Dear friends and family who are pro-life

Dear friends and family who are pro-life,

I have been very quiet because I love you and have compassion for you.  You have been there for me when I needed you and you have told me many times that you pray for me.  And I appreciate that.  You have helped me through many trying times.  And when things in my life have gotten better, I think, "Hmmm, maybe their prayers worked," and I am grateful.  I would never want to hurt you and abandon you.  I know how both of the aforementioned actions sting.  I know.

AND

I have some questions.  They are as follows:

When you hit your children in the form of discipline, is that pro-life?

When you refuse to wear a mask and get vaccinated, protecting others from a deadly pandemic, is that pro-life?

When you insist that all lives matter but recoil at standing up for BLM, is that pro-life?

When you vehemently shout about immigrants crossing our southern borders where they are taking children away from families and forcing women into being sterilized, is that pro-life?

When you refuse to acknowledge that drug addicts are suffering from a disease and insist they should just stop harming their bodies or be left to overdose, is that pro-life?

When you tote around your guns, the biggest killer of children and teens in our country, is that pro-life?

When you support those who violently try to end our democracy, is that pro-life?

When you shun sex education and shame people for having sex, a normal human function, is that pro-life?

When you support the death penalty, is that pro-life?

When you criminalize what women do with their bodies, but leave men who are equally as culpable off the hook, is that pro-life?

When you insist the poor should be able to provide for and support their children on their own and shame them for not having the means to do so, is that pro-life?

When you support discrimination against anyone who isn't clearly male or female and heterosexual, is that pro-life?

When you criminalize abortion, knowing it will lead to more deaths due to back alley procedures, is that pro-life?

Here's the thing.  I love you.  I am grateful for you.  I have been quiet for fear you will abandon me.

I have been religious.  Very, very religious.   And I have had an abortion.  When in the hospital residing in the psych ward, recovering from a suicide attempt, I asked to see a priest.  I disclosed to him the paralyzing guilt I was experiencing from having the procedure.  He said, "But you are here now.  You are alive."

My advice, unsolicited as it may be, is become pro-life for ALL life, not just the unborn, then I think maybe you can call yourself as such.

Until then, be quiet.  Your shouting, shaming and legislating is distracting those of us who are pro-choice.  We are busy saving lives.

Love,

Intrepid Song