Christina Bennett shares the story of how she became a pro-life advocate, and how she was nearly killed by abortion. She shares how her faith changed her perspective on abortion and how it changed the trajectory of her life.
00:00:00.000A quick note before the episode begins. This conversation involves graphic discussions related to abortion and the abortion industry. Please consider turning off the episode if children are present and continue listening with caution.
00:00:13.520Abortion is not pro-woman. Abortion hurts women. Abortion hurts family. Abortion hurts pre-born children who many of them are little women. They are females. They will grow up to be women.
00:00:27.440And you can't say that you are pro-woman if you are advocating for the death of females. If you are advocating for the death of pre-born baby girls. How is that pro-woman? Abortion would have killed me. Taken my life. I would have been dismembered. I would have been thrown away into a trash can. I wouldn't have been able to be the woman that I am and to live out my life.
00:00:51.400It's absolutely hypocritical of pro-abortion advocates to say that we are the ones that are pro-woman. No, we in the pro-life movement are pro-women from the womb to the tomb.
00:01:03.540We are pro-women from the moment of conception all the way to natural death. We are fighting for them in the womb and outside of the womb. We want them to live, to thrive, to prosper, and to be whole.
00:01:15.860Pro-life advocates come from all walks of life. Some are motivated by their faith. Some by their fidelity to the law, to the Constitution, to basic biology.
00:01:31.540Some have seen abortion up close. Abortionists who had a change of heart, who saw the reality of what they were doing and could no longer deny it.
00:01:39.700But there's one group of people for whom abortion is an even more intimate and personal issue than it is for all those other groups.
00:01:48.600That would be the people who were nearly killed by abortion themselves. People such as Christina Bennett.
00:01:55.540Right now, I would strongly recommend you go to hallo.com slash choose life.
00:02:23.460Because today's world is a scary one. Too many people don't seem to care about the truth.
00:02:29.520And I would suggest that that's all rooted in people becoming less or really just anti-religious.
00:02:36.700That's why it's more important than ever to keep our relationship with God strong.
00:02:41.860Hallow is the number one Christian prayer app in the United States.
00:02:45.080It's like Calm or Headspace, but rooted in Catholic faith.
00:02:48.340It is the perfect resource to deepen your relationship with God and find peace through audio-guided prayer and meditation.
00:02:56.020Several of Hallow's meditations encourage you to choose life and to pray for others to choose life,
00:03:00.880such as their Litany for Life with Lila Rose.
00:03:03.660Hallow is free to download. It will help you find peace and calm throughout your day.
00:03:08.400So do it. Do it right now. Download the app for free at hallo.com slash choose life.
00:05:28.440And the counselor told her, this is the best decision for you to make.
00:05:32.280She told her, just go wait for the doctor to call your name.
00:05:35.560And between the counselor's office and the waiting room, she paused in the hallway for a moment to gently cry and to collect herself before she went in to get the abortion.
00:05:45.120And there she met this African-American elderly janitor.
00:32:51.540Why is the discussion of abortion and its history and its kind of philosophical, you know, background,
00:33:00.340specifically kind of, you know, the origins of Planned Parenthood and a lot of the advocates of
00:33:04.020abortion early on? Why is that discussion of abortion's history maybe more important now than ever?
00:33:11.880We're in a time in America where we talk a lot about racism. And some people don't like how much
00:33:19.500it's talked about, but that's where we're at. And people are looking at different areas and societies
00:33:27.260and institutions and asking themselves how they can be better towards people of color and how they
00:33:34.120can be more just. But yet we have Planned Parenthood, who we are funding through our taxpayer dollars,
00:33:42.360who are getting millions and millions of dollars every year from the government. And this is an
00:33:47.880organization rooted in eugenics, rooted in racism, that every day is preying upon poor women,
00:33:56.880preying upon women of color, preying upon women who've gotten word that their child might have a
00:34:02.260disability. How can we not in a time like this, when we are having these national conversations
00:34:08.420about race and racism, how can we not examine Planned Parenthood? How can we not look deep into
00:34:14.480their history and their present and ask ourselves, are they really helping women of color or are they
00:34:20.900profiting off of their pain? Are they taking advantage of them? They're not a charity, they're a business,
00:34:26.220and they're making a lot of money and getting a lot of money from our government in order to terminate
00:34:33.140black and brown children by the millions. Is Planned Parenthood the only culprit? Or are they the main
00:34:42.080one? Or, you know, just give audiences a sense of, you know, why are we talking so much about Planned
00:34:46.520Parenthood? Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider. And they are very much
00:34:52.920a household name. If a woman is thinking of having an abortion, very often she's going to think of
00:34:58.420Planned Parenthood. And that's simply because of their marketing. They spend millions of dollars doing
00:35:04.120marketing. Even Margaret Sanger, when she had the Negro Project in the 1930s and 1940s, she also had
00:35:10.640things that she wrote, like the Birth Control Review, like the Woman Rebel, No Gods and No Masters, where
00:35:16.300she was putting out propaganda, and she was putting out information to change the opinions of Americans.
