The underground railroad saving women from today’s abortion slavery
The decision that released the country from the 50-year bondage of abortion also inspired abortion proponents to terrorize those who help women escape the circumstances leading them to abort.
“The fire at Life Choices [Pregnancy Center] was reported at 3:17 a.m. Saturday, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and said abortion laws would be decided by the states,” the AP News report read. Life Choices in Longmont, Colorado, joined a still-growing list of pregnancy help centers (PHCs) being physically vandalized by pro-abortion protesters.
Suddenly long-standing, life-affirming ministries dedicated to loving and supporting a woman in her pregnancy became targets of misplaced outrage and vicious threats. Nearly 100 have been damaged. A half dozen, like Life Choices, were fire-bombed. And this is without counting the coordinated cyber-bullying that also increased manyfold in the wake of Dobbs.
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High-ranking Democrat lawmakers joined the attack on the work of PHCs with one senator from Massachusetts going so far as to describe pregnancy centers helping moms choose life for their little ones as “torture.” Even though many states have passed resolutions praising the work of PHCs for their charitable outreach, some abortion states have enacted legislative actions intended to harass and intimidate pregnancy help work.
This all seems especially inconsistent for a crowd that has consistently championed “choice.” After all, shouldn’t those facing obstacles have the choice to access help to overcome them for their baby?
The rush by many blue states to become full-on abortion states, where abortion is guarded, promoted and even subsidized, is leading them to protect Big Abortion with legislation against its greatest competition — pregnancy help centers. Not content to just grease the skids for more chemical abortions by mail without in-person doctor visits, abortion-friendly legislators are duly enacting laws drafted by the abortion industry itself.
To be sure, the red states have been busily constraining, restricting and even outright banning abortions. This draws a distinction between “life states” and “abortion states” reminiscent of the first century of the U.S., where the states grew into the dichotomy of “free states” and “slave states.” In the early 1800s, the states’ legislators were doing for slavery what is now being done for abortion — protecting the trade or outlawing its practice.
In this way, despite the overturning of Roe, our country is still in the grip of abortion, just as in 1850 America was fully in the grip of slavery even though it was only allowed by half the states. That grip necessitates, even more so, the work of providing support for women amid an unexpected, unintended pregnancy.
Just like the Underground Railroad network was necessary for slaves to journey out of slave states, it is critical for the network of pregnancy help to assist women to journey away from the threat, and even bondage, that is abortion. Millions of women, under a half-century of Roe, have escaped abortion due to the selfless and caring work of pregnancy help center staff and volunteers.
In their way, today’s aggressive abortion activists are not unlike the “slave catchers” who sought to capture and return slaves to their masters. Big Abortion is looking to “catch” as many women in the net of abortion as possible by preying on their fears and affirming their doubts.
As we navigate this post-Roe era, it should be clear that women deserve better than abortion. Every woman deserves to be loved and supported in her pregnancy — not targeted by Big Abortion, no matter what state she lives in. Women are strong and capable and when given the opportunity as well as a little practical support, they tend to choose life.
Jor-El Godsey is president of Heartbeat International.
