Protecting The Child

"The New Feminism" is a term created by Pope John Paul II, to express the unique role of women, and the characteristics which they alone offer the world. Women alone can learn from direct experience as child-bearers what the world must know: Human relationships are authentic only if they are open to acceptance of the other person. This understanding is the fundamental contribution which humanity needs from women. Embracing of this truth is the indispensable prerequisite for an authentic cultural change.

The mere existence of an industry that views women as "factories" for fetal body parts dramatizes how American society has been seduced by the redefining of "liberty" as an absolute right to dominion over one's own body, even to the point of killing and mutilating one's own offspring. Allowing her child to be killed and dismembered is unthinkable for a mother who has a true understanding of her unique dignity as a life-bearer.

This re-definition of "liberty" denigrates the gift of femininity because it devalues a woman's fertility, treating pregnancy as a disease; as something that needs to be "cut out." First, women came to believe that they should value personal convenience more than the lives of the very children in their wombs. Now, women are being encouraged to allow children in their wombs to be used as fodder for research and new biotechnologies.

In the secular, materialist society of the West, women have sought compensation and restoration for the loss of their value as mothers, through consumerism and through participation in the marketplace, where fertility is often regarded as an impediment, and pregnancy as an offense to productivity. The "New Feminism" invites women to reclaim the unique dignity implicit in their role as the life-bearers for all human persons. The gift of fertility and motherhood, far from being threats to women's fulfillment, are natural partners to, and in fact enhance, the participation of women in all areas of human endeavor. Women must proclaim anew, to those in authority and to the whole world, that mankind must protect the inviolable, irreplaceable, and unrepeatable dignity of every human life.

Excerpts from an interview with Trish Short, a post-abortive mother, and former actress and model. Trish now produces documentaries, which chronicle the deadly price still being paid by women for the prevailing pro-choice culture of our country.

"My [aborted] children are alive. Those babies live on; they forgive me, and they pray for me and for all mothers who are thinking of abortion. God will work all things together for good for those who love Him. That's what He did in my life…God pierced my heart so that I could recognize that I had done wrong. This allowed His graces to be released and completed the circle of healing."

"There was nothing harder for me than telling my son that I was sorry that I had killed his two brothers. As a post-abortive woman, once you come to repentance, you're going to meet up with the gravity that the child you aborted was supposed to be someone's brother or sister, or eventually someone's husband or wife. I can see the scars of my abortions on my son's face. I can see his loneliness; the disappointment of a family that never was; the emptiness of the love that is missing. He could have used a brother to encourage him through the tough times. This is a legacy that has been stolen.

"We need to convey this to young women. They are killing generations. They are killing the promise for a better world. These children all had a purpose. They had jobs to do.

"The secular world is where I came from; it's where I was deceived. The media is undeniably powerful. Satan is the prince of the air. He controls much of our music, films, and television. On a daily basis, Satan forms and steals the young hearts and minds of this world. He fills them with lies, deception, and death. The media can be used for evil or good. I am using the media to bring the Truth. It is Beauty and Truth that will regain the hearts and minds that Satan has stolen. I attempt to bring the message of Christ to a cold, hard-hearted, hurt, and dying world.

"As an actress and model, I was abused and exploited. God is now using me to mold the messages, rather than being a victim of them. Young women today are taught to invest too much in their looks…They have invested nothing in their spiritual beauty. Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said that, 'Outside beauty does not reach into the soul, but inner beauty is reflected on the face.' Girls today are taught to dress and behave seductively. By the time they are grown women, there is no mystery left, and consequently they feel as if they have nothing left to give. I see someone like singer Britney Spears and it just breaks my heart. She is the product of her record company's desperate attempt to sell products. They tell her how to dress and move. There is something deeply and spiritually disturbing about eight-year-olds screaming and crying for someone so salacious. I was once part of all of it and I hurt people because of it. This kind of thing eats at the moral fiber of young women.

"The only way to beat abortion is to be unified. God used my crazy journey from Catholic school, to Episcopalian and Jewish husbands, to Lutheran, Methodist, and Assembly of God churches to show me that God feeds His children. I witnessed miracles in every one of those [places]. "

George Washington

"All that I am, I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual, and physical education I received from her."