00:35:22.020And that's still happening today with Planned Parenthood. They're the ones that are on the front line saying
00:35:27.420that abortion is health care. They're even saying that abortion is self-care. And they're saying that abortion
00:35:33.540is needed for women of color. And they are also the ones who are lobbying and sending their lobbyists into
00:35:40.420capitals all across the country to talk to legislators, to get them to push certain bills, and to get them to fight
00:35:47.980against other bills. And so they are this Goliath, this giant, when it comes to abortion. And so we must talk about
00:35:55.740them. But aside from them, of course, there's so many other organizations and institutions
00:36:01.300that have blood on their hands when it comes to abortion. Those that have partnered with Planned
00:36:07.340Parenthood, those that have covered up their lives, the FDA, who has said, okay, abortion pills can be sent
00:36:14.900out through the mail permanently, even though they know that that is dangerous for women to have
00:36:21.180abortions in their own home and not see a doctor, but they're in bed with Planned Parenthood, so therefore they let that
00:36:29.160go. There's responsibility there. There's responsibility for doctors and organizations in the American Medical
00:36:36.380Association that would look the other way and not truly report on what's happening with botched abortions, or would say that
00:36:44.320post-abortion syndrome or people who have negative effects after abortion, that that's not really a thing.
00:36:51.180Or that most women are just going to feel relief after an abortion. And even the church, where we have not called out this
00:36:59.160evil and injustice, even we bear responsibility for that. And so Planned Parenthood is a Goliath, but it's definitely
00:37:06.020supported by all sorts of different people groups and organizations and institutions that props it up and allows it to have the
00:37:14.340power that it does. One of them being our United States government, because we are funding them.
00:37:19.320What are the objectives of the pro-abortion movement?
00:37:24.320Abortion on demand without apology. That is the objective of the pro-abortion movement. Abortion on demand without apology.
00:37:32.300They believe that abortion is a right for women to have. And that's something that they should not have to apologize. They
00:37:39.300shouldn't have to feel bad about it. They should be able to have an abortion at any time during their pregnancy, whether it's six weeks or
00:37:46.300whether it's 26 weeks or beyond. They should be able to have what Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton promises, that abortion all the way up even to the point of birth.
00:37:55.300And no one should question them. Men shouldn't question them, even if they're the fathers of the children. The church shouldn't question them. Other women shouldn't question women who are having abortions.
00:38:07.300They should have that freedom, that liberation to be able to choose to have an abortion. In addition to that, they are trying to reframe the way that we
00:38:16.300think about abortion. And so in the years past, even pro-choice politicians would refer to abortion as something that was tragic or
00:38:24.300something that was sad or unfortunate. Now they would think of it kind of like a necessary evil. We need to have abortion, but it is something that we want to
00:38:32.300lessen. Well, now the pro-choice movement of today, they're moving away from that. They're moving away from safe, legal, and rare to legal.
00:38:42.300Because they know it's not rare when you have over 60 million abortions, they can't say it's rare anymore. And they're not really that concerned about
00:38:49.300being safe, because if they were, they wouldn't advocate for abortion pills being sent out through the mail. So they're only really interested in it being
00:38:57.300legal up until the point of birth and fighting for that. And they want people to see it as something good. They actually want
00:39:05.300people to see it as a, as a good, as a societal good.
00:39:10.300For audiences who don't know, you know, what is Planned Parenthood?
00:39:14.300Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider. They also provide STD testing and they also provide birth control.
00:39:21.300There's some things that they say that they provide, but it's not actually true that they've lied about and been caught
00:39:27.300lying about mammograms or prenatal care and things like that. But not only are they a massive organization in America,
00:39:35.300but they also reach out globally to many different nations. And they also have a, an arm that lobbies and does politics.
