predicted in his famous Humanae
Vitae (Of Human Life), in the widespread use of contraception, “men may
forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and
emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the
satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom
he should surround with care and affection.”
In continuing the opening verse, Jesus, Himself, said “for if these
things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry” (Lk
23:31). The option to not only prevent
fertility but to terminate pregnancy without any regard for the long-term
emotional and physical side effects has created a free-for-all perspective. There is more sense of entitlement for physical
pleasure, unaware of the emotional bond that the sexual act brings between two
people.
The desire for control has also
played a huge roll. The on-going mantra
for “My body, my choice” has rung loud and clear all over the world. Yet, studies have shown that a majority of
women felt pressured into having an abortion, expressing that they did not
freely and willfully choose to terminate their pregnancy. The pressure to do so came from the partners
themselves, or other family members, including parents, or even friends. While women fight for the right to control what they do with their bodies, abortion has also been used to control women.
The mental health consequences on abortion
that are not discussed. There are
several reports that claim there is no increased incidence of depression and
anxiety in those who had undergone elective/induced abortions. Yet, there are studies that show that women who
have abortions the risk of Post Abortion Stress Syndrome, the term given to
those who suffer from post-traumatic stress following an induced abortion. In the study, it states that “women while
terminating pregnancy are not aware that they will require psychological
support later due to subsequent psychological effects they experience.”
It must be stated that abortion is
not often an easy decision to come to. In
his encyclical Evangelium
Vitae, Pope Saint John Paul II recognized that this choice is often
made out of fear, either for her own health and safety, for the sustenance of
the family, or fear of the environment the child may grow up in. Pope Francis acknowledged
that “there is no sin that God’s mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds
a repentant heart”.
The true underlying issue is that
from a young age, girls and women are not fully informed and girls, from a young age, should be encouraged to see the beauty of themselves without needing the validation of a relationship. The solutions to fix the problem after the issues
have occurred is prominent. There are
many reports that hormonal contraception is safe and effective. Yet so few women actually know how the hormonal
contraception works on their bodies and the risks that they take, especially with
long-term use. The abortion narrative has
been pushed, seeming to be an easy solution, and the abortion clinics who
profit push the hardest. Women who have
undergone abortion later state that they were not informed enough or taught
enough. They were never shown an
ultrasound of their babies, are unaware of the risks they are taking undergoing
the procedure and were never told of other options. This battle for control is to the point that violent
attacks and vandalism has occurred between pro-choice and pro-life advocates. This has become a war between a mother’s
right to choose to live her life as she pleases and a child who never got to
choose to live.
If only women could see their value
beyond the superficial and see the another much deeper truth of “My body, my choice.” If only that mantra could be transposed to
choosing to value their bodies so as to not give it to whomever as they seek for the immediate gratification of lustful desires or the need to quench the ache of loneliness and affection. If women could just not to give their bodies to those who desire them only for a meaningless moment of pleasure and refuse to see the gift they
truly are. If only women would truly know the miracle of the natural order of their
bodies, their ability to conceive as an indication that there are things going right with them and nothing as wrong; that their monthly cycle is a method the body cleanses itself in order to stay healthy. If they could understand the heartache for the women who realize could not choose to have their own child as they struggle through the
pain of infertility. If only others could
understand the beauty God had created so they could cherish their beauty deep
down to their soul and not just to satisfy the flesh.
What it all comes down to is love, the greatest Commandment. In the book of Matthew, Jesus tells us to love God... love others, and to love ourselves in this very order. Now our society has diminished and even rejected a love for God, and the love for ourselves has become the most important without regard for others. The love we have for ourselves has become conditional, dependent on the superficial ideals society has placed on us rather than to accept who we truly are. We have chosen artificial means to ensure we continue in our own selfish desire. If only we learned to give ourselves in love, not lust, and to act in love toward others could be the key to making abortion unthinkable, regardless of legality.
