A few days before Christmas, ABC News’ FiveThirtyEight ran an article by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux with a call for women to share their abortion stories. Then, on Christmas Day, the media organ appears to have thought that the celebration of the birth of the Savior would be an appropriate time to tweet that article. The response was not what Thomson-DeVeaux or her comrades at FiveThirtyEight likely expected.
The article (if a mere 172 words and a form can be said to qualify as an article) begins by saying, “Nearly 1 in 4 American women will have an abortion before the age of 45. But over the past decade, access to abortion in America has changed dramatically.” The piece then bemoans the fact that “there are fewer clinics and more restrictions” and that “it seems likely that the Supreme Court will limit the right to abortion even further.” The point of the piece is obvious: The invitation to share one’s abortion story was supposed to act as a sort of petition for continuing the barbaric practice of murdering unborn babies who are guilty of the crime of inconveniencing their parents. The piece says, “As we document the impact of these shifts, we want to include the voices of people who have had abortions in the U.S.”
The call to share abortion stories makes up the balance of the piece, saying:
If you’ve had an abortion and are willing to share your experience with us, please fill out the form below and we may follow up with you to hear more. We’re particularly interested in hearing from people who have had abortions over the past 10 years, but we’d love to hear your story even if you had an abortion less recently. Whatever you want to share, we are grateful for your willingness to tell your story.
We know that this can be a sensitive topic, so none of your personal information will be published without your consent.
It appears that the article did not garner a sufficient response, so on Christmas Day, FiveThirty Eight tweeted the article, with the plea, “Do you have an abortion story? We want to hear from you.”
And they did hear from people. Within minutes, the responses began pouring in. But those responses were very different from what FiveThirtyEight wanted. Ten minutes after the tweet went live, a Twitter user under the handle Frank Lloyd Wrong replied, with sufficient sarcasm, “Festive! Two minutes later, another user asked, “Wow, really? On Christmas?”
The well-deserved sarcasm continued, with another user tweeting, “Usually, they save this for Mothers’ Day” and including an emoji denoting confusion. But as far as the sarcastic replies went, a user under the handle Dan Ornelas may take the prize for combining sarcasm and deep truth. His reply? “Ok, Herod.” His tweet invoked the passages of Sacred Scripture that tell of evil King Herod who — once frustrated by the Wise Men in his attempt to kill the child Jesus — launched a plan of infanticide across the region in an attempt to kill the Son of God. The event know as the Massacre of the Holy Innocents (which is celebrated on December 28) is recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 2, verses 16-18:
Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
It is difficult to miss the similarities between that horrific event and the wholesale slaughter of the unborn since Roe v. Wade. That FiveThirtyEight would choose Christmas Day to tweet their promotion of that wholesale slaughter is no accident — even if they did not intend it. Some things have their origins elsewhere.
But sarcasm aside (which is difficult for this writer who considers well-done sarcasm to be a thing of beauty), the most significant tweets are those telling “abortion stories” of not aborting children the world and its system of values would have seen as “poster children” for the pro-choice argument. For instance, WeaponizD’1 tweeted, “Yes. Talked my ex into not aborting our child. She walked away 6 months later and I kept the baby and raised her.”
And CJ Good tweeted, “Got my now wife pregnant twice before we were married with good jobs, and had two amazing children.”
Living the Dream said, “The cruelty of knowing there are family members you will never know, that can never be a part of your life because of an inconvenience. Even after their parents are gone, that person could be here.”
Ben Zeisloft tweeted a picture of a beautiful baby boy with the caption, “Because Christians showed up at Planned Parenthood Philadelphia one cold Saturday in February 2020, this young man had a wonderful Christmas today with his family. And there are many others like him — both in Philadelphia and across the country.”
And BWCA Rob tweeted, “My mother was forced to have an abortion at age 15. It left lasting physical and emotional damage. Because of it, I was born over 10 weeks early and nearly didn’t survive. My brother was also nearly born that early. She was told she was unable to have more children after that.”
The thread goes on and on, with tweet after tweet of people recounting personal stories of either not being aborted themselves (even when everyone said that abortion was the only “right” choice) or not having an abortion and telling of their children and the lives they lead.
Catholic Vote reported on this and included some of the tweets, writing:
Women who chose to keep their baby in spite of family and cultural pressures to abort also shared photos and stories of their now-thriving children. Women like Lauren Bower raised voices of encouragement: “I got pregnant at 19 during the first semester of my sophomore year in college. I kept that baby and I now have a 6’3” 17 year old preparing to apply for West Point. He will change the world. Never kill your children.”
Roxanne wrote, “I was pregnant at 16 & was supposed to spend the summer in France as an exchange student. The baby’s dad’s family knew Dr.s who could ‘take care of it’. My dad said ‘we will help you if you want to have this baby’. That ‘baby’ turns 41 in Thursday. [sic]”
Their children also applauded mothers who kept them. Kenneth Landers knows he beat the odds: “Abortion was designed for ppl like me: low income, brown, fatherless. I’m 30 years old, helping my mother retire, thriving professionally and personally.”
Children whose mothers chose adoption over abortion praised the courage of their birth parents. April wrote: “My father wanted my mother to kill me. She gave me up for adoption instead. Her selfless act saved my life and I am forever grateful. Birthmothers who choose adoption over abortion are truly the most compassionate, unselfish, loving people.”
Steven P. Hammond replied with his own abortion story, “Yes. I wasn’t. Orphan who was then adopted. So yeah, I have skin in the game so to speak.”
There are a couple of important takeaways from this. First, everyone born since Roe is — in reality — a survivor of abortion, since the abortion industry targets women with the false idea of choice. It is not — as that industry and its lobby prefer to call it — a matter of “reproductive rights,” since if a woman is pregnant, reproduction has already happened. It is a matter of “the right to murder a child” for being inconvenient. Since all children are (by the very nature of being extremely dependent) inconvenient, everyone born since 1973 has dodged the abortion bullet and should thank God.
Second, the religion of Liberalism has only one sacrament: the sacrifice of children to the god of self. Seeing that sacrament challenged (since they seem to have accepted the very real possibility that the Supreme Court is likely to decide to abort Roe), they are scrambling to position themselves to win this issue at the state level. But that is the pro-life home field and they know they are playing at a disadvantage. Thus, they stoop to posting “Have you murdered your child and want to talk about it?” tweets on Christmas Day.
They are losing and they know it. As they thrash about, it becomes apparent that they can’t even pretend decorum in the face of defeat.
