This is going to be sort of graphic. Just letting you know before you get into it. But I feel like it needs to be shared.
When I was a missionary cruising the streets of Michigan…we came across all sorts of people. We walked up and down the streets in our white shirts and ties every day. We didn’t think about our safety and we didn’t judge people for how they looked or what they’d done in their life. We loved them for who they were and who we thought they could become. We prayed for them before we went to bed and after we woke up in the morning. We were approached by drug dealers, prostitutes, and gangsters. We didn’t think about their background. We thought of them as God’s children and I think they loved us for that. They’d call us “preacher men”!
Unfortunately…we had a lot of people come up to us and confess their entire life to us. They didn’t realize that we as missionaries aren’t the right people to confess to. We were just missionaries…not bishops! But most people were adamant about getting it all off their chest. Sometimes we would just sit there stunned, and then try to do our best to help them the best we could. We wanted them to know that Jesus came to earth to atone for their sins and that faith in Christ and repentance were the first steps to forgiveness.
Out of all the confessions…there was one that stood out above the rest.
We had been teaching a woman about Jesus Christ and the restoration of the gospel for a about a month now. She lived in a very bad neighborhood and was surrounded by temptations and struggles. She loved what she was learning and had a desire to be baptized. As the baptismal date drew closer… she became more and more spiritual. It was as if she had been carrying a weight around her shoulders and she couldn’t wait to be rid of it.
[adinserter block=1]Then one day…she decided she couldn’t take it anymore. She had to get this monumental burden off her chest. She sat us down and began to unfold to us her experience of having an abortion. I’ll never forget the feeling I got in my stomach as I listened to the anguish this woman had in her soul from that decision and experience.
She began by telling us that she’d had an abortion in the past. But she didn’t stop there. She started to describe the barbaric process she went through in order to get the baby out of her. They “used a vacuum” she said. She continued to explain. “I could hear the baby being sucked out…chunk by chunk. We were worried because they didn’t know if they were able to get it all out.”
She’s had to live with being a participant of that. She’s had to live with the sound of her baby being savagely ripped out of her. She’ll never forget that…and it was killing her inside and she wanted forgiveness. She had never comprehended the repercussions of that decision because the progressive world lied to her and told her it was acceptable…and even commonplace.
We sat there, as young missionaries, having heard about as much as we could bear. We knew nothing of that process…and had no idea that humans were even capable of that kind of nonchalant disregard for human life. She knew the severity of what she’d done not because she had been taught that it was wrong…but because of the unrelenting stir within her soul. She was no doubt an offending participant in this act…but is she to blame? She is of course responsible for her own actions. She had her agency…but why would someone do such a thing when their gut tells them it’s horribly wrong?
It’s because the world tells them it’s alright! Influential feminists infiltrate the mainstream media and tell women that its fair and equitable to abort a child. It’s her body and she ought not be troubled with the consequence of a child if she so chooses. That it’s alright to view children as a burden instead of a blessing. That a woman should have the freedom to have sex without the “consequences of a child” like so many men are accustomed to doing. Pro-abortion advocates don’t even call them children anymore. They’ll call “it” an “offspring”. Like spider eggs or field mice to be stomped out or thrown in a dumpster without remorse. These types of people protest the euthanasia and abuse of animals but think it’s perfectly alright to suck babies out of their moms, with vacuums, chunk by chunk if they so desire.
[adinserter block=2]And where is the man in all of this? He’s ticked off at the woman for getting pregnant. His friends tell him to “just send your girlfriend to planned parenthood and life will be good…or run! Get as many people pregnant as you’d like…and if a baby comes…they’ve got tools for that. Don’t feel bad about it…because hey…everyone is doing it.” People actually live with and justify this sort of mentality!
All of this in the name of one’s ability to express one’s sexuality free of any consequences. But that’s a bold face lie! There are always consequences to unbridled sexuality. There always have been and there always will be.
[Tweet “”Abortion is wrong…there is nothing right about it””]My mission president used to say that “the Lord is most concerned with how His children come into this world and how they go out of it.” Imagine His pain when He watches one get sucked through a vacuum and dumped into a trash bag without ever even having a chance to take a first breath.
