A viral video showing a young woman being manhandled by her boyfriend to step into an abortion facility deserves close attention from an organization always touting ‘women’s choice.’
(NCR) The image is one that, at first glance, I might have ignored: A man and woman are on a sidewalk, being filmed by a woman looking down from her rowhouse.
The woman keeps trying to walk away, and the man keeps grabbing her hand. Then he’s taking hold of her and forcing her to one side of the sidewalk to go inside the building next door.
The audio speaks volumes.
The woman’s wails are heard.
“We’re not together,” the man says. “I don’t want this kid by you. You’re not keeping this kid!”
More crying is heard from the woman as she asks him to leave her alone.
And then the person filming draws the same devastating conclusion I had: “She’s pregnant. He’s trying to take her to get an abortion.”
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The video itself has more than 12,000 “likes” and has received 800-plus comments; many women lament the same experience: hostile treatment from boyfriends telling them to abort, speaking of manipulation and verbal abuse wrought by the same scenario.
It is not okay.
And it is happening outside an organization, Planned Parenthood, that touts “women's choice.”
Where is Planned Parenthood’s response?
It is hard to imagine a worker inside the facility didn’t witness this torment: the mother, visibily in anguish, doubling over and crying to be left alone by the father, who is adamant about getting rid of who he sees as a problem. Yes, a child is considered by many to be a problem.
Notice: The man didn’t say he did not want a “fetus” or a “clump of cells.” He said it plain as day: He did not want a kid — a child, made by God.
But no one arrives to address the dire situation. No one comes to this woman’s aid as this man tries to get her to kill their child.
Had it been a pro-life group praying or attempting to talk to this woman, they would have probably been asked to leave, even arrested in some states that do not allow sidewalk counseling.
But forced abortions? Apparently there is no penalty; no grievance.
How often does this happen? How many women or young girls are forcibly dragged into abortion facilities to end the life of an unborn baby — and, even worse, perhaps coerced and made to believe it is the only option — as a man abandons his child and the mother carrying that tiny life in her womb.
Such a reality is painful and heartbreaking to watch, coupled with the person filming, who seems to laugh about the horrible ordeal. In the #MeToo era, where are the feminists standing up for this woman’s right to choose? She verbally and physically demonstrates that she wants to keep the child, to choose life. She clearly does not want to enter the building.
The video ends with the female walking away with her child and the man trailing behind her. We do not know what happened. We can only hope and pray that this child is still safe in the womb and that videos like this will move hearts and minds when it comes to the tragedy of abortion.
Because forced abortions do not only occur in places like China.
Forced abortions are common within the United States, and they come in many forms.
A recent article reports female police officers being forced to abort in our nation's capital.
“It’s so unfair. … And now I’ve never been able to have a kid. All these years, I’ve tried, and I’ve never been able to have a baby. … I did this for a job ...,” an assistant police chief lamented to the Christian Broadcasting Network.
To be honest, I never saw that story until I did some digging to write this blog. Sadly, stories like these rarely make the nightly news.
But there is nothing pro-choice in these scenarios. Coercion is not choice.
As we hold our hearts in prayer this Advent, awaiting the birth of Jesus by Mary, who said Yes to life, we pray for this woman with no name in the video and all the other women in similar scenarios. We know as Catholics that life must be protected and respected from its earliest stages in the womb.
A Baby came to save us, thank God. And we can work and pray to save the littlest among us.
As Pope Benedict XVI noted, “The Son himself is the Word, the Logos; the eternal Word became small — small enough to fit into a manger. He became a child, so that the Word could be grasped by us. In this way God teaches us to love the little ones. In this way he teaches us to love the weak. In this way he teaches us respect for children. The Child of Bethlehem directs our gaze towards all children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn. … In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem who is crying out to us; it is the God who has become small who appeals to us. Let us pray this night that the brightness of God’s love may enfold all these children. Let us ask God to help us do our part so that the dignity of children may be respected. May they all experience the light of love, which mankind needs so much …”
Editor's note: Reprinted with permission from the National Catholic Register – www.ncregister.com.
