It could just be that I'm the slowest scholar in the room. Regardless, I've been mulling over Rick Perry's statement about Wendy Davis and asking myself: What does that even mean?
Cha-cha-cha through the swirly jump rope with me.
Rick Perry said this on Thursday, June 27 in response to Wendy Davis's successful filibuster of SB-5:
“Even the woman who filibustered in the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances. It's just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters."
He said this in regard to a restrictive abortion bill. I was puzzled. She was a single mother at 19 and has gone on to become a state senator. In what way does her early experience show that she doesn't value human life? What example in her own life has she not learned from? What was she supposed to learn from being a single mother that should one day lead her to deny others the right to make their own decisions? That's just confusing.
I thought and thought and I couldn't come up with any logical connection. But I kept reading and thinking, and today it dawned on me: Perry's statement makes total sense if Perry believes two things:
1. That every pregnant woman, given the opportunity, would get an abortion.
2. That a child = punishment.
I'll just let those sit there and be food for thought.
Yes, I've noticed before that pro-life people assume that all women would just run down to the abortionplex for a D&C before lunch with the girls, as an extra errand in their day. That idea is not new to me. But for some reason, I hadn't applied it rigorously to Perry.
Have you noticed the conflation of children with punishment/consequences? Have you noticed that those who trumpet having lots of children the loudest are also the ones who refer to children as "consequences"?
I have three of my own, and while there are days they do seem to punish me (let us be honest), they themselves are precious and valuable and unique, and on the worst possible day I'm still ready to throw myself in front of a train for them without a moment's hesitation.
Interestingly, the Bible says specifically that "children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward" (Psalm 127:3). It also has passages about fathers not exasperating their children and about anyone who harms a child being better off dropped to the bottom of the sea with a millstone around his neck rather than harming a little one.
Now maybe I'm just indulging my feelings about my own children, but these do not seem to me to suggest that children are a punishment or a consequence. They suggest, and say outright, the exact opposite. You will not find a single word in the entire Bible about children being a punishment or a consequence--not even a hint of it. (I know. I've read the whole thing.)
To be blunt, the idea of using children to punish women is sick on every level. You don't use children as tools--not in any way, and not for any reason. You don't punish another adult for transgressing your own personal beliefs. You don't deliver "consequences," as though the adult is the child herself. And you sure don't treat innocent children as a "consequence."
Has anybody here read up on how children of single mothers used to be treated and regarded, or the mothers themselves? These children used to be considered evil and bad in themselves. Their mothers were made to suffer terribly because of the children, and the children were made to suffer too.
What I see is the same thing happening all over again. We're repeating history. Treating a child as a punishment or a consequence is abusive, especially when those who are treating children that way are also the ones who helped prevent the mother from being able to properly access contraception or the education to use it effectively before the baby's birth, and then from being able to properly access food and pay bills after the baby's birth.
Whatever you may believe, I believe that one day, in some way, there will be a full reckoning for people who use children while refusing to help any actual children. There will be a day when they will have to answer, in some way, for preventing people from helping themselves and then condemning them when they are unable to help themselves.
There are various terms for this behavior, but none of them is "pro-life."