00:39:42.300And so they have a lot of money that they invest into making sure that pro-abortion legislators get elected so they can continue to fight for that organization.
00:39:53.300So as much as some might say that it is a health organization, I would say that it's very much a political organization as well.
00:40:01.300You, you mentioned the 60 million abortions since Roe v. Wade. How many lives have been taken since the passage of Roe v. Wade?
00:40:09.300Sure. Live action has done some work researching and we have come up with the number two, three, six, three,
00:40:17.300that every day there are 2,363 preborn children that die from abortion.
00:40:24.300And since 1973, we are looking at over 60 million deaths from abortion that we know of that are recorded.
00:40:32.300And of course there's more, that's just in America. So there's more globally.
00:40:37.300And that is because we have abortion on demand, abortion for any reason at any time.
00:40:43.300And that is, that's what's left us with this enormously high amount of abortions.
00:40:49.300Can you weave us a picture of, you know, what, you know, you hear 60 million and it's like, oh, that's a big number.
00:40:57.300Like, right. But what, like, what's that mean? What does 60 million mean?
00:41:01.300You know, it's hard for people to connect with a number like 60 million because we don't know 60 million people.
00:41:11.300I mean, some of us don't even know 600 people.
00:41:14.300Some of us don't even have 600 followers or 6,000 followers on our, you know, social media accounts.
00:41:21.300And so it's hard to wrap our mind around that. Even saying 2,363 unborn babies, preborn babies die every day is still something that's hard to wrap our mind around.
00:41:34.300And so for me, that's why I like to tell my personal story about my mom walking out of an abortion clinic.
00:41:45.300Because if people can't wrap their mind around 60 million or over 2,000 a day, maybe they could look at me and listen to my voice and look in my eyes and hear my story and think,
00:41:56.300Christina is one of the ones that was scheduled to die, but she made it out.
00:42:01.300But it would be as if she times this many every single day, my life completely lost.
00:42:10.300No family, no husband, no children, no future.
00:42:13.300And that's happening every single day over 2,000 times.
00:42:18.300And as people, we often do connect with the one, you know, save the one.
00:42:26.300And so people who have been scheduled to be aborted or people who even survived an abortion, like Claire Caldwell, like Melissa Oden, like Jenna Jensen,
00:42:35.300they help people to understand that every person has value and they help them to put a picture and a face to a ridiculously high number.
00:42:48.300One of the tactics of the pro-abortion lobby and their activists is to push chemical abortion.
00:42:57.300They realize that states across the country are restricting abortion and banning abortion and therefore they are fighting hard to push chemical abortion.
00:43:06.300The FDA is allowing it to go through the mail, but activists are also campaigning to make it seem as if chemical abortion is something that doesn't have any consequence to it.
00:43:17.300When I was speaking at a rally at the Supreme Court, there were activists dressed in black who were taking the abortion pill.
00:43:25.300Was it actually the abortion pill? I don't know, but they said that it was.
00:43:29.300And they were taking it in front of hundreds of people just to show them that this is the abortion pill and I can just take it right here and it's not a big deal.
00:43:38.300Shortly after that, a pro-life advocate, Rebecca Kiesling, was on an interview on the news with a pro-abortion advocate and the same exact thing happened.
00:43:48.300This pro-abortion advocate paused and said, I'll show you how simple it is to take the abortion pill.
00:43:54.300And she took the abortion pill on air. So they are really trying to normalize the abortion pill.
00:44:00.300I've seen many advertisements where they're saying, oh, it's safer than Tylenol.
00:44:04.300Just like they lie and say that abortion is ten times safer than natural birth.
00:44:08.300They want people to think that this is something that's safe, that has no consequences to it physically or even emotionally.
00:44:15.300And they are campaigning to normalize it.
00:44:18.300And, you know, how do you respond to those arguments that, you know, abortion is safer than, you know, childbirth?
00:44:24.300It's a lie to say that abortion is safer than childbirth.
00:44:28.300But one thing that's important for people to recognize is that not every state keeps accurate records of abortions that are botched.
00:44:36.300I know stories of women right here in the state of Connecticut who've had botched abortions, including the doctors leaving fetal remains inside of them, including them having preferited uteruses and even being left infertile.
