Tea at Trianon: Why We Hide The Truth About Abortion

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, April 26, 2019

Why We Hide The Truth About Abortion

From The Federalist:

We are a culture awash in self-acceptance. But human nature being what it is, we are also a people awash in guilt. We betray, we use other people, we tell lies to ourselves and to others, we are selfish and egotistical. Without a cultural vocabulary to put this guilt in its proper context, our only recourse is to deny that it’s there. This is seldom more apparent than in the way we speak of—and try not to speak of—abortion.

With the abortion tally close to 60 million at this point, almost no one can say he or she has not been in proximate or remote connection to one. Countless people go through life with the guilt of having been complicit in some way, either by accompanying, encouraging, abandoning, or undergoing an abortion.

The reason gang initiations, especially murderous ones, happen is because complicity is a powerful tool. You are in this tribe now, united in the blood of guilt. Complicity distorts our reason, perverts our objectivity, and leaves us with misplaced, irrational loyalties. It also makes us recoil when others state obvious truths. There’s nothing more offensive than hearing the truth we are trying to silence in ourselves.

We don’t want to face abortion. We generally ignore the March for Life despite it growing larger and younger. When the movie “Unplanned” came out, it was given an R rating and Twitter suspended its account. Other outlets simply refused to advertise it. It is a hard and horrifying movie to watch, not because it is excessive, but because abortion is hard and horrifying. We know there is more there than “products of conception,” and that what is at stake is of greater consequence than the mere timing of our motherhood. But because we are all so complicit we have to pretend it is not what it is. (Read more.)

From Life News:

More human beings died in abortions than any other cause of death in 2018, a new report indicates. A heartbreaking reminder about the prevalence of abortion, statistics compiled by Worldometers indicate that there were nearly 42 million abortions world-wide in 2018. The independent site collects data from governments and other reputable organizations and then reports the data, along with estimates and projections, based on those numbers. Breitbart contrasted the abortion numbers to other causes of death, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, traffic accidents and suicide, and found that abortions far outnumbered every other cause.
Here’s more from the report:

As of December 31, 2018, there have been some 41.9 million abortions performed in the course of the year, Worldometers revealed. By contrast, 8.2 million people died from cancer in 2018, 5 million from smoking, and 1.7 million died of HIV/AIDS. …It also records the total number of abortions in the world, based on the latest statistics on abortions published by the World Health Organization (WHO). Globally, just under a quarter of all pregnancies (23 percent) were ended by abortion in 2018, and for every 33 live births, ten infants were aborted.
Worldometers estimates about 59 million deaths world-wide in 2018, but that number does not include unborn babies’ abortion deaths. Unborn babies are not recognized as human beings even though biology indicates that they are unique, living human beings from the moment of conception and they die brutal, violent deaths in abortions. (Read more.)

From Life Site:

Speaking to a Vitae Foundation event, West cautioned the crowd about abortion's racist outcomes. "I came from the same neighborhood as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr," the Fox News contributor and African-American leader said. "Since the Roe decision, almost 15 million African American children won’t know about Dr. King’s dream."

West said he "cannot think of" a better time for the pro-life movement to go on the "offense" than after this election cycle. He likened the pro-life movement's recent political victories to the U.S. Army's actions after battle, which are always reviewed even if they were successful. West stressed that achieving political victory doesn't mean the pro-life movement can relax yet. "We will not be truly blessed as a nation until we right this wrong" of abortion, he said. “If we are a country that continues to have a business in killing our future generations, God will not bless America.” (Read more.)

From The National Review:

It’s also a time when a pro-life movie can become a surprise hit despite a media blackout and hostility from much of the filmmaking community. Box Office Mojo reports that the movie, which was released on March 29, has pulled in more than $8.6 million in North American theater revenue. That puts the film in fourth place for the week, trailing only mega-budget pictures Dumbo, Us, and Captain Marvel.

Unplanned is different from any other film that has been made on the abortion issue. It tells the true story of Abby Johnson, a Texas woman who became one the youngest clinic directors in Planned Parenthood history and was named the organization’s employee of the year in 2008. But even though she had undergone two abortions herself, she didn’t know much about the actual procedure. Then came the day when, in an emergency, she was asked to assist in an ultrasound-guided abortion.

“Some images stick with you forever, images that you can’t unsee,” she wrote in her 2010 memoir. “The fetus was thirteen weeks old and I could easily see its head, arms, and legs. The abortion instrument — a suction tube — was on the screen as well. The baby jumped away from it but it was all for naught. The abortionist turned on the suction and I saw that baby get sucked apart right in front of me on the screen. . . . In mere seconds, that fetus’ life ended and the screen only showed a black, empty uterus. The life that was there just a couple minutes ago was gone. In that moment, I saw for myself what I was supporting for the last eight years and it broke me.” (Read more.)

From The Federalist:

I left Planned Parenthood nine years ago after assisting in an ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13-week-old fetus. I saw the unborn child struggle for its life against the abortion instruments. I saw the empty uterus on the screen where life had been just moments before. This story is now a major motion picture released in theaters nationwide, called “Unplanned.” While the movie defied industry expectations at the box office, attention has also been drawn to an article written about my story soon after I left the abortion industry. I had never felt the need to respond to the false claims in this story until now. (Read more.)