At the end of a recent Business Insider article on the effect of Texas’ Heartbeat Act on women seeking abortions, an abortion provider in McAllen, Texas, described a day when she turned away two 14-year-old girls who came to her seeking abortions because their babies already had heartbeats. According to the story, “After she sent them away, she had a crushing conversation with her staff.” The provider was further quoted as saying, “Even the people who wrote this law that feel so strongly anti-abortion, how can you think that it’s fine to punish a 14-year-old by forcing her to continue a pregnancy?” (emphasis added)
There are some problems with this line of thinking.
1. A continued pregnancy is neither ‘punishment’ nor ‘force’
But once a minor is pregnant (a situation which no one would claim is ideal), the assumption that abortion is the best option for someone who, in the words of the article, “do[es]n’t want to be pregnant,” is as troubling as the implication that anyone opposing abortion in a difficult circumstance is some kind of monster seeking to “punish” a child.
In addition, no one “forces” a pregnancy to continue — a pregnancy will naturally continue as the growth of the child in the womb continues. The only “force” involved is the intervention to interrupt and end a pregnancy by killing that child via an abortion.
2. People who are pro-life believe both mother and child should be protected.
Pro-lifers do care about both the mother and her child, who in this situation are both children. It is pro-lifers who overwhelmingly support laws like parental notification and parental consent before an abortion — policies that can help to protect girls and women, and bring rapists or traffickers to justice. The Business Insider article doesn’t even touch on the fact that these 14-year-old girls are not even legally able to consent to sex at that age, nor does the author address the idea of statutory rape or incest. These are questions the abortion industry doesn’t ask, either, and in fact is financially disincentivized to explore.
Pro-lifers also understand that abortions have both physical and emotional consequences for the mother, no matter her age. Abortion cannot “undo” a pregnancy. And as Live Action News has previously noted, an abortion cannot un-rape a girl or woman. Young girls who become pregnant absolutely need support in multiple ways in order to thrive as persons, whether they choose adoption or parenting. But we as a society do young women no favors when our ‘solution’ to a difficult situation necessitates the death of their children.
3. Abortion industry-created sex education is clearly failing minors and aiding predatory adults
Perhaps one other reason abortion activists are so insistent that pregnant minors ‘need’ the abortion option is because unplanned teen pregnancies are an indicator that the disturbing ‘comprehensive sexual education’ programs they’ve espoused for years have failed.
Live Action News has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that comprehensive sexual education programs like Planned Parenthood’s, now being promoted for younger and younger children, actually groom them for early sexual activity. Former Planned Parenthood sexual educator Monica Kline summarized the impact of such programs, saying, “The sex education grooms them for promiscuity. Grooms them for STD treatment, and grooms them for abortion,” in part by giving young people a false sense of security. “Teens are being given false ideas that condoms will cover all the bases. They do tell them to get tested and treated – which means coming back to the clinic – and if they are pregnant they are encouraged to get an abortion.”
Minor girls, like adult women, deserve the whole truth about the inextricable link between sexual activity and pregnancy, and about abortion, and they also deserve support to choose life for their preborn children.
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