00:44:49.300And those numbers are not recorded. Those numbers are not taken in.
00:44:52.300Even when it comes to the chemical abortion pill, the FDA is recording deaths, but they're not recording women who've been left infertile or hemorrhaged or had some kind of serious consequence.
00:45:03.300And so you compare that to hospitals who are accurately recording if there's deaths for, you know, maternal health and maternal mortality, they're recording that compared to the abortion industry.
00:45:14.300And abortionists who are not really giving accurate records are states who are not requiring those things to be recorded.
00:45:21.300And then they're saying abortion is 10 times safer than natural birth.
00:45:26.300But really, do you even have the accurate statistics of how many women have had botched abortions or how many women have been hurt by abortions?
00:45:33.300And the answer is no. So you can't even claim that that's true because you don't have the accurate numbers.
00:45:39.300The fact that they don't have the accurate numbers, do they have an incentive to not actually have the numbers?
00:45:45.300They don't want the numbers of women who've had botched abortions.
00:45:49.300They don't want to hear the stories of women who have suffered from the chemical abortion pill.
00:45:55.300In all of my years of working, even doing political things near the Capitol, working with legislators, I've never seen pro-choice activists say,
00:46:04.300we need to get some data on how many women have had botched abortions in Connecticut or in this particular state so we can better understand what's really happening with abortions in our state.
00:46:14.300I've never heard that. I've never seen a bill proposed to have that sort of information.
00:46:19.300In fact, I just testified against some legislation that is very harmful coming to the state of Connecticut.
00:46:26.300They're trying to allow midwives and nurses to perform abortions.
00:46:31.300And even though they know that they don't have the training, they still want them to be able to do it just because they're saying,
00:46:37.300oh, there's a delay, there's a three week delay, so therefore we need to train up midwives and train up APRNs to do abortions.
00:46:45.300And so are they truly concerned about women's health and safety? I would say no, they're not.
00:46:50.300They're concerned about access to abortion, abortion on demand.
00:46:54.300And I've even said to legislators, why don't you do a survey? Why don't you talk to women in our state and find out what their abortion experiences are?
00:47:04.300Where do their incentives lie and why would they, you know, keep records and data on the damage of abortion?
00:47:12.300Abortion is the money making business. And if you look at people who have left the industry, if you look at Carol Everett, who wrote a book called Blood Money,
00:47:20.300if you look at Dr. Levitano, who has done videos, he said in a documentary called The Matter of Life that he was the kind of person that if someone said,
00:47:29.300here's a couple hundred dollars for you to kill my baby, he would take it and he would do it.
00:47:34.300And tragically, abortion is a money making business. There's a lot of money involved in this business.
00:47:43.300And why would abortionists, why would their advocates want to truly look at the ways in which women have been hurt by abortion?
00:47:53.300They don't want to because it's going to be contrary to their narrative.
00:47:57.300They won't be able to say that abortion is safe if they truly understand how many women have been hurt both physically and emotionally from it.
00:48:06.300Recently in D.C., there were pro-life activists who were outside of an abortion facility.
00:48:14.300And there was a truck that was there from an organization that was picking up medical waste.
00:48:20.300And the activists assumed that that medical waste was fetal remains.
00:48:24.300And they asked the truck driver, could they have the box?
00:48:29.300And he wondered, what are you going to do with it?
00:48:31.300And they said, we believe that it's babies in there and we would give them a proper burial.
00:53:19.300It's important for people to know that although Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton
00:53:23.300legalized abortion across every state in America in 1973, prior to that states had individual laws on abortion.
00:53:32.300And if Roe vs. Wade is overturned, Doe vs. Bolton is overturned, it's going to go back to the states.
00:53:38.300And so what's happening right now is pro-life states are passing legislation in preparation for Roe vs. Wade to be overturned.
00:53:46.300And pro-abortion states are passing legislation in preparation for Roe vs. Wade to be overturned.
00:53:51.300So my home state of Connecticut, they have codified abortion into our state law.
00:53:56.300And they're right now looking to pass a bill that would make it a part of our state constitution.
00:54:01.300Hopefully it doesn't pass, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.
00:54:05.300That means when Roe is overturned on a national level, abortion would still be legal in Connecticut.
00:54:11.300Abortion would still be legal in California. Abortion would still be legal in New York, all the way up until birth.
00:54:17.300They are making essentially abortion sanctuary states.
