Tonight BBC 2 showed a documentary following 4 womens stories of their abortion.
The documentary was very good, and it showed what I would call an honest account of their lives and their reasons for going through with an abortion.
What I found suprising though was how many of the women felt as if they were doing the wrong thing, yet whilst at the same time felling that their circumstances made the abortion right. One woman spoke of going to the going to the clinic and just hoping for a white angel to rescue her who would give her the opening she needed to keep the child. Another spoke of how she couldn't look after the child because her two others had health problems. One girl just said it wasn't convieniant.
There is a need today to realise that we can understand the reasons for an abortion, but because we can understand something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
What I saw in that documentary was a genuine need for a society willing to be open to life, whilst recognising the genuine need to provide alteratives. Most women feel alone, they try and bury the decision, make it seem as if it never happened and they then wonder why they get upset, cant seem to move on, feel a part of them missing.
Throwing contraception at women will not work. The last 40 years have shown us how this only gives people a false sense of security. The problem is not getting pregnant. It's a society who thinks you can do anything without any consequences. What makes this so urgent for the issue of abortion is that human lives are at stake. Not only the baby, but in many cases the women too.
At the end of the documentary they showed a women getting counselling and she was asked, 'what is it you would most like in this world', she replied, 'to be loved'. I think everyone wants to love and to be loved in return. Yet so often we try to short circuit the issue and say well if I want love I have to have sex and plenty of it. We negate Love itself when forget God who is Love.
God loves everyone, even the people doing the abortions. He loves you, He loves me and at times I wonder why... Yet the fact is that love itself can only do one thing and that is to love. But love does make demands, it asks questions, it wants the best thing for us and wants us to be the best we can. Sin, can be understood as a rejection of love because it turns it's back on the very nature of what love is.
That's why we must as John Paul II said build a civilisation of love. That means building a culture whereby we show how God is Love, but that doesn't mean he loves what is wrong. That doesn't mean it's OK to sin, and it doesn't mean we can try and change Gods will simply because it doesn't fit in with the image of a parent who spoils their children by granting every wish.
Building a civilisation of love also means building a culture of life... I believe the two go hand in hand. This documentary shows a need for organisations such as LIFE who offer another option which makes a real difference to peoples lives and which gives the message that we can and we do love you regardless. Yet it also shows a need for God in the world and how really, only. by God's grace can we change anything.
1 comment:
I saw this too. The actress at first seemed heartless, but it became clear that the poor girl was in a desperate struggle, and finding it very hard to keep God and sin out of her mind.
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