Scatterbrained Sunday

Today’s topic: abortions for really stupid reasons.

I want to be clear that these are not the majority of abortions. In fact, most abortion decisions are made under some form of coercion. Others are influenced by medically inaccurate “counseling” from abortion businesses. I am convinced that the type of abortion I am about to discuss is extremely rare.

All that said: how can we educate women like Belinda, who believes that getting pregnant (but not “having a baby”) will help her quit smoking? What about athletes who use abortion for hormone doping? What about the woman who stops using birth control just because she wants to make sure she isn’t infertile, and then has an abortion? (My source for this one is Why Women Shouldn’t Marry, by Cynthia and Hillary Smith.)

As a pro-woman pro-lifer, these situations are hard for me to wrap my head around. It’s usually easy for me to stay non-judgmental, but not in cases like these. How do we reach women who are contemplating abortions for admittedly selfish and irresponsible reasons, without falling into the trap of just sounding preachy? I’m especially interested in reading insights from pregnancy center volunteers and sidewalk counselors.