00:54:21.300And so we're going to see something that is somewhat similar to pre-Civil War America, where you had pro- and anti-slavery states.
00:54:30.300You're going to see pro-choice and pro-life states.
00:54:34.300And that's going to change the way that we look at the abortion debate.
00:54:37.300But still, abortion is going to be an issue that we have to continue fighting.
00:54:42.300Regardless of what happens with, you know, future Supreme Court cases, future state laws, will the pro-choice movement ever give up their fight?
00:54:50.300I look at Dr. Bernard Nathanson. I look at Dr. Levitano and other abortion doctors who have had a change of heart.
00:55:02.300And I believe we will see more of that as we continually advance with technology and understanding of when the pre-born person feels pain.
00:55:10.300As we continually illuminate the beauty of the pre-born child, I believe we'll see more hearts change.
00:55:16.300But there will be some people who are always committed to abortion rights.
00:55:20.300I think particularly among women who've had abortions, you see a fierce commitment to abortion rights.
00:55:27.300And that is because they have to convince themselves that their decision was the right one.
00:55:36.300And it would be very painful for them to acknowledge that not only is abortion wrong on a national level, but it was wrong for them.
00:55:48.300And that's why women who've had abortions are often in need of healing and therapy.
00:55:53.300And there's programs like Forgiven and Set Free and Rachel's Vineyard that offer that to women.
00:55:59.300But that driving force of pain because you've had an abortion, so therefore I have to fight for it.
00:56:07.300You see that a lot with the abortion activist groups, who many of them on the front lines are women who've had abortions.
00:56:15.300And so I have a great empathy for them.
00:56:17.300They don't have to live in that pain and they don't have to use it to justify fighting for abortion.
00:56:22.300But it would take a real awakening for them to come out of that.
00:56:27.300What do you say to a woman who's had an abortion and whether that woman is struggling with it and in pain from it or whether she seems to be celebrating that abortion and advocating for abortion?
00:56:41.300What do you say to someone who has had that?
00:56:44.300To a woman who is celebrating her abortion, I would ask you to think about the reasons why you had an abortion.
00:56:56.300Was it really you exercising your right to choose?
00:57:08.300How did you feel when you first found out that you were pregnant?
00:57:12.300And to consider, if anything was different, could there have been a different outcome?
00:57:18.300If you had the support, if you had resources, if you had the love, would you or could you have chosen to parent or adopt?
00:57:27.300Perhaps you felt like it was you or the child and you had to fight for yourself and you chose yourself and perhaps you don't regret that.
00:57:35.300But I want you to recognize and acknowledge that there was another human being and that life is forever lost.
00:57:43.300And what was your responsibility to that human being?
00:57:47.300Perhaps you have other children and you look at them and you value them and you love them.
00:57:52.300Know that the child who was lost is just as valuable and just as loved.
00:57:58.300And I'm sorry that you weren't able to see that at the time and fight for that child, but you can still have a change of heart.
00:58:05.300And even if you've had an abortion, you can still acknowledge it and you can reject it and you can fight for other lives to be saved.
00:58:15.300And what do you say to the woman who had an abortion and, you know, is really struggling with that and knows it was wrong and feels constant guilt and grief over that abortion?
00:58:28.300One in four women have had an abortion in America. That's what the statistics say.
00:58:34.300And if you've had an abortion, you are not alone. There are millions of women who have also suffered that same pain.
00:58:40.300It is a tragedy and is sorrowful. And I want you to know that you can grieve. Allow yourself to feel those emotions.
00:58:49.300Perhaps they feel overwhelming to you and you need someone else to walk with you through the journey of healing.
00:58:55.300Know that there are therapists, there are professionals that you can talk to, and you can confide in them and let them know.
00:59:05.300Pregnancy resource centers all across the country, many of them offer what's called post-abortion healing groups or support groups.
00:59:11.300Groups like Rachel's Vineyard for Catholics, Forgiven and Set Free, Pro-Catholics and Protestants, and other people as well.
00:59:18.300You can join one of those groups. But even if you feel like that's too big of a step to take and you're not ready for that, go online.
00:59:26.300Buy a book. Read a book about abortion healing. Call a number. There's an organization called Support After Abortion.
00:59:35.300Look Support After Abortion up. Call them on the phone and talk to them. Start somewhere small and then take a step day by day.
