Guest Opinion: What Makes a Pro-life 'Extremist' ?

I am a post abortive woman. As long as there is a breathe in me, I will speak out about the violence of abortion.

BRONX, NY (Catholic Online) - I have often wondered what the boundaries are to move you from pro-life, to pro life 'extremist." Are you extreme if you think every life is precious and work to end abortion? Would the fact that you speak out on abortions truth make you extreme? How about praying in front of clinics, writing letters, or for that matter publishing articles against abortion? Does being "extreme" automatically classify you as a potential terrorist in our current political climate? And, why is being extreme when it comes to the death of 4,000 babies a day in utero a bad thing?

I am a post abortive woman. I was coerced into an abortion by my dad when I was in my teens and into my fourth month of pregnancy. Although the argument has slowly desensitized us and has gone from justifying abortion as just "a blob of tissue" to a "women's right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy", the truth has always been that abortion takes the life of an unborn child.

I know. I saw my son. I saw his tiny hands and feet. I looked at him as he lay on the bed next to me dead, and I prayed I could put him back inside of me. Horrified, I wondered how on earth our country could condone such a thing. How was it possible we thought this was ok? It was beyond, my comprehension.

I lived with the impact my abortion had on my entire family. My dad, my mom, my sibling, and my future children all lived with the consequences of the death of my son. Mostly, I lived with the impact of my abortion. I suffered from guilt, shame, anxiety and self hatred, in a silence that was deafening because no one would acknowledge my pain. There are millions of other families out there living with these same consequences.

Am I extreme? You bet. And I would not want to be any other way. I would not want to be able to see that I had caused the death of one of my children and not have it bother me. I would not want to keep silent while millions of unborn children were killed in the womb, many with their moms still not knowing the entire truth of what abortion does. Post abortive women and men are being "Silent No More" and people know the truth when they hear it because it has most likely touched their families too. The pro abortion lobby hates it, so they try to place a label on us to make us move back into that deafening silence. No way.

There are people in our government now who may label me, by their standards, a potential terrorist. I find this ironic since the only violent act I have ever been involved with was the killing of my unborn son by abortion.

Recently, an obviously unstable person murdered late term abortionist George Tiller. Every single pro life person I know condemned the murder. It is against all that we stand for and believe in. Yet, instead of using this as an opportunity to stand together, to condemn violence, Tillers death has been used as an opportunity to paint the pro life movement as violent terrorists. I cannot believe some of the things I have read.

• President Obama was quick to point a finger at our differences instead of looking at the individual who acted alone.
• NARAL said "Dr. Tiller and those individuals who helped provide care to his patients have lived under intense harassment tinged with persistent threats of violence."
• NOW is asking the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to prosecute Dr. Tiller's murderer as a domestic terrorist.
• US Attorney General Eric Holder dispatched US Marshals to protect abortion clinics around the country.
• Bill O'Reilly is being blamed for the murder because he dared to point out that Tiller was no hero to many women who went to him, and his tactics were horrific.
George Tiller was not even buried before the rhetoric began. The message? Don't you dare speak out against anything that has to do with abortion?

I have to ask, why don't the same perameters hold true for other issues?

When our military recruiting station was attacked this week, and Private William Long was killed and another wounded, the word terrorist was never used to describe the murderers. I have not heard Obama speaking publicly against them, or Eric Holder asking for additional security for our recruitment centers. Are the anti war demonstrators or Code Pink responsible for this act of violence?

Private Long who was serving our country was hardly mentioned on the news and only worthy in the eyes of our media, of a small sideline article in the paper while Tillers death made headlines and was on all the media stations. A sad sign of our times.

I will never apologize for being "extreme" in my views against abortion. I will not allow people to put me on the defensive. As long as there is a breathe in me, I will speak out about the violence of abortion in a peaceful loving way, educating and changing hearts one person at a time with the truth.

Although against all violence in the womb and out, am proud to be extreme and I am certain, my son who is in heaven is proud of me too.

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Theresa Bonopartis is the Director of "Lumina/Hope & Healing after Abortion", www.postabortionhelp.org
1-877-586-4621, lumina@postabortionhelp.org and the Co-Developer, "Entering Canaan" post abortion ministry
http://www.sistersoflife.org/ec.html

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