Cal Thomas: Those who chose life don't have regrets

The Supreme Court is considering whether a Texas law that imposes new restrictions on abortion clinics and requires abortionists to have hospital admitting privileges is constitutional, according to their interpretation of that document in light of the court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which ushered in nationwide abortion on demand.

As the number of abortions have declined significantly since their high point of more than 1.5 million per year — now approaching 60 million total since Roe — pro-lifers have been gaining moral and legal ground, especially with younger people. The pro-choice side has decided to fight back with testimonies from women who have had abortions and not only do not regret them, but are happy and fulfilled because they ended the life of their baby.

Last month, The Washington Post carried a front-page story about historian Melissa Madera, who runs a podcast called “The Abortion Diary,” where women anonymously tell personal stories about their abortions.

Separately in the pages of Cosmopolitan magazine, television actress Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy) wrote that she "never, not for one moment,” regretted aborting her baby. Here’s an excerpt: “In the spring of my junior year at Harvard, my period was late. I had been in a relationship for almost two years with a loving and supportive boyfriend. We used birth control, but it malfunctioned. When I learned I was pregnant, I knew immediately and without question that I wanted an abortion. I had no desire to be a mother at that time — I wanted to finish college and start my career.”

Note the number of times she says “I.” Brenneman could have given birth, allowed a childless family to adopt the baby, still finished college and started her career. Pregnancy lasts only nine months. Death is forever.

In more than 30 years of speaking at fundraisers for pregnancy help centers, I, too, have heard the stories of women with unplanned pregnancies. Virtually every one who decided to see her pregnancy through and either parent, or place the baby up for adoption, has never regretted it. Women I have met who had an abortion have told me of their deep remorse and being ignorant of alternatives. Some turned to drugs and alcohol or became promiscuous. Many are scarred emotionally, biologically and spiritually.

Robbing so many babies of their "unalienable" right to live has had a corrosive effect on our culture and led to the devaluing of other categories of life. These include street shootings, assisted suicide laws and, soon to come, rationed health care to rid us of the “burdensome” elderly and seriously ill. If some lives don’t matter, then ultimately all lives might be at risk.

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Women who abort for convenience or out of fear their babies might be a “burden” in achieving their goals have missed an opportunity to see what can happen if they don’t personally replace God in matters of life and death. I know. I have met some of those former babies, now grown. They are pleased their mothers, many of whom had not planned to become pregnant, gave them a chance to live and to follow their dreams.

Every argument once made in favor of abortion has been answered, from “who will care for the child?” to “who will help the woman after her child is born?” This is what pregnancy help centers do, and they do it without cost, unlike abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood, which profit from women’s difficult circumstances, leading to the question, “Who really cares more about women?”

Cal Thomas is a syndicated columnist and member of the Paste BN Board of Contributors. 

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