00:59:44.300Healing is worth it. You do not have to live in shame. You do not have to live in fear.
00:59:49.300And you don't have to live the rest of your life in regret. There is hope and healing available to you.
00:59:55.300What do you say to a pro-choice advocate who says, look, I just think that women should be able to decide what to do with their own bodies?
01:00:01.300If you're someone that believes in bodily autonomy and thinks that a woman should just have a right to do what she wants with her own body, I urge you to reconsider.
01:00:12.300To look at images of the pre-born child growing in a mother's womb. To look at fetal development.
01:00:20.300And to acknowledge the fact that this is not just part of the woman's body.
01:00:25.300That a pre-born child has a separate, distinct, unique body.
01:00:29.300I came from my mother and she carried me for nine months.
01:00:33.300But I am not her. I am a separate, unique person.
01:00:37.300And a woman has a wonderful gift to be able to carry a child for a very small amount of time.
01:00:44.300But then, hopefully, that person will go on and live maybe 90 years.
01:00:50.300So maybe a woman will carry a child for nine months and that person may go on to live 90 years separate from the person who carried them outside of their womb.
01:01:00.300And so what is our responsibility to that life?
01:01:05.300What is our responsibility to that unique, separate person with a separate heartbeat and DNA and all of these unique things about them?
01:01:21.300Would people be shocked if they learned what really happens in an abortion?
01:01:27.300People would be disgusted if they learned what really happens in an abortion.
01:01:32.300People would be floored, I think, if they understood that even after an abortion, a surgical abortion, the doctor or the nurse is taking those pieces and they are putting them on the table and they are looking to make sure they have the foot and the leg and the arm.
01:01:50.300Because if they don't and that's left inside of the woman, then she can have an infection and she could go to the hospital.
01:01:59.300And so even that part of it is just so morbid and gruesely and barbaric.
01:02:06.300But people don't see that when Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry does advertising.
01:02:43.300I don't know when America will ever fully know what's going on because so much is hidden and so much is covered up.
01:02:50.300Is Planned Parenthood trying to normalize abortion through history?
01:02:55.300Planned Parenthood is trying to normalize abortion, looking through history and lying to people and telling them that so many people and organizations and institutions were always in support of abortion.
01:03:11.300Even if you were to study feminist history, early feminist history in the late 1800s into the 1900s, you would see that women like Alice Paul, women like Susan B. Anthony, they opposed abortion.
01:03:57.300But all throughout history, you see that there are women who are on the front lines who were leaders, and men as well, who vocally and strongly opposed abortion.
01:04:07.300And they represent tens of thousands, millions perhaps, who maybe you don't know their name, but they too oppose abortion.
01:04:16.300What happened in early 1960 that further pushed the agenda of, you know, bodily autonomy and what would become one of the kind of core arguments of the abortion movement?
01:04:29.300In the early 1960s, the FDA approved the birth control pill.
01:04:34.300It's important to understand that this was really championed by Margaret Sanger, who was the founder of the American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood.
01:04:43.300In addition, her wealthy friend, Catherine McCormick, used her fortune to provide finances to research the birth control pill.
01:04:51.300Margaret Sanger used this because she wanted to control the population of people that she thought were unfit and shouldn't really reproduce.
01:04:59.300But in addition to that, it really played a major part in the sexual revolution because they were calling for women to be free, to be liberated.
01:05:08.300They considered that motherhood could be a burden to women.
01:05:11.300And the pill provided that freedom for them, or what they thought was freedom.
01:05:17.300Was it around this time that the pro-abortion lobby started, you know, pushing the lie that without legal abortion, thousands of women would die in illegal abortions?
01:05:28.300After the FDA approved the abortion pill in 1960s, the abortion activists understood that this was their moment and this was their time and that birth control was not enough.
01:05:38.300They pushed the lie that without legal abortion, thousands of women would die in back alley abortions.
01:05:44.300And so they fought hard for abortion on demand and abortion without apology.
01:05:49.300The pro-choice crowd argues that abortion protects women's rights and gives them more power.
01:05:55.300Is that true or does abortion actually take away female empowerment?
01:05:59.300The fact that women feel that they have to have an abortion in order to save their career, that they have to have an abortion in order to finish school, that they have to have an abortion in order to stay in a relationship, that shows that we are vulnerable in society.
