Life lessons from children

To My Unborn Child

Jane Tyson Clement

I carry life or death within me;
this little stirring, blind and pushing creature
is the sweet paradox
inevitable
weighing me down with either joy
or sorrow.
Teach me, my little one, the slow acceptance,
whether death or life is born within me.
I am in God’s hands, and you
in God’s hands
through me—
all of it God’s: the light, the dark,
the winter,
and this wild, petal-drifting,
sun-dazed May.

Selah.

Jane Tyson Clement, No One Can Stem the Tide

Abortion: the single best indicator of breast cancer trends

Study: Abortion is fueling an epidemic of breast cancer

According to a new study published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, young women had an abortion before having a child are at the greatest risk for developing breast cancer.

The British researchers state that ‘having an abortion raises a woman’s risk of breast cancer by at least 30 percent, and is fueling an epidemic of the often fatal disease.’

The study’s lead author Patrick Carroll calls abortion the "single best predictor" of breast cancer trends.

“An abortion in a young woman who has never had a child has a carcinogenic effect because it leaves breast cells in a state of interrupted hormonal development in which they are more susceptible…”

Read the whole thing here – also note the comments from Dr. Jane Orient, quality stuff. Here is earthshaking research, pure math at work, helping women and serving life.

It has never been truer to say: Women deserve better than abortion!

Selah.

India’s endangered species: girls

Indian female feticide: 10 million killed in 2 decades

According to a UNICEF report released this month, 7,000 fewer girls are born in India every day than the global average would suggest. This is attributed to both abortion after ultrasound tests and also the killing of newborns.

Renuka Chowdhury, Minister for Women and Child Development, says that in India, 10 million girls have been killed by their parents in the past 20 years, either before they were born or immediately after. She aptly calls it a “national crisis.”

"Today, we have the odd distinction of having lost 10 million girl children in the past 20 years," Chowdhury told a seminar in Delhi University.

"Who has killed these girl children? Their own parents."

In traditional Hindu practice, girls are often viewed as liabilities: they are tools in trade, property to be bartered – not only in the lingering practice of dowry, where the bride’s parents pay for the groom to marry her, but also in the continuation of a kind of emotional suttee, where the wives only have rights as their men choose to give them.

Scratch the surface of Indian society, and you’ll find powerful social prejudice, to the point of female devaluation. And now, that devaluation is seen in the destruction of unborn and newly born girls: as technology increases, so does selective killing… inordinately biased against girls.

"Even today when you go to a temple, you are blessed with 'May you have many sons.'"

Female feticide worst in places of militant Hinduism

Perhaps not surprisingly, the incidence of female feticide rises in the places where traditional Hinduism is practiced militantly. For instance, in the western desert state of Rajasthan, where militant Hinduism controls much of the political and police infrastructure, newborn girls are often killed by pouring sand or tobacco juice into their nostrils.

"The minute the child is born and she opens her mouth to cry, they put sand into her mouth and her nostrils so she chokes and dies…

"They bury infants into pots alive and bury the pots. They put tobacco into her mouth. They hang them upside down like a bunch of flowers to dry…

"We have more passion for tigers of this country. We have people fighting for stray dogs on the road. But you have a whole society that ruthlessly hunts down girl children."

Is it any surprise that this state of Rajasthan is also the place where orphan caregivers have been terrorized and tortured, this last year? Some people are very invested in making sure that young girls don’t get a chance, that outcast children remain outcast – locked into their sordid place.

Female feticide not a matter of education, but ideology

Also, interestingly, in India, the incidence of female feticide also rises in relation to education and social class. Chowdhury says that the practice of killing baby girls is ‘more prevalent among the educated, including in upmarket districts of New Delhi, making it more challenging for the government.’

"How do we tell educated people that you must not do it? And these are people who would visit all the female deities and pray for strength but don't hesitate to kill a girl child…”

One can sense the frustration in her voice: the very ones who supposedly wouldn’t do such a thing – educated classes – are the ones who practice it most. Underlying her words is the rampant drumbeat of a lingering caste system, and all its ideological devastations.

