One of my favorite songs is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes” by Elvis. One of the stanzas is: “And before you accuse, criticize and abuse; just walk a mile in my shoes.” I think how true those words are and I can’t help but think that maybe things would be smoother in this country if we all followed the premise of that song.
It is easy to take a stand on a social issue that you aren’t personally affected by and of all the social issues today I don’t believe any is as polarizing as abortion.
Years ago I worked for a doctor who performed abortions. I was a counselor and every woman who came in had to meet with me for a bit and I explained the alternatives to abortion with them. I would say about 5% would reconsider. I considered that a win. If I hadn’t been there, I believe that those women would have had an abortion they really didn’t want. However, those that opted to get the abortion were treated with respect. Some of the stories I heard were horrifying. I also talked to women who didn’t give abortion the same attention they gave to picking out the color of polish for their pedicure. They were equally horrifying to me but in a different way.
The people outside protesting made me angry. Some of those people even went so far as to follow the girls home and knock on their door and tell who lived there where they had been! The majority of the protestors will tell you they are out because God wants them to be and I want to say that I doubt that is the case. I believe this because not one of those women and it was mostly women, ever offered to take a pregnant teen in to their home and help them. Not one offered to buy them a crib or offer any type of financial aid. Not one offered to babysit so the girl could finish school. When I asked one group of women if they had ever offered one of these young women any of the previously mentioned services ; one women looked at me askance and said she would never have one of “those” girls in her house. I don’t think any of those people heard the song because they were very good at accusing, criticizing and abusing.
I lost track of the number of girls that were brought in by their mothers because their mothers said they had to have an abortion. These same women had spent their entire time raising their daughters telling them about the evil of abortion. Now that their daughter was pregnant they were concerned about what the people in their family, at church, and in their neighborhood etc. would think about their daughter being pregnant. They would get furious when I told them that if their daughter didn’t want the abortion she couldn’t make her have it. Several threatened to leave their daughters with me and I would explain that we would find someone loving to assist them. Only two actually did that and family came and got them.
Now. let us look at the protestors who are furious because Roe was over turned on a federal level. These people are blind to states rights issues and that is unfortunate because we live in a country that is built on the principle of Federalism. What is sad in my view is that they are making time to harass the Supreme Court Judges who voted to over turn and to harass and even damage services that assist pregnant women who want to keep their child. It is almost as though they believe everyone should want to have an abortion and anyone who doesn’t want to is in need of help. Obviously, these people show no desire to assist a pregnant woman and don’t even respect the fact that there are people and organizations that want to help pregnant women. It is perfectly legal for this group to try to change the laws regarding abortion in their state but what good does it do anyone when they use their hatred to destroy property and threaten judges? I used the word hatred because I truly believe the extreme radicals on the left are powered by a hatred that borders on demonic at times.
One side spews too much hatred and the other side too much self-righteousness. Both sides need to listen to the song and let the words, “and before you accuse, criticize and abuse; just walk a mile in my shoes” resonate in their hearts.
Abortion will always to a part of life. There is recorded evidence of abortions from 1550 BCE found in Egyptian Ebers Papyrus. I would like to think everyone would like to see less of them in this country.
We don’t know what another person’s battles are and we need to be compassionate. Abortion is the most emotion laden issue in this country. Sadly, the issue has become the pro-choice group v the anti-abortion group. Lost in all of this is the baby whose life was ended before it started and the female who is facing the most difficult decision of her life. She is lost in all the protesting.