01:06:19.300And there are many ways in which we are lacking the power that we need.
01:07:23.300What about the argument that abortion prevents, you know, single mothers and women in general from sliding, you know, further into poverty?
01:07:31.300I find it troubling and sad that when we discuss poverty, when we discuss single mothers in America, when we discuss communities of color, abortion advocates say that abortion is an answer to alleviate their issues or alleviate poverty.
01:07:48.300It's sad because that is the same thing that white wealthy elitist people said in the eugenics movement, that you needed abortion in order to help the unfit and that they would not reproduce after their own kind.
01:08:05.300When we're discussing poverty and how to alleviate that, why don't we talk about the things that are truly helpful?
01:08:12.300Like studies show that if a person is able to finish high school, then that is a great indication that they will not fall into poverty.
01:08:20.300Why are we not promoting things like education?
01:08:26.300Why are we not looking at the reasons that women are having abortions and saying, are they having an abortion because they feel like they can't afford not to?
01:08:36.300But what if we were to offer them resources and support as a society?
01:08:41.300What if we were to make these improvements if we only look at abortion as this main answer and make that a priority when it comes to poverty, then society will never change.
01:08:54.300And women will continually be taken advantage of by businesses and companies because they will know that it's cheaper for them to provide through insurance a few hundred dollars for women to get paid to have an abortion than it is to provide a working environment
01:09:10.300environment where she can be a mother and have a career as well.
01:09:15.300I believe that abortion makes it worse for low income women.
01:09:19.300I believe that it makes it worse for women of color, especially when you see how many women are having multiple abortions.
01:09:25.300And you see states like Connecticut where 70% of the women who have abortions are doing it through Medicaid.
01:09:31.300And I've talked to women who have said I had three or I had four abortions because all I had to do was show my Medicaid card and I knew the state paid for that.
01:09:40.300And doing that didn't automatically alleviate them from any of their circumstances.
01:09:48.300If a woman goes and she has an abortion and then she goes back home to the boyfriend that she's with, if something doesn't change in her lifestyle and what she's doing and the way that she's having a relationship,
01:10:02.300it doesn't necessarily mean that that abortion is going to be something that launches her into a career or launches her into having more discipline when it comes to searching for a job or searching for better relationships or whatever the case may be.
01:10:17.300She might just get pregnant a year from now and then go have another abortion.
01:10:22.300And she might just be stuck in a cycle.
01:10:24.300And so really, abortion doesn't provide any kind of guarantee that a woman is going to have a better life because of it or be in a better position because of it.
01:10:35.300Because there's a lot of stories of women who have gotten pregnant and then they say, OK, this is going to push me to graduate.
01:10:41.300I'm going to graduate and I'm going to walk across the aisle with my son.
01:10:45.300I know women who have been struggling and making actually poor decisions and they get pregnant and that's a wake up call for them.
01:10:52.300And they say, OK, now it's not just about me.
01:10:56.300And so I can't be in the club every single day doing whatever, doing drugs or doing or having permissive sexual behavior because their child causes them to have a conviction about their lifestyle and to want to be a better person.
01:11:10.300I know moms who have said, I used to be out there, I used to be wild, but my baby helped me.
01:11:16.300And not that we are telling mom to look to their children to cause them to be more responsible.
01:11:22.300But there is something to be said about that natural process where a woman who has an abortion can easily look at that as a Band-Aid.
01:11:31.300And then a year from now or two years from now, she gets pregnant and she has another abortion or she has another abortion because that's what she used to get out of that circumstance.
01:11:39.300Whereas a woman who chooses to have a child, that could cause her to to grow and to mature and to have responsibility.
01:11:45.300So it's not so black and white as people think.
01:11:52.300Abortion absolutely lets men out of the responsibility of being fathers and being caretakers.
01:11:59.300Think about the way society has changed. Prior to abortion, if a woman got pregnant, where was the pressure in society?
01:12:06.300The pressure was on the shoulders of the man.
01:12:09.300You need to marry her. You need to make things right.
01:12:12.300Yes, of course, women were sent away to different places, but a lot of the societal pressure was on the man to marry the woman and to create a family.
01:12:21.300Now, should every woman who gets pregnant by a man marry that person?
01:12:25.300I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that's the healthiest or best situation, but I'm just saying that that's where the societal pressure was.
01:12:32.300Now, because of 50 years of abortion, now where is the pressure?
