Women's Rights! Stand Up and Fight!
 |
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen
giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs
astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed,
sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a
torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned
lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From
her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide
welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor
that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient
lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of
your teeming shore.
Send these, the
homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside
the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus (November
2, 1883)
|
In grad school, a fellow student from Indonesia joked about American women fighting for rights when most women in other parts of the world had absolutely no freedoms. Many of them have less value than animals. She said we have it so good in the United States. She was right. It's not perfect, but women marching in the U.S. seem like children living in a candy shop protesting they don't get enough candy.
Maybe I hesitate because the women's movement often means abortion on demand.
We've seen 45 years of legalized abortion. We were told it was going to be the great equalizer so women could be like men. Can anyone say Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer or Donald Trump? This past year the world watched the U.S. explode with allegations of sexual abuse. If we were supposed to be equal, and abortion available to get rid of our problems, why did we suddenly have these cases pop up? Weren't men supposed to see us just like they see other men?
I'm going to take a step out further and surmise that maybe abortion isn't so great for women (we know it ain't so great for the unborn). Maybe the women's rights movement was really about having men accept women into the culture without having to remove their reproductive organs. In a 2015 Time editorial, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group, wrote that the early suffragettes would not have supported abortion. You might think she's biased, but I can't help wondering, how is abortion a win for women when men are able to get off the hook?
I have also contemplated if the abortion culture has perpetuated human trafficking and abuse of minors by older men.
Recently, I completed an article on human trafficking. Theresa Flores, a survivor, talked about having to "service" 20 men at a time while she was caught in the horrors of human trafficking. If women are supposed to be available for sex to generate money, how would the trafficker treat pregnant women? First, he probably put them on birth control, but if they got pregnant, I guess the abortion clinic would be the next stop.
I don't have statistics, it was just my mind wondering. Got to keep these women running and operating.
How about minors going in to get abortions without their parents' consent? Who are they having sex with? Isn't having an abortion hiding or even protecting the man who got her pregnant?
I am not opposed to women's rights. We have four daughters, and they have been encouraged to be strong, intelligent, and brave. They have been told by their father and mother that they have equal value in God's eyes, even if the world's eyes are off kilter. They have also been taught there are many important battles to fight in this world.
One of them is fighting human trafficking which has captured my attention since blogging about it. It's the second highest crime in America, and it's happening right in our own neighborhoods. There are different groups trying to bring about awareness. The Polaris Project has a lot of information on its web site. Imagine if every one of us had the hotline number 1(888) 373-7888 and a few brochures, and when we visited a public bathroom or stayed at a hotel or went to a movie theater (this list is probably endless), we leave a brochure with the hotline number on it? Now that's fighting for a cause. No newspapers will know what you're doing, but you could save a life.
How about volunteering at a food bank or donating food to your church's food drive? How about volunteering at a medical clinic for those who fall in the cracks for decent healthcare? How about being a Big Brother Big Sister? How about helping cook food for funeral dinners (people need to eat and don't often take care of themselves when a loved one dies). How about going to a developing country and helping with their infrastructures? How about working at a pregnancy crisis center and being there for struggling women who often need diapers for their children and support for themselves?
Today, Jan. 22, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops set as a national day of prayer for the legal protection of the unborn. Maybe we could stand up for the most vulnerable women in society - the unborn.
-----
For those struggling with emotional trauma from abortion: Silent No More, Hope After Abortion
Men actually struggle too. There are different web sites out there.
For those who were intended to be aborted, but survived: The Abortion Survivors Network
Comments
Post a Comment