Walk 4 Life Counter-March
Wondering why the shift to an overwhelmingly Latino Catholic constituency in the anti-abortion march this year. Fact is, many Asian-Americans (recent immigrants from India, Korea, China) are using abortion for sex selection in this country, and sadly they find cooperative doctors, especially in LA. That should be illegal, as it is sexism at its worst! (If a second child would result in a second daughter, they abort and try for a boy). So one has to wonder, does this have anything to do with the definite LACK of Chinese Christian churches and Asian-American Christian college clubs at the march this year? Perhaps they are aware they would face some serious questioning? Or maybe they aren't so anti-abortion after all!
I wasn't there this year, but I was there last year, and my impression was that the anti-choice constiuency was mostly White and Latino (from what I recall). I think the idea is interesting, but my sense is that the Chinese American Christian groups at UC Berkeley and Stanford haven't dropped abortion as an issue or anything. Just my sense of things. Sounds like it was a great day overall!
Wow, last year (2009) was the 5th Walk I've attended. The first walk was about the size you've suggested, with only 7000 in attendance, but the 2009 walk had a confirmed 32,000 walkers completing the event at Marina Green (they actually had someone standing there, counting people as they completed the walk).
I used to be vehemently Pro-Choice, you see, I've had 2 abortions, so I had a pretty serious reason to feel the need to insist that my choice had been a good choice. And any time anyone brought up the subject of abortion, I got angry, really angry that anyone would dare challenge my right to choose. The thing is, nearly 30 years later, I still felt that anger, it still really got to me, and I absolutely refused to discuss the subject.
You know, I only found a way to let go of that anger when I finally took the time to open myself up to looking at the subject, on my own terms, but honestly, allowing the possibility that I might be wrong. And when I allowed myself that freedom, the freedom to accept that I might be wrong, the freedom to read about, talk about, consider the subject, rather than simply digging in my heals, that's when the wall came crumbling down, and the pain I'd been masking was finally set free. I admitted I was wrong, and I was able to move past it.
I now walk on the side of the Pro-Lifer's and I will until the day that I die. I'm no longer afraid to talk about the subject, and I am happy to do so without condemning those who disagree with me. You see, I thought that the pro-life side was angry, but I now see that I was the one who was angry, I was the one who thought they'd condemn me. They haven't. For a while, after realizing that abortion is wrong, I kept my abortions a secret, as I worked along-side my pro-life, new found friends. Then, finally, I could be Silent No More and I shared with people, one at a time, each time expecting to pay the price of a friendship for speaking out.
These people you suggest are against women have been the ones there for the women who are pregnant and frightened. They are the ones who are willing to open their homes, to feed them, to provide them with cribs, strollers, car seats, diapers, job training, rent payments, whatever it takes to help a woman get her feet back on the ground after the trauma of a surprise pregnancy. The Planned Parenthood folks, they have one "choice" to offer, pay and we'll kill your kid," although they'll tell you it's "product of conception" and merely "a clump of cells." But by 21 days, there is a fetal heartbeat, by the time they perform abortions, there are arms and legs, fingers and toes. You see, they have to wait until they can count the extremities to ensure they've gotten the whole thing out, and don't leave behind parts that will make the woman sick.
It's the Pro-Life people who believe a woman is strong enough to deserve the truth, so she can make an informed decision. It's the Pro-Life people who believe a woman is strong enough to handle the challenges that life throws her, that she's creative enough, inventive enough, capable enough to make a choice that doesn't require the death of her child.
You see, it's now been over 30 years since I had my first (of two) abortions, and I still miss the son I never held. I wonder what he would have been like. I miss my second child as well. These guys would have changed the course of my life, absolutely, but who's to say it would have been for the worse?
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