Better to be aborted than...

I have heard it all.  Better to be aborted than to be abused. Better to be aborted than to be unwanted.  Better to be aborted than to grow up in poverty.  Better to be aborted than to be raised by parents who aren't going to take proper care of you.  Every single person who has said these things to me has said them with a straight face, and meant what they said.  Every time I hear it, it makes me really angry.  

You see, I was abused. I grew up in poverty. I was raised by parents who didn't take proper care of me. I was wanted by my mother but I wasn't wanted by my father - until after I arrived.  Poverty, abuse, being unwanted, being neglected or emotionally damaged, those things are temporary situations.  They are changeable. If you live long enough, you get the chance to overcome them, to raise yourself out of poverty, to heal the scars left by abuse, to find someone who does want you.  The thing is that you have to LIVE long enough to do that, though.

Abortion is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.  There are no take-backs from abortion.  There's no chance to triumph, to overcome the odds, to fight your way through the pain and to learn and grow from the experiences.  Abortion steals those opportunities from that baby, and steals from everyone else the great potential for good things, too.  You don't know what that child might have become because they struggled and suffered and went through everything they went through as a child.  Suffering, as I have said before, is a forge in which great saints are born.  

Don't tell me that you're doing the child a favor.  Let's be honest. It's not the child you're worried about, it's you. You don't want to have to pay to help support the impoverished, orphaned, or neglected children.  You don't want to have to hear about children being abused, and you don't want to have to step out of your comfortable life and do anything about it, either.  You don't want to have to feel guilty for all the children that needed your help.  You want them to go away, and abortion helps that problem "go away".  You would rather steal the lives of these children than do a single thing to actually help them or their parents.  Don't tell me you care about them. You don't. 

If you did care, you wouldn't see it as a burden to support children.  You would want to.  You wouldn't wait for the government to do something to help abused or orphaned or impoverished children.  You'd be out there organizing teams to help parents and children.  You wouldn't have to feel guilty because you'd be taking action.  You'd be doing what you could and encouraging others to do it, too, and in the process you'd be making our world a better place, a safer place, a kinder and gentler and more hope-filled place.  You'd increase the odds that the abused, impoverished, or neglected child doesn't grow up to fill the prisons but grows up instead to become someone who improves our world. 

Of course, your attitude about abortion is a temporary problem.  You can change it.  You can do something different with your life. You can open your heart and your wallet to helping others. You can reach out to young mothers and fathers and offer the help and guidance they will need to be the parents you want them to be.  I believe in you. I believe you have the ability to be a more generous, loving, and caring person.  I believe that you are capable of greater things than you have been giving yourself credit for being.  That's why I'm writing this article.  You're worth it, and so are they.

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