on mother's day

To breathe, to feel, to think. These are rights.

To defend, to protect, to fight. These are duties.

Sometimes people get confused about what their rights are. Off and on, I see this simplistic and illiogical little sketch: "Don't like abortion? Don't have one," attempting to assert a woman's pretended "right to choose." I'm all for simplicity, but not for stupidity, and I just have to say (in the nicest way possible, of course) that this is the stupidest piece of preschool-level argument I've heard from anyone who fancies themselves a feminist. Let's follow the course it takes:

"Don't like child abuse? Don't beat your kid."

"Don't like infidelity? Don't have an affair."

"Don't like child p*rn? Don't look at it."

"Don't like rape? Don't rape anyone."

See where this goes?

Some people will protest that these are totally different topics and can't be compared to abortion. They don't understand that about two-thirds of abortions in the US are coerced or forced onto women. The act of abortion itself is a violence toward women and children that surpasses that of even rape or molestation. They argue about health care, but they don't understand that the abortion industry cares about women's health in the same way a pimp cares about the health of his prostitutes - it is only a means to a very lucrative end for them. In either case, women are used.

It's called "choice," but it's not. It's called "feminist," but half of the babies killed are feminine. That's not feminism, that's brutal murder. Slave owners fought for their "rights," too...and fancied themselves civil rights activists, also - but they weren't, and history shows the foolishness and cruelty of their position. And yet the reality of abortion makes even slavery look like a walk in the park.

And yet women are still deceived, grasping at this "right" that reveals the very deepest identity insecurity. Being a woman isn't good enough - we must have the option to reject the very nature of what we were made for. And, oh, don't you dare tell me I was made for creating children! I was made for more than that!

Oh, were you? Then you, my dear friend, have a very sorry, skewed idea of what motherhood is - which is understandable enough, considering that many of us were raised in a time when our mothers also bucked this calling, so how are we to know any better? But it is a very high calling - some say the highest of callings - higher than working in some office, higher than having your own business, higher than finishing some degree. And, yes, higher than that bucket list.

It is the gift of being able to mold and influence the very beginning of someone's life. It is the influence you have for the next generation, and every generation after that. The other stuff is good, sure - I like having a business, I love education - but these come far short of the calling of being a mother to as many kids as God will give me to raise for the future.

Humans breathe...feel...and think. Science shows that even the smallest of us do this. We were human before we were born. Toes, fingers, faces, at nine weeks gestation. I've seen it myself.

This very day, May 11th, was Mother's Day nine years ago. I was almost twelve weeks pregnant. During a long, devastating illness I woke up at four in the morning in excruciating pain, and realized we were losing our baby. Later that morning in the emergency room I saw him...he had arms, hands, and a little, tiny nose. He - yes, he - was no mere clump of cells, but fully human. The doctor said he had probably died two weeks earlier. He had been alive, but wasn't anymore.

I had never before known how human the unborn were. And it was Mother's Day. We named him Baruch.

As humans, we breathe, we feel, we think. As mothers, we defend, we protect, and we fight. We hold monumental influence over the future.

We pursue the highest calling, and make no apologies.


originally published at Copperlight Wood