In my previous article, “Why the Abortion Industry Dehumanizes the Preborn,” I discussed win-win versus win-lose agreements.
I claimed that the abortion industry offers young women a decidedly win-lose agreement when it comes to abortion: the woman wins (supposedly), and the preborn baby loses.
On the other hand, life-empowering women’s healthcare clinics will claim that choosing life is a win-win agreement.
The win for the preborn baby is obvious.
He or she gets to live!
But how is the choice for life advantageous to the woman?
How does she win?
Entire books could be written on this question (that gives me an idea!), but in this short article I want to address just one reason why she wins.
Have you ever noticed when a woman has her first child how it fundamentally changes her?
She transforms from being primarily self-oriented to primarily other-oriented, at least as concerns her newborn child.
Her primary concern becomes her child’s life, whether she raises the child herself or creates an adoption plan.
In other areas of life when we witness someone we care for change from self-focused to other-focused we often describe it as “growing up.”
We recognize that the person is maturing as a human being.
The maturing person is likely not consciously thinking of their own maturation in the following way, but we could say that in “growing up” they are becoming more concerned about increasing the dignity of other human beings in their immediate sphere of influence.
And effectively increasing the dignity of other human beings accrues to the common good of us all.
So a young abortion-seeking woman who changes her mind and chooses life not only refuses to destroy the inherent dignity of her preborn child, she also avoids degrading her own dignity that a win-lose agreement always carries with it.
And I would say an abortion decision always carries with it a massive degradation of a woman’s dignity.
But when a woman chooses life, she actually increases her own dignity by choosing the most important win-win agreement among all possible win-win agreements one could make.
She chooses to nurture the life of a one-of-a-kind never to be repeated human being made in the image and likeness of God.
Brett
Doug
Brett,
Love the article!! It is like in a movie, the protagonist is under stress, and needs to make a decision, The decision might be fundamentally difficult and one they have wrestled with. In the end, at the climax of the action, at the absolute zenith of the Arc of the movie, they choose the right course of action. The audience breathes a sigh of relief and everyone leaves feeling happy because a fictitious character made the right call. We fundamentally know what is right and what is wrong. We rejoice when we see someone make the right decision.
I know I smile and feel a sense of Warmth and of God’s love when I see a mother holding her child, snuggling a newborn, calming an sad child. All of those things inspire that same type of response, because it is right and good, just like the scenario you have painted here. Thanks for all of your work Brett.
Tom
Yes! You taught me that it’s not focusing on changing the law, that will end abortion but… changing hearts will. This perspective is what we must focus on. I know that I am. It’s a beautiful, natural law. To care for someone, other that our selves, brings maturity and life to the world. Yes, responsibility brings maturity and what better way to come to maturity- by saying yes to life. Thank you.