Boyfriend’s classic ‘pro-choice’ response to unplanned pregnancy was actually abortion coercion

“Abortion is a woman’s choice.”

“No uterus, no opinion.”

These slogans are central to the pro-abortion movement, and they espouse that only a woman can decide if she should have an abortion. The man gets no say. This mindset often functions to isolate a woman and put the full burden of the abortion decision on her.

An example of this is given in the book, “No One to Hear Their Cries,” by CG Richardson, a woman who deeply regrets her four abortions. Richardson had already had two abortions, children who had been fathered by other men before she became pregnant by her boyfriend Dave. When she told him of the pregnancy, she hoped he would marry her. He refused.

She tried to get him to take more responsibility for her and her baby, and the conversation went as follows:

“Look at it this way,” he continued; “I’m trying to protect what we have together. Can you understand what I’m saying?”

“I certainly do understand,” I blurted back! “You don’t want to get married! What about our baby?”

In a “stern” voice, Dave said:

I told you already! If you have the baby, I’ll support it and help you out but I’m not getting married; not now! It’s your decision. I’ll go along with whatever you want to do. Have it or not, it’s your choice, not mine!

A pro-abortion activist would find little at fault with Dave’s response. The pro-choicer would say he is “respecting her bodily autonomy” by letting her decide whether or not to go through with an abortion. He is even saying he will support whatever she chooses — a pro-abortion must! But Richardson saw Dave’s refusal to take part in the decision as avoidance of his responsibility.

She told him, “How can this be my decision alone? Don’t try to put this totally on my shoulders! This baby belongs to both of us! Why should it all be left up to me?”

READ: Woman shares heartbreaking story of coerced abortion on Facebook Live

Dave continued to give the “perfect” pro-abortion answer:

“Because you’re the woman. You’re the one that has to carry the baby, not me, so it should totally be your decision… Of course,” Dave added, “If you think an abortion is the best solution, I’ll pay for it. Don’t even give it a second thought. I’ll even try to take you myself if it makes you feel better!

He “helpfully” suggested abortion to Richardson and said he would “try” to go with her if that would make her “feel better” about aborting their baby. The only problem was, Richardson didn’t want an abortion. She was “hurt and furious.”

Dave went on to say, “I’ll go the extra mile by staying out of work that day. So, is that what you really want?”

Richardson said he said this “with a proud smile on his face.”

Why shouldn’t Dave be proud? In his mind, he is offering to “support” Richardson and doing her a favor by helping her get an abortion. Fully indoctrinated by pro-abortion slogans, he sees his response to the unplanned pregnancy as perfect. But his reaction caused Richardson to feel isolated and unsupported. Dave was refusing to take responsibility for the abortion decision, or participate in it, all the while subtly coercing her into an abortion she didn’t want.

Richardson said she responded:

There’s just one small detail about sharing the whole thing with me; you aren’t the one going through the procedure! You don’t have to carry the guilt like I do.

You aren’t the one who comes out feeling empty inside! You don’t see the needles, smell the medicine, or hear the girls that are crying, wondering if they did the right thing! How can you feel the emptiness and heartache that I feel when I see a pregnant woman walking down the street?

Richardson had been traumatized by her previous two abortions and didn’t want another. But she didn’t have any faith that Dave would be there for her if she had the baby. With his refusal to get married, and what she knew of his character, she thought he would abandon both of them. She recalled thinking:

So, it was going to be all my decision! What was I going to do? Could I raise this baby alone? I knew I’d be alone most of the time regardless of what Dave said. He’d be around very little, and I would have the bulk of responsibility in taking care of this child.

How could I do it? I was barely getting by with the two I already had! Sure, Dave said he would help out but for how long? We weren’t married! There was no guarantee he’d stick around until our child was grown!…

I started planning my third abortion… the demise of our baby.

Dave gave textbook pro-abortion answers celebrated by abortion and so-called “women’s rights” advocates, but Richardson experienced his words as abandonment.

Richardson did go on to have the abortion and eventually had another — a baby also fathered by Dave. After her fourth abortion, she saw the body of her aborted baby and realized that she had killed her babies. No longer with Dave, she, like many women, now suffers from extreme emotional trauma as a result of the abortions.

Source: CG Richardson No One to Hear Their Cries (Lulu, 2007) 129, 130

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