“No one is pro-abortion, they are pro-choice” is how the argument goes.  It’s repeated ad nauseam on social media platforms, broadcast interviews, and even in presidential debates.  And it’s completely false.  As I’ve written before, the term pro-choice is utterly meaningless unless the question is answered: choice to do what?  Answering that question tells everyone what you actually favor.

I think what abortion rights activists mean when they offer up this intellectually stunted defense is that they don’t glory in aborted fetuses or get their jollies off of running up the body count.  That’s fair, but it’s also a conspicuous self-own.  If there is truly nothing morally abhorrent about the act of abortion, there is really no reason to distance yourself from being considered “pro-abortion” in the first place. 

For example, I am pro-choice about school vouchers.  Even as a public high school teacher, I think that if a parent wants to choose to keep a portion of their taxes back in the form of a voucher to send their child to a private school, that should be their choice.  I don’t do that personally, but I’m fine with others doing it.  When a colleague who disagrees with my position accuses me of being “pro-vouchers,” I don’t flip out and demand they call me “pro-choice” instead.  The defensive reaction of pro-aborts in this regard reveals a convicting conscience that they are trying desperately to repress.

Further, it is concerning that those who favor a legal right to murder unborn children aren’t willing to acknowledge the unabashed bloodlust that now defines a growing portion of their number.  As civilized man moves towards an end of this horrifically self-centered practice, those who remain committed to it are becoming increasingly vocal and progressively creepy. 

For instance, the Students for Life chapter at the University of Texas-San Antonio recently set up a “Fetus Graveyard” drawing attention to the startling number of babies being sacrificed on the altar of convenience.  It was a passive display that was shocking to the conscience only because of the jarring number of little pink crosses that filled the field.  Undone by this display, a handful of Planned Parenthood supporters carrying placards, marched into the middle of the field and put on a humiliating display.

Among other things, the pro-abortion students walked through the field of crosses, pointing at one and joked, “I had an abortion, look there’s mine right there.”  They also led chants – yes, chants about aborting children: 

“When I say Planned, you say Parenthood. Planned. Parenthood. Planned. Parenthood.”

“When I say aborted, you say fetuses. Aborted. Fetuses. Aborted. Fetuses.”

“Stop, hey, what’s that sound? All the fetuses are in the ground.”

If you can stomach it, you can watch it all right here:

This is one of the most infuriating things I've ever seen:

Planned Parenthood supporters sing chants in a "fetus graveyard" at the University of Texas-San Antonio setup by @StudentsforLife.

“Stop, hey what’s that sound? All the fetuses are in the ground!” pic.twitter.com/WZgHfJIIOR

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) May 3, 2019

Politically this is a disaster for the abortion rights movement.  It’s a massive embarrassment for Planned Parenthood to be associated with macabre, ghoulish behavior like this.  A movement that wants to pretend the horror of Kermit Gosnell was an exception rather than the rule is undermined by this spectacle.  And all the multimillion-dollar ad campaigns, all the marketing, all the favorable media bias in the world that advances a “choice” mantra is exposed as mere cosmetic propaganda meant to conceal the hideous face of what has devolved into nothing more than a child-killing cult.

But if I can be totally honest, when I watched that video there was one thing that kept echoing in my mind.  And it isn’t what it used to be.  I no longer watch videos like that, hear chants like that, and immediately think of the politics or the legal implications.  Maybe getting older and becoming both more aware and more ashamed of my own failings, selfishness, and arrogant pride has caused me to see people differently.  I truly hope it has.

But when I first watched this, and even seeing it again, I didn’t feel contempt for those bad actors standing in a field of crosses.  I felt pity.  I felt a sense of desperation that they be released from the powerful darkness that has come to control their thoughts.  And I just kept thinking and praying, “Father, forgive them…they know not what they do.” 

If you’re a praying person, please find the humility and love to pray the same.