Opposing viewpoints: I've been misrepresented

All too often pro-life and anti-abortion supporters are depicted as belittlers, manipulating desperate women in desperate situations.

However, the vast majority of pro-lifers are disgusted by the actions of some of their cohorts, and many seek to help and empower women just as much as their pro-choice counterparts do.

Many times the image of an abortion protester presented in pop culture is a bible-thumping bully standing outside of Planned Parenthood screeching about going to hell and shoving pamphlets and fliers into the faces of struggling, scared women.

But, as a pro-life Catholic, let me be the first to tell you that that is not, nor has that ever been, the way I want to be represented.

Many of my friends and peers have gone and protested outside of abortion clinics. Instead of waving signs around and demanding that the women walking inside listen to “the word of God and be saved,” they sit on the curb and pray a rosary.

They do not speak. They do not call out. They quietly pray.   

Women have approached my friends multiple times asking questions like “Why are you doing this?” “Why do you feel so strongly about this?” and “Why does my choice
affect you?”

They do not call these women over, they do not wave a Bible around and they are approached. Once approached, they explain their beliefs and their stance, their decision to be pro-life.

During the 40 Days for Life, a popular pro-life protest, people at my high school would wear red tape around their arms and not speak for an entire day.

The halls would be eerily quiet as people young and old silently protested the deaths of countless unborn.

Hotlines like the Gabriel Project and the Knights of Columbus work to explain to women the full scope of their options in a crisis pregnancy and they exist for women’s healthcare and to help women, and I’ve never heard of a woman who has been bullied into keeping her child by either one.

In the multiple conversations I’ve had about abortion with pro-life and pro-choice supporters alike, not once have I ever heard and not once have I ever said that a woman who had an abortion was going to hell.

It is not my place to judge the actions of others. It is only my place to be the judge of myself.

The unfortunate thing is that the actions and the beliefs of pro-lifers are not well represented at all in popular media.

It makes it hard for those who think like I do to be listened to, to be heard and then to be understood.

If we want to open up channels for real debate about healthcare options, all sides must have accurate representation, must be open to the opinions of others and must be willing to compromise.

If we cannot remain tolerant of the others, be they pro-life, pro-choice or anything in between, we will ultimately fall on the sword of our own intolerance.
It’s a very, very big world we live in, and we have to find a way to live in it in peace.

­— ewenning@indiana.edu