This woman on my mission learned that the hard way. She confessed to us because the consequences of her actions were too much for her to bear. Too much for her to keep inside. Abortion was not something that she could just do and be done with. It was a decision that would haunt her for the rest of her life. She learned that the world…the movies…the media…and even some of her friends had lied to her. She learned that keeping God’s commandments weren’t restrictive…but liberating. How many other people in this world have learned the same lesson and how is it that the media can continue to perpetuate such misery…
The people you teach on a mission become your friends…and it made us so sad to see what so many people had to go through because of the empty promises and influences of the world.
But in the end there is Jesus Christ. He is there to help people like this woman through the deepest, darkest, pits of despair. He’s there for all of us…but He’d prefer that we didn’t have to experience such turmoil in the first place.
Maybe this woman’s story will open some eyes, soften some hearts, and save a few precious babies…
How is there such a thing as free agency when god already knows whats going to happen.
Is god already living in the future or does he live in the present but knows about the future?
Abortions are literally child sacrifices to our cultural idol worship of self indulgence.
We think that the ancient cultures are so barbaric and disgusting for practicing child sacrifice on the altars to appease their gods.
Our false cultural gods of self indulgence are far more pervasive and destructive.
100% agree with that…
I’m proud of you, Greg, for writing about this. I think it’s something that too many people are afraid to talk about. We all should be speaking against this modern holocaust.
I had several very complicated pregnancies so I had the opportunity and blessing of having a lot of very detailed ultrasounds and non-stress tests where they monitor the heartbeat for an hour. So it gives you a front row seat to fetal development and the stages they go through to become the baby in your arms. I still remember how my first child looked, this little baby at 11 weeks doing his little somersaults. All of the personality that came through just watching them and getting to know their quirks then finding the same behaviors after they were born.
Abortion just breaks my heart and I’ve asked a few people over the years to tell me the difference between that embryo or fetus and themselves at that state. No one has ever been able to tell me a difference. Someone always uses some stupid reason though of because they’re so small or don’t even look human yet. It just makes me so mad that people call another person’s life their choice let alone their constitutional right. I mean where have we heard that before? That it’s my right to do whatever the heck I want to this other person even kill them because they look different then me.
Erin, actually he didn’t “throw” the word feminist out there. He correctly stated “influential feminists.” That doesn’t include all feminists.
You had me until you decided that our choices and agency were the fault of the media, feminists, ect. I have never heard a pro choice agenda ever say that one should not put an enormous amount of thought into ones decision. We are given agency for a reason. The reason that woman felt terrible, is because she knew she made a mistake. It was her decision. I do not know her circumstances, nor do I judge her for her choice. I do, however, find your blame of feminism and the media insulting.
Sadly, I can relate to that woman racked with torment over her decision. When I saw this blog heading I wasn’t sure I wanted to read it, but I have to say KUDOS to Greg, once again, for addressing this issue in a thoughtful, nonjudgmental, and more encompassing manner than is usually seen. In particular, the reality that the feelings that accompany this decision are EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to manage/process/overcome, frequently lead to further damaging decisions, and can persist even when the woman feels forgiven – so it was with me. It is also rare for me to see much commentary spent on the father’s role in the process, and the thoughtlessness in others that such an experience can be shrugged off with little devastation or remorse being experienced by anyone other than the woman on whom this procedure is performed. It is profoundly disturbing that a circle of human beings – biological parents, family of the mother, etc. all can view this life form as an inanimate object, and another testimony that those advising abortion rarely have insight into the fallout, nor do they believe that the ramifications are that big of a deal. I will be eternally grateful for the power of the Atonement in helping me move forward through the bad decisions/sins/etc. that I’ve made in my life, but none of those poor choices echo through my life more profoundly than this one. God grant us the ability to better see the evils of this practice and turn away from it.
So sad. Thank God (literally) for the atonement.
Thanks for this blog post!! I am an LDS student studying chemical dependency counseling. As part of my curriculum, I an required to take a Crisis Intervention class. A major assignment for that class is a topical paper assignment. I chose abortion for mine. There are so many support groups to help women who have gone through an abortion. It’s been extremely difficult to find any that are LDS based. It’s something that I have really considered and plan to pray about starting. Not just for converts, but there are members who have had an abortion and need some way to deal with all the “stuff” that goes along with it. Many suffer from post abortion PTSD. They need to know that this IS a forgivable sin. Several leaders have addressed it in conference, including President Nelson. Thank you again for addressing an issue that needs addressed more!!