Recently I saw a photo of a young mother with her infant beside her. The mom was wearing a cross, and a scarf emblazoned with the words "Abortion is Normal" hung around her neck.
Her baby, a precious child, wore a headband that read, in giant letters, "ABORTION."
There’s no way of knowing if that mother has an abortion in her past, but the signs are all there. In any event, nearly 50 years of legal abortion – longer in some states – has damaged all of us.
To hear the Democrats tell it, abortion is all about autonomy and a private choice that affects nobody but the chooser.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Abortion is like an earthquake whose violent shockwaves unsettle the earth for hundreds of miles around. The loss of one child to abortion impacts everyone involved; the mother and father, the grandparents, the siblings, family and friends, even the abortion workers and abortionists themselves.
This is what we call in the pro-life movement The Shockwaves of Abortion. Shockwaves is actually a movement seeking to give a voice to all those who have been hurt, all those who regret the abortion they took part in, and all those who mourn the loss of each innocent child.
At the March for Life that year, grandparents marched with the women and men of Silent No More, holding signs that said "I Mourn My Aborted Grandchild." Marching next to them were abortion business workers with signs that read "I Regret Providing Abortions."
Perhaps the most moving sight of all was that of Dr. Anthony Levatino carrying a sign that said, "I Regret Performing Abortions."
Dr. Levatino performed 1,200 first and second-trimester abortions in his medical career before deciding never to perform another.
His testimony at that March for Life was heartbreaking. He talked of "throwing away" nine or 10 babies a week while he and his wife struggled with infertility and could not find a baby to adopt.
Then he told of the miracle that brought them their adopted daughter, Heather, and the son they conceived just a month later.
With his family intact, he quieted his qualms about abortion.
But when five-year-old Heather was killed in a car accident, he found he could no longer silence the voice inside that told him abortion is wrong.
"As an abortionist," he said, "I was at the epicenter of the earthquake but since I stopped doing abortions and became involved with pro-life efforts, I can clearly see how abortion affects everyone connected with the child who dies."
Abortion hurts everyone but as we saw very clearly in last week’s midterm elections, we are still of two minds on this very polarizing issue in our nation.
Over a dozen states have implemented meaningful protections for the unborn, while other states are committing tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to set themselves up as abortion destinations.
Voters in three states acted in favor of inventing a right to an abortion in their constitution. Voters in Kentucky — like those in Kansas before them — voted against asserting that their constitutions specifically do not include that "right."
In countering the Democrat narrative on abortion, both politicians and the people they serve need to keep pointing out that the "privacy" and "autonomy" themes are simply contrary to fact. We haven’t even begun to measure the damage each abortion does.
So, while the March for Life in January will be a celebration of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and of the fact that thousands of babies have been saved as a result of that Supreme Court decision that allowed state laws protecting the unborn to be enacted, the work of Silent No More is far from over.
In fact, if abortion ended today, the work of Silent No More in exposing and healing the wounds will have just begun.
Over 65 million children already have been killed, meaning that nearly as many women have been wounded and nearly as many men have to come to grips over their failure to protect their own children.
We need to continue to reach these mothers and fathers, and grandparents and siblings and others, with the message that they are not alone in their grief, and that help and healing are possible.
When we add up all those who have been wounded by each abortion, we are clearly talking about the majority of our nation.
That’s a very sobering fact to contemplate.
But the good news — which Silent No More will emphasize again at the March for Life in D.C. and at events across the country — is that the powerful waves of forgiveness and healing are stronger than the destructive shockwaves of abortion.
Fr. Frank Pavone is one of the most prominent anti-abortion leaders globally. Read Fr. Frank Pavone Reports — More Here.
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