UPDATE: I received an e-mail* from the good folks at Whole Woman’s Health that said:
Hi Martina,
I’m a representative of Whole Woman’s Health. We recently came across a photograph of our staff members that had been posted on our blog, on your website. We’re politely asking that you please remove our photograph from your website.
In the future, if you’d like to use any of our photographs, please contact us first.
Thank you,
Andrea
*Catholic Sistas considers any and all correspondence with us to be public domain, to be used at our discretion.
You may view *still* view their PROUD display of posting this banner by visiting that particular blog entry.
All evil is wrapped in a pretty package. No one would choose to do evil if it actually presented itself truthfully. In an effort to create awareness this month, we will be taking various pictures of the lies that are perpetuated {sometimes proudly, such as in this photo} and fed to women who may not know the difference. This photo was taken at a local abortion clinic here in Austin, Texas, where they proudly posted this picture – ON their blog. The sad reality is that we are in agreement with them on this one, but from opposite sides of the iron fence.
Elizabeth McClung, executive director of the Austin Coalition for Life, had this to say about this picture:
Uh…since when did I say that women who have abortions are bad? How heartless and judgmental of a person does one have to be to think that way? Thanks Whole Woman’s Health for posting a sign that I agree with! Also a good sign that they are reacting to our presence in front of their clinic. If we weren’t having an impact on the women going inside, they wouldn’t feel the need to respond to us defensively or offensively. 🙂
This photo obviously speaks for itself, but what do you think the caption should say?** Respond in the comments section to let us know!
**If you have taken or discovered a picture that perpetuates the lies and want your photo featured, please e-mail us at catholic.sistas{at}gmail{dot}com.
I thought nobody was pro-abortion. I guess they didn’t get that memo in Austin.
The sign can be read in two ways. Since this sign is proudly displayed by an abortion provider, I’ll choose to interpret it the second way. So I think the caption should read, “Be a good woman– get yours today!” I hope that isn’t too tasteless to be humorous. I think that there’s more truth to it than we might expect.
How about, “Abortion wounds women.” Because that seems to be the real truth about abortion, that every woman who walks out of that clinic without her child has been deeply wounded in her soul. I lost a baby at 18 weeks gestation and it was the most traumatic and devastating experience of my life. And that was a miscarriage…I remember thinking that my grief, trauma, and agony would have been compounded exponentially if I had been involved in procuring the death of my child. In a lot of ways, I see the abortion issue as being almost more about the souls of the mothers than the bodies of the children. God will take care of the children, whether they live or die. But the damage done to the mother’s soul…she may never heal from it.
What does it mean to be a “good woman?” Is being a good mother part of it? Do good mothers kill their babies? If a mother kills her newborn is she a “good woman?” What if she kills her three-year-old? It would be interesting to see statistics on the women who kill their older children. Did they have abortions? Susan Smith did.
I believe abortion, especially unrepented abortion, removes a taboo that makes it easier to kill older children. It would be interesting to see if the problem of mothers murdering their children has grown along with the approval of abortion. There are some studies that show that child abuse has. It is certainly logical. If you can kill a baby a month before birth, why not a month after.
I think we should have a sign to counter it,
“Good women sometimes make bad choices” or
“Some choices are bad, even when good women make them”
or “Women have a right to know their choices, good and bad”
or, I think my favorite might be, “Bad choices hurt good women”
The message needs to be, yes, we recognize the dignity and innate goodness of all people, but that doesn’t change the fact that sometimes we (and all people) do bad things, make evil or sinful decisions. We love these women, love the sinner, hate the sin. We love these women that go in, and care for them so much that we will stand out there in all types of weather, being ridiculed, whatever, but that we love them so much and care about them and their unborn children that we want to help them. That is the message that they need to see.
How about “Abortions kill good children” for a competing sign?
As a caption for this photo, I’m not sure it needs one. There’s not a whole lot left to say. Although, the title of this post, “Tell me lies, sweet little lies”, would make a fitting caption. I say this not because it’s a lie that good women have abortions, but because the implication is that since good women have abortions, abortions are good for women. That implication is absolutely erroneous and a HUGE lie! By coloring their sign pink they are ‘sweetening’ the message by subliminally linking abortions to femininity. The truth is that abortions benefit no one except those performing them. Even those performing them will eventually suffer for their actions.
Another good caption would be “Pray for good women”.