01:12:37.300If a woman gets pregnant, where is that pressure?
01:12:40.300Is it on the man's shoulder to marry her? Is it on the man's shoulders to do right by her?
01:12:44.300Absolutely not. In fact, now the man is adding to the pressure on the woman, because now the man is saying along with society, this is your body.
01:12:53.300This is your choice. You've got to take care of this. What are you going to do? Are you going to get an abortion?
01:12:57.300It's shocking how many cases of abuse and violence happens when a woman says no to a man who wants her to get an abortion.
01:13:09.300A lot of people don't know that one of the number one ways that pregnant women die, in fact, the number one way right now that pregnant women die is homicide.
01:13:19.300Homicide. Women are dying through homicide. They are being killed by men. They are being killed by partners.
01:13:26.300And sometimes that's because they are saying no to having an abortion.
01:13:30.300Well, why would that happen? Well, 50 years of men being told that their children are objects that can be disregarded.
01:13:40.300Their children are objects that can be discarded. They're objects that can be destroyed if they're inconvenient.
01:13:46.300Well, then their mindset also thinks maybe perhaps the women are as well.
01:13:51.300And you see cases. There is a couple of well-known cases that made the news.
01:13:54.300One involving a football player and a cheerleader, and she got pregnant.
01:13:58.300And he ended up killing her and the child. And he said, well, she wouldn't have the abortion.
01:14:02.300She refused to have the abortion, so I had to take care of it.
01:14:05.300And him having to take care of it was killing her and the child.
01:14:09.300And this happens. This happens. And we don't like to talk about it in society, but where is that connection?
01:14:15.300Well, men have been told that it's not their responsibility. It's a woman's body. It's a woman's choice.
01:14:22.300And so, therefore, you see more and more men who are pressuring and coercing women to having abortions so that they don't have to deal with it.
01:14:30.300And it's very sad. You know, if a man has a child, he knows that he might have to pay child support.
01:14:38.300And perhaps that's part of the motivation and not wanting to do that.
01:14:41.300And so, there goes the pressure to have an abortion.
01:14:45.300Is it a lie, then, that abortion is the pro-woman stance?
01:14:51.300Abortion is not pro-woman. Abortion hurts women. Abortion hurts family. Abortion hurts pre-born children, who many of them are little women.
01:15:04.300They are females. They will grow up to be women.
01:15:07.300And you can't say that you are pro-woman if you are advocating for the death of females, if you are advocating for the death of pre-born baby girls.
01:15:18.300How is that pro-woman? Abortion would have killed me. Taken my life. I would have been dismembered. I would have been thrown away into a trash can.
01:15:28.300I wouldn't have been able to be the woman that I am and to live out my life.
01:15:32.300It's absolutely hypocritical of pro-abortion advocates to say that we are the ones that are pro-woman.
01:15:38.300No, we in the pro-life movement are pro-women from the womb to the tomb.
01:15:43.300We are pro-women from the moment of conception all the way to natural death.
01:15:47.300We are fighting for them in the womb and outside of the womb.
01:15:51.300We want them to live, to thrive, to prosper, and to be whole.
01:15:56.300The abortion industry uses women for their own profit.
01:16:12.300They're not difficult to refute, but it can be difficult to penetrate that culture of lies to get the truth out there.
01:16:22.300We have to do it. We have to do it because it's right.
01:16:26.300We have to do it for the victims of abortion.
01:16:29.300We have to do it for the women who are taken in by this industry, who are used for dollars, even to their own detriment.
01:16:38.300If you enjoyed this conversation with Christina Bennett, you'll want to check out our Daily Wire original documentary, Choosing Death, The Legacy of Roe.
01:16:47.300In it, we take a wrecking ball to the four fallacies keeping the abortion industry alive.
01:16:53.300To watch it right now, go to dailywireplus.com.
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01:17:05.300but you will have access to The Daily Wire's entire catalog of content, which we can only produce and distribute because of you, with your support.
01:17:15.300I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Choosing Life Podcast. We'll see you next time.
01:17:24.300The Choosing Life Podcast is a Daily Wire production produced in association with Outer Limits.
01:17:30.300Our technical and support team includes Ian Reed, Jesse Eastman, Ryan Moore, Mariah Cormier, and Jim Wirt.
01:17:37.300Copyright Daily Wire 2022. Thanks for listening.