Share this News with Your Pastor to Help Him Wake Up Your Church by Preaching About Abortion with New Evidence and True Compassion.
Since The Jericho Plan was originally published, evidence has continued to emerge about the role, scope and magnitude of unwanted, coerced or forced abortions. This unjust and heartbreaking, yet common, prelude to abortion and post-abortion issues can help present a holistic portrait of abortion’s exploitation of and risk to both mother and child. It’s a message that can also break down barriers to help, hope and healing for individuals and families directly or indirectly at risk of or already broken by abortion.
Coerced abortion is common — a dual injustice and risk to mothers and children and an internationally recognized human rights abuse — yet it is seldom reported or acknowledged, much less stopped. It is part of abortion’s devastating, multilateral toll on lives, hearts and souls.
When looking at the “big picture” of abortion, the reality of coercion defies conventional beliefs and misleading “pro-choice” media spin.
The Prelude of Coercion Is an Essential Part of Any Message About Abortion and Post-Abortion Issues
Thanks to slick abortion-funded marketing campaigns, it’s widely presumed that most abortions are about authentic “choice.” The reality is that women often experience negligent or coercive assembly-line “counseling,” deceptive and often abusive medical practices, exploitation, abuse of power, and unwanted or forced abortions — not to mention that abortion injures and kills women, too. It’s a long list.
Although one size doesn’t fit all, direct or indirect coercion plays a key role in most abortions and forced abortion in America is a reality. This includes the emotional and physical abuse or murder of women who resist or refuse unwanted abortions.
Watch this blog for updates and testimonies, including the story of a pro-life woman whose child was aborted against her will while she was under anesthetic for another treatment or another whose 18-year-old daughter was manipulated by a medical social worker and died during the abortion. You can also use excerpts from Forced Abortion in America report to educate pastors and others about these issues.
It is important for pastors and other leaders to preface discussions about abortion with public acknowledgment that most abortions involve some form of exploitation or coercion as well other issues that often surround pregnancy- or abortion-related experiences.
This prelude — which is part of the abortion story for many (not all) individuals or families in our midst — should be clearly acknowledged with our compassion, along with reference to available forms of support, help and healing for individuals and families facing challenging pregnancy-related or post-abortion issues.
Our acknowledgement, compassion and advocacy for those facing pregnancy-related challenges will help:
- defend and protect authentically pro-woman and pro-life rights and values in our church and society,
- remove some of the stigma that keeps others from speaking out, finding compassion and help, or dealing with the heartbreaking, sometimes deadly, aftermath of abortion,
- assist individuals and families — including fathers who have lost a child and families who have lost a mother, sister or daughter to abortion or its aftermath — to grieve with the support of their friends, family and church communities.
Advocating for Both, plus “All of the Above” — Babies and Mothers, Fathers and Families
When we help and advocate for women, we will also be helping their unborn children. Conversely, we can never hope to succeed in our efforts to protect the rights of the unborn without first and foremost protecting the true rights of women.
It is in this very same sense that the late Pope John Paul II insisted that it is necessary for those who oppose abortion to become “courageously ‘pro-woman,’ promoting a choice that is truly in favor of women. It is precisely the woman, in fact, who pays the highest price, not only for her motherhood, but even more for its destruction, for the suppression of the life of the child who has been conceived. The only honest stance … is that of radical solidarity with the woman.”2