In other words, the India that Amy Carmichael discovered, where young Indian girls are most at risk, where beautiful girls are devalued and sold before the altar of Shiva, that India still makes itself known – to the tune of 10 million dead girls in 20 years, and countless other millions broken into little inner pieces, trapped in physical and spiritual slavery.

And, when caregivers offer integral intervention to these outcast girls, they soon find that they only risk their own lives and reputations: in many places, it isn’t safe to rescue girls from social destruction. Just ask Sam Thomas and the Hopegivers caregivers, who’ve been persecuted, imprisoned and terrorized this last year, in Rajasthan!

The place to counter female feticide…

The place to counter this female feticide is in the heart – to change the heart, to offer a new vision to the mind. In practical terms, this means supporting those who are making a difference – those who actually rescue these girls and tell them that their life has infinite meaning!

In other words, there is an inward and outward demand that this feticide places upon us: it begins in our hearts, we who say we care, and then flows to the point places of need. It begins as we look in the mirror and say, “Who, me?” and then answer by saying, “Yes, I too bear the blame.” And then, giving and living to make a difference: give to people like Hopegivers, who exist to meet this need, among others. And, then live like we really care about feticide: it’s pure spiritual foolishness to act as if we are against female feticide in India, and then voting to support abortion here in the USA. It’s like the lady who said she supported missions in Africa but wouldn’t let a black man pray in her church – the same human idolatry underlies both feticide and abortion…

Look in the eyes of these girls, and ask if they deserve a chance at equal life. Ask if they are worth the world – and consider how many lights like theirs have been darkened!



And as you ponder this, consider a gift to Hopegivers, this Christmas! As one said long ago, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it!”

In your gift, in your life, in truth, the light goes on, still!

Merry Christmas as you make a difference this year, here!

Selah.

India's lost girls

India's endangered species: baby girls

The brides never had a chance to be born

In Punjab, special prayers of thanks greet the birth of a boy… Girls are born into silence.

"People say, you have two girl children, you have done some sins in your past life…" Surinder Saini.

Recent research into India’s abortion by sex selection estimates that India has experienced a net loss of 10 million baby girls over the last two decades. This is stunning. Certain groups dispute the figure. But what is not disputable is the unusual gender balance in India. Estimated research is disputable, but empirical numbers are not.

Demographic studies across India show that, on average, there are around 900 girls for every 1,000 boys. In some provinces this figure dips below 800 for the girls, and sinking. Multiply this figure times the national number and the result is staggering.

Female devaluation not devastates girls, it hurts an entire society.

Jill McGivering aptly notes:

All those years of prejudice against girls are finally coming back to haunt this society.

There is such an acute gender imbalance here that it is causing real social problems. Young men are coming of marriageable age, only to discover there is no one left for them to marry.

The young girls who would have been their brides never had the chance to be born…

In Haryana, a quarter of the female population has simply disappeared.

Inquiry into Rajasthan female feticides

Police in the Indian state of Rajasthan have launched an investigation into 21 doctors who are alleged to have been involved in aborting female fetuses. But those persons truly invested in saving female lives say that this “police investigation” is just a smokescreen to cover up the real problem. They have no faith in the police or state politic on this issue, instead pleading for the Central Bureau of Investigation to take up the cause.

"The police case is just an eye wash to delay the investigation. We don't have faith in the state agency. We want the CBI to investigate the scandal," Kavita Srivastva of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said.

According to the last census, Rajasthan has 922 females per 1,000 males. However, some districts have an even more dismal sex ratio.

Gory tale of Punjab's lost girls

In Punjab, the government is investigating the “possible involvement” of state officials in setting up illegal clinics and ultrasound centers dedicated to female feticide.

Last week, a surprise raid by police and health officials unearthed a 30-foot well located behind a private clinic, which contained the remains of female fetuses.

The discovery provoked the ‘largest ever campaign against female feticide’ across the state's 23 districts; yet Virender Singh Mohi, the official who led the raid against the hospital, has received several phone calls with death threats – threatening to kill him if he continues the raids on private hospitals. In response, Mr. Mohi notes the obvious:

"There are very strong and influential vested interests in keeping this illegal practice going...”

