Of gods and Women, Personhood and Power

By this current philosophy, women now have the power to grant or refuse the individuality, the humanness, of another human being.

The pro-abortionists cannot conquer science and bend it to their will, so now they must fabricate a new "truth" that depends not on science and reality but purely on emotion and self-interest.  Now they proclaim that only the woman can make the unborn child a child, and if she chooses not to do so, then the child becomes a "thing" that can never attain personhood.  Now the woman has the power of deity; the power of life to grant according to her will, or the mandate of death to be carried out as she requires.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) -   I read a public letter early last December that demands a response, but rather than interrupt the joyful Christmas season I have waited til now to write.

This letter appeared in The Daily Kos, and I think it encapsulates the current philosophy of pro-abortionists better than anything else. More importantly, I think it reveals exactly what we who seek to restore a culture of Life are up against.  It's Lucifer's echo.

Women are now gods.  The pro-abortion army has shored up the weary old "My Body, My Choice" mantra with something far more insidious.  Now women actually have the power to bestow life itself, or withhold it, or nullify it.

"An Open Letter to Supporters of Personhood", written by someone called BadKitties, begins by lashing-out at Republicans in Michigan over an attempt to offer a tax credit for unborn babies.  "The Michigan GOP is trying to legally make women hostages to a fetus." 

The author goes on to describe herself and the qualities that make her a person.  She's a sister, daughter, friend, mother, wife, etc.  She breathes, speaks, cries, laughs, bleeds, and sings.  In short, that makes her a person.

Then she says, "When you attempt to declare a blastocyst a person, you are stripping me of MY personhood."  She insists, "Personhood is conferred when a woman says to herself, 'This is my baby.'  Yes.  Exactly."

She describes her joy and excitement at being pregnant with her children, then strangely, she goes on, "I had a miscarriage, once, too.  I cried, and suffered... I found and held a tiny little empty sac in my hand, and mourned what could have been..."

Then she continues, "But... my living children were wanted, and they are deeply loved.  Unwanted pregnancies do not have 'personhood' conferred upon them.  They are an intrusion, a parasite, a thing.  However they were conceived, they are not wanted.  They are not loved."  Rather than dreaming of little booties, she says, "There is, instead, a desperation and determination that the thing be removed."

One of the many things that struck me about all this was the raw, naked fear in her words.  The term 'fetus' is used to distance and dehumanize, and to her, the fetus is competition.  If the fetus is declared a person, then somehow she is being denied her own personhood.  As though personhood was a cake with a finite number of slices, and giving some to this person means she won't get any.

Then comes the animosity towards the "intruder" (ahem, baby) who has the nerve to show up "unwanted", like a telemarketer on the phone.  Or rather, like a sneaky, conniving little creep that picked this woman out of a crowd and crawled up her leg and into her uterus to make himself at home and steal everything she's got.  (Aack!  A monster's eating me alive!!)  Good grief!  We're talking about your child here!!

Wantedness is irrelevant to humanness.  Wantedness does not make a person, and unwantedness cannot deny a person.  Wantedness speaks volumes, alright, but not about the child.  It speaks volumes about women and men, about our society, about our present value system, and about our disintegrating moral core.

As is typical of pro-abortionists, she tries to disconnect the woman from any responsibility in the "intruder's" existence and presence in her uterus.  Once again, sex has nothing to do with babies, at least in this mythical world where women can generate life from a mere "clump of cells" as well as make life evaporate with only the desire of her heart.

The problem for the pro-abortionists is this:  Science and modern technology has made the chamber of the womb visible to us all, and now no one can deny the miracle that takes place there and the LIFE that dwells there. 

The pro-abortionists cannot conquer science and bend it to their will, so now they must fabricate a new "truth" that depends not on science and reality but purely on emotion and self-interest.  Now they proclaim that only the woman can make the unborn child a child, and if she chooses not to do so, then the child becomes a "thing" that can never attain personhood.  Now the woman has the power of deity; the power of life to grant according to her will, or the mandate of death to be carried out as she requires.

