The Michael Knowles Show - Choosing Life： Abortion and the Black Community - Christina Bennet

00:00:00.000 A 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.

00:00:13.520 Abortion 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.

00:00:27.440 And 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. 0.98

00:00:51.400 It'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.

00:01:03.540 We 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.

00:01:15.860 Pro-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.

00:01:31.540 Some 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.

00:01:39.700 But 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.

00:01:48.600 That would be the people who were nearly killed by abortion themselves. People such as Christina Bennett.

00:01:55.540 Right now, I would strongly recommend you go to hallo.com slash choose life.

00:02:23.460 Because today's world is a scary one. Too many people don't seem to care about the truth.

00:02:29.520 And I would suggest that that's all rooted in people becoming less or really just anti-religious.

00:02:36.700 That's why it's more important than ever to keep our relationship with God strong.

00:02:41.860 Hallow is the number one Christian prayer app in the United States.

00:02:45.080 It's like Calm or Headspace, but rooted in Catholic faith.

00:02:48.340 It is the perfect resource to deepen your relationship with God and find peace through audio-guided prayer and meditation.

00:02:56.020 Several of Hallow's meditations encourage you to choose life and to pray for others to choose life,

00:03:00.880 such as their Litany for Life with Lila Rose.

00:03:03.660 Hallow is free to download. It will help you find peace and calm throughout your day.

00:03:08.400 So do it. Do it right now. Download the app for free at hallo.com slash choose life.

00:03:15.520 That is hallo.com slash choose life.

00:03:20.920 Take a listen to Christina Bennett. 0.84

00:03:29.140 My name is Christina Bennett, and I am a pro-life advocate.

00:03:33.220 I've been a pro-life advocate for close to 20 years now.

00:03:36.620 It's not something that I ever imagined that I would do, but my life turned out to be different than I thought it would be.

00:03:42.960 When I was going to college in Connecticut, I was going to school and uncertain of what I was going to do with my future,

00:03:50.520 but I was also going to church.

00:03:53.200 I'm a person of faith, and I was at church one day, and someone approached me,

00:03:57.660 and they told me that God wanted me to know something remarkable happened around the time of my birth.

00:04:03.500 Which was a very interesting thing for someone to say.

00:04:06.680 And I ended up asking my mom if anything remarkable had happened around the time of my birth.

00:04:11.360 And she told me that she'd met an angel before I was born.

00:04:14.700 Now, my mom had never said anything like that before, and I thought that was very strange.

00:04:19.300 But she also said, I don't want to talk about it.

00:04:21.860 So I let it go, and I waited a couple months.

00:04:24.540 And then I asked her again, Mom, what do you mean that you met an angel before I was born?

00:04:29.520 Well, she was very hesitant and said, I can't tell you because you would hate me.

00:04:33.220 And so, of course, now I was more curious to find out what she meant.

00:04:36.900 And I said, Mom, please tell me.

00:04:38.300 I would never hate you.

00:04:39.500 And she opened up, and she told me that before I was born, when she got pregnant, she was not married.

00:04:45.340 My dad was emotionally abusive.

00:04:50.800 It was a toxic kind of relationship.

00:04:53.300 And she ended up being pressured by my father to have an abortion. 1.00

00:04:58.400 And she went to a church at the time.

00:05:01.820 And so she actually went to her mentor to tell her that she was pregnant.

00:05:05.520 But her mentor said, if you come back to this church, I'll be the first person to put my foot in the door and not let you in.

00:05:12.300 Because she didn't want her to be in church and to be pregnant out of wedlock. 1.00

00:05:17.140 So my mother ended up going to Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.

00:05:21.320 And she ended up going to pay for an abortion. 1.00

00:05:24.780 They put her in a white hospital robe. 0.64

00:05:26.260 And she met with a counselor.

00:05:28.440 And the counselor told her, this is the best decision for you to make.

00:05:32.280 She told her, just go wait for the doctor to call your name. 1.00

00:05:35.560 And 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.

00:05:45.120 And there she met this African-American elderly janitor. 0.94

00:05:48.920 She saw my mom crying.

00:05:50.140 And she walked right up to her. 0.99

00:05:51.720 And she looked her in the eyes and said, do you want to have this baby?

00:05:54.800 My mother said, yes.

00:05:56.540 And she said, God will give you the strength to have your baby.

00:05:59.840 She told her to go put her clothes on and leave. 0.62

00:06:01.940 And my mom put her head down for what she says was probably 30 seconds. 0.94

00:06:06.000 She put her head back up.

00:06:07.500 And the woman was gone.

00:06:08.880 And when she went into the waiting room, the doctor called her name.

00:06:12.480 She went to the doctor's office.

00:06:13.940 And he hadn't cleaned up the blood from the last abortion.

00:06:16.820 It was on the floor.

00:06:18.260 And she was disgusted and said, I've changed my mind.

00:06:21.320 I want to keep my baby.

00:06:22.680 And he said, no.

00:06:23.360 He said, you've already paid for this.

00:06:25.940 And she said, no.

00:06:27.820 I've changed my mind.

00:06:28.760 I want to keep my baby.

00:06:29.800 And he said, you're just nervous.

00:06:30.960 You can get through this.

00:06:32.480 And again, she told him that she wanted to keep me.

00:06:35.120 And he yelled at her and said, don't leave this room. 0.97

00:06:37.780 And she ran out.

00:06:39.540 And she had no desire to ever tell me that story.

00:06:43.600 She married my father.

00:06:45.120 And it lasted for about a year.

00:06:46.620 But they had a lot of issues in their relationship.

00:06:48.780 And so they divorced after a year.

00:06:50.660 And she had no intention of ever telling me.

00:06:52.880 But when I approached her and asked her if anything remarkable had happened around the

00:06:56.780 time of my birth, she decided that it was time to tell me that she had scheduled to abort

00:07:01.160 me, but that God had sent this janitor.

00:07:04.400 And that janitor had helped save my life.

00:07:06.600 And at that point in my early 20s, I didn't really know what to do with that story because

00:07:11.200 I