Darshan Kumar Singla, a local journalist in Patran, says that although everyone is aware that female feticide is illegal, most people do not think anything about aborting a female child and trying again for a boy.

"Female feticide is rampant in all the small towns here. Most nursing homes do such work at night and everybody – the police, the health authorities and the civil administration – knows this is happening.

He says that people are sitting up and taking notice only because the fetuses in the well became too public to ignore, that the problem is so widespread and ingrained that laws cannot stop the practice – it only creates a booming black market.

The implication is that only a change in heart, a change in culture, will end the destruction. The system of dowry – and attendant ingrained devaluation of girls – feeds into deep greed in the parents’ hearts. It is common practice for parents to abort girls and try again for boys – even among those who otherwise might be against the practice of female feticide [in theory].

Pritam Singh, the owner of Sahib Hospital who is under arrest, says, "The only thing that could really end this problem is a firm end to the system of dowry.”

Praying for a cultural change of heart

But, of course, ending dowry would mean a change in the hearts and minds of traditional Indian people. The India that Amy Carmichael found a few decades ago, where girls were devalued and fed into the crucible of ritual Hindu temple prostitution, lurks just beneath the surface of this debate.

When someone tries to make a difference, s/he is threatened with loss of life or vocation. Just ask Sam Thomas and the Hopegivers orphanage in Rajasthan, where they’ve faced an incessant tide of threats, beatings, persecution, imprisonment, and illegal law manipulation in their effort to reach outcast girls and boys. Just ask the girl orphans of Emmanuel Hope Home who’ve faced attempted rape by Hindu authorities in Kota, Rajasthan.

The issue is serious and heartbreaking, and goes to the soul of Indian culture as surely as the practice of American abortion goes to the soul of our culture: the place where truth is exchanged for lies and innocents pay the price on the altar of human greed.

And here is where a devastating Indian practice reaches across the oceans and continents, and runs down the line of good and evil that pierces our own hearts.

We cannot truly stand for innocent Indian girls without also standing against something in our own cultural soul…

Selah.

Women deserve better than abortion II

It is normal to grieve a pregnancy loss, including the loss of a child by abortion. It can form a hole in one’s heart, a hole so deep that sometimes it seems nothing can fill the emptiness.

Project Rachel

Women as victims of abortion

I was the only guy in the salon, and the topic turned to abortion. The woman cutting my hair asked,

“What do you think of abortion?”

The salon grew silent. Several pairs of eyes turned my way, waiting my answer.

“It makes me sad,” I answered. “It makes me sad for the children who will not see the light of day, and never add their laughter to our needy world.” “And, it really makes me sad for the women involved, they are silent victims too.”

“You say the women are victims?” “You mean the women having the abortions?” my stylist asked.

“Yes, they are victims,” I said. “On several levels – often women are pressured to lose a child in order to keep a relationship. And, how sad is it that our society defines success in a way that pressures women to destroy a part of themselves?”

“And, then…women end up victims on the other end of abortion, as very few are told the consequences to their bodies and minds.”

“They aren’t told about the cancer risk or Post-Abortion Syndrome…” “They aren’t told about the mental and spiritual trauma, which they end up carrying in their hearts – unseen trauma, real victims.”

“And this makes me sad,” I said.

The silence echoed for awhile in the salon.

The one of the women said, “I wish more men thought like you.”

Another said, “Two of my friends have had abortions, and what you say is true…”

The rest of the women agreed. There was a collective sigh, and some of the tension ran out of the room. There was comfort in the fact that I was for the women, while still being against abortion. They hadn’t heard it expressed like that.

Chances were I was speaking to at least one girl that day that had had an abortion. Everyone there knew someone who had.

It was a moment to share the love of Christ in a way that was true, and yet gave light…offering hope to hurting hearts.

And it brings up the issue of abortion’s silent toll on women.

The pressure of abortion

A study of 252 [abortive] women who suffered psychological sequelae reported that

• 53 percent felt "forced" into the abortion by others;
• 65 percent felt "forced" by their circumstances;
• only 33 percent felt "free" to make their own decisions;
• 83 percent stated they would have kept the pregnancy if they had been encouraged to do so by one or more other persons; and,
• 84 percent would have kept the pregnancy under "better circumstances.”

The self-betrayal of abortion

Many women talk about the internal conflict that takes place in abortion: their maternal instinct wars against the rationalization of abortion, and creates an inner context of dysfunction.

In the vast majority of cases, women seeking abortion feel under intense pressure to do so. Yet at the same time they experience moral qualms about abortion itself, and/or they feel maternal desires to protect their pregnancies. Therefore, for these women, abortion is not a glorious right by which they are able to reclaim control of their lives; instead it is an “evil necessity” to which they submit because they “have no choice.”

Rather than affirming their own values, these women feel forced to compromise their values. Rather than feeling proud of themselves for standing up against difficult situations, they feel ashamed of themselves for being “spineless cowards.”

This feeling of self-betrayal is a devastating blow to the woman's self-image and her feelings of self-worth. She is internally divided by an emotional "war" within and against herself. On one side are her original moral beliefs and maternal desires. On the other side is her abortion experience which represents a choice to act against those feelings. These two sides of herself are irreconcilable. The unresolved feelings which arise from this internal warfare can manifest themselves as a wide variety of psychological illnesses. [1]

Immediately following an abortion, researchers have found one positive emotion – that of relief. And, this is understandable in light of the pressure that forced the abortion in the first place. However, temporary feelings of relief are frequently followed by what psychiatrists describe as emotional paralysis, or post-abortion numbness. [2]

Like shell-shocked soldiers, these aborted women are unable to express or even feel their own emotions. Their focus is primarily on having survived the ordeal, and they may be, at least temporarily, out of touch with their feelings.

Studies within the first few weeks after the abortion have found that between 40 and 60 percent of the women questioned reporting at least some negative reactions. In one study of 500 [abortive] women, researchers found that 50 percent expressed negative feelings, and up to 10 percent were classified as having developed “serious psychiatric complications.”

These women develop the symptoms of deep grief, internalizing the trauma. Often it surfaces in intimate relationships to self and others: denial, sexual dysfunction, detachment, desire for another pregnancy, promiscuity, distrust of males, brief reactive psychosis, guilt, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, survival guilt, thoughts of suicide, and psychological numbing.

And this only the psychological aftermath, not mentioning the potential physical risks!

Is it any wonder then, that women are called real victims in abortion?

Truly it is said that women deserve better than abortion. They deserve better than the war against their own personhood, euphemistically called “freedom of choice” by media brokers. They deserve better than being pressured into “solutions” that denigrate the fabric of their own souls. They deserve better than placing their bodies at risk under the advertising of “owning their own bodies.”

There is a holocaust of women taking place in America. 45 million aborted children and counting…and this means 45 million women who are dealing with silent devastation of their personhood and relationships.

There is hope, though. Our Lord still sits by the well at noonday and offers valued personhood and future grace. He still gives water that quenches inner thirst!

Will you love a woman in your life by speaking to her these words of truth and hope?

You may save a life…in more ways than one.

God bless all of you who need this message of hope!

__________________

Resources:

David C. Reardon, “Women at Risk of Post-Abortion Trauma.”

Feminists for Life

Project Rachel

Ramah International

Article on Post-Abortion Syndrome

Silent No More Awareness Campaign

Women deserve better than abortion

In honor of the virgin Mary
Who carried her baby Jesus
In spite of the scorn
Of small-town gossips...

In honor of the innocents
Massacred by Herod
When their very existence
Threatened his comfort...

In honor of women today
Pressured not to carry
That very child, who
Will bring them new life...

In honor of the innocents
Taken from the light of day
Because their very existence
Threatened human comfort...

We lift this verse:
A voice of weeping and wailing,
Rachel crying for her children,
Because they are not!

Women deserve better
Than this: surely the heart
Must confess this theme
This time of year!