This Lenten season I participated in a very powerful and moving 40 Days for Life prayer vigil at an Austin abortion clinic. I watched as men dropped off and picked up women at the clinic, and I reflected on what could lead a man to do this. This is a very personal issue for me, not just an academic exercise, so it hit especially close to home.
When a man participates in an abortion, especially of his own child, he violates his primordial impulse to love and protect his family. In one willful act, he destroys his family by killing his child and abandoning the woman he loves at the precise moment that she needs his love and protection the most. No doubt some men do this out of a twisted, selfish desire to avoid responsibility for the consequences of their lust, but I believe that many (perhaps most) men have been so emasculated by society that they assent to the abortion for what they very mistakenly believe are noble reasons.
Men have been brainwashed by over thirty years of abortion industry propaganda masquerading as feminism and have been made to feel that they have no say in the abortion decision. A woman has a right to do with her body what she will, after all, and no man can say otherwise. This is true enough, except for two critical facts. First, an abortion takes the life of a baby who is a wholly unique and individual person with an equal right to control his or her own body, but who also relies completely on his or her parents for protection. Second, abortion is not a real choice for most women but a tragic and emotional last resort when they feel that there is no other option.
The true tragedy of abortion from a man’s perspective is that many of them would not occur if the father of the child and lover of the woman would simply be a real man and honor his most basic male impulse. Sadly, this impulse in a man to love and protect his family has been so battered and twisted by decades of political correctness that many men feel that the impulse itself is somehow bad; a remnant of a less enlightened age. Tragically, this leads a man to believe that he is actually helping his wife or girlfriend exercise her free choice when she, more often than not, would keep their baby if she knew that the man she loves would stand by and support her.
Husbands are called to love their wives “...as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her...” (Ephesians 5:25-26). This is not just a lofty religious sentiment, nor does it apply only to Christian husbands in marriage. It is a fundamental impulse stamped into the very soul and heart of every man at the moment of his conception. It is what leads fathers and brothers to scrutinize every boy our daughters and sisters bring home and what leads men to keep a watchful eye on our female friends at a bar. Tragically, however, when this impulse to love and protect is twisted and distorted by society, it leads a man to yell obscenities from his car as he drives by a peaceful prayer vigil at an abortion clinic and leads a boyfriend to pay for his girlfriend’s abortion.
As men, we must reclaim and restore the noble impulse to love and protect the women in our lives. We need to honor and sanctify them; give our lives for them if we must. We do not honor them and we do not sanctify them by sending them into the arms of an abortionist to rip our babies from their wombs.
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Monday, April 13, 2009
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4 comments:
Hi
I just came across your post looking on google for something completely unrelated. but I had to comment, as it's something i've been thinking about for a while.
Equal rights movements and womens' lib groups will claim it's a victory for women that abortion is legal and free for all. I would argue that abortion is nothing but men's liberation. Freedom from responsibility, freedom from facing the consequences of their actions, and worst of all, it's freedom to sleep around without having to use condoms (do you know how many men say they can't have sex with condoms?!?!). They now pressure women into having unsafe sex, and if the results of that are pregnancy, they say it's not their problem, but they'll share the costs of the abortion.... it makes me laugh at all that women who think they've been liberated by the legalisation of abortion. Women are worse off, men are better off. It's a crazy world we live in that this is what women demanded... and I write this as a women who has friends who have experienced everything I've mentioned above. Keep up the good work!!
Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words. I agree with you 100% that abortion does not liberate women. More often than not it harms them physically, psychologically, and emotionally. Abortion simply gives men a "get out of jail free" card and allows them to use women and avoid responsibility for the children they father.
I was already contemplating an expansion of these themes for another post; your comments have inspired me to get cracking on it. Stay tuned!
Real men wear condoms to protect their women with unwanted or unplanned pregnancies.
Praying does nothing BTW. It's the only way to think you're helping by not really doing anything.
So you're saying that a real man uses his woman as a mere sexual toy for his own pleasure? That's what you're doing when you separate procreation from the sexual act. If that's what it means to be a real man to you them I feel sorry for you and the women you use. I will pray for you.
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