By this current philosophy, women now have the power to grant or refuse the individuality, the humanness, of another human being.  The will of women is now elevated to the highest, most untouchable of heights -- whatever she wants, is.  Whatever she rejects, ceases to be.

Wow.  That's straight out of Lucifer's personal play-book.

My own pleading to the pro-life community is this:  There must be one common language, one common theme going forward, and it's short, sweet, and simple.  Here it is:  the child in the womb is a human person who has the right to live.  Period.  End of discussion.

Forget "fetus" and "embryo" and every other term now being used to dehumanize the child.  Those words have their legitimate place in ethical prenatal medicine, and that's fine.  But they are essentially useless at best, a liability at worst in the battle before us.  Our lexicon must be clear and united and unapologetic.  From now on that tiny preborn life can have only one name: child.  The child in the womb.  That's who we're talking about, and there is no other way we can afford to say it anymore.

If our elected officials have trouble talking about abortion, or about their pro-life convictions and proposals, then sit them down and teach them:  The child in the womb is a human person who has the right to live.  It's that simple.  Anyone who cannot communicate that clearly to the press or his constituents should sit down and be quiet.  We must stop stumbling over pebbles.  The truth is plain and quite easy to articulate.

It is the humanity of the child in the womb that we must defend and proclaim.  Humanity is not bestowed by women, but by God, the One who creates and establishes all life.  Personhood is not something any woman has the power to grant or deny.  Women have no magical or divine abilities regarding human life. 

A woman's feelings toward the child in the womb have nothing whatsoever to do with that child's humanity or personhood or rights.  It is ridiculous and desperately egotistical to assert that women have such extraordinary powers that they can originate life from lifelessness, and void life at their whim!

What women have been given is the privilege of being co-creators with God in bringing new human life into this world.  We are entrusted with the protection and care of the most vulnerable.  We are gifted with bodies that nurture and shelter that tiny, defenseless person as he/she grows and prepares for that first breath of air. 

But breathing air does not make the child a person.  (Nor is it what makes our author a person.)  Nor does speaking, or laughing, or crying, or walking, or writing, or singing.  GOD made the child a unique and unrepeatable person from the first moment of conception.  There is nothing any woman can do to undo what God has done, or to accomplish it herself merely by her will.

This deification of women is flat-out wicked.  As I said in a previous article, it's evident that Satan knows that the easiest and quickest way to destroy a society, a nation, is to corrupt women; to warp and pervert the thinking and the hearts of women.  Get that done, and everything else crumbles like a stale cookie. 

First women turned on their own bodies and their own babies.  Babies became the enemy, and fertility became a disease.  Rather than the instinct to protect and defend, women began cultivating a fear of their own children, and a loathing toward motherhood.

Now, the latest tactic of the father of lies is to persuade women that they are gods themselves.  Not merely cooperating with God in creating new human life, but the ones who decide when and whether that life is life at all.  They are the beginning and the end, and everything is subject to their wants and wishes.  They hold in their hands the power of life and death, and they answer to no one.

BadKitties asks, "Who are you to force an unwilling woman to confer 'Personhood' on something in her womb?"  "How do you possibly justify stripping women of their humanity, reducing them to nothing more than a vessel?"

Who is any woman or man to deny the humanity of the child in the womb?  How can anyone possibly justify stripping the child in the womb of his/her humanity, reducing them to nothing more than a clump of cells?  Who are YOU to decide who is a person and who is not a person based only on YOUR feelings and wants?

"You should be ashamed," she goes on ironically, "Life is for the living.  To loudly proclaim that a fetus is entitled to all the rights of breathing, laughing, huggable people is unconscionable."

Humanness is an objective fact, not a subjective quality depending upon the desires of someone else. 

Our reply to BadKitties' letter is simple:  The child in the womb is a human person who has the right to live.  This does not negate the personhood or value or humanity of the mother in any way.  It merely defends the humanity of the child against the chilling blasphemy that pro-abortionists are now preaching.

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Jennifer Hartline is a grateful Catholic, a proud Army wife and homeschooling mother of three children.  She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.  Visit her online at Wake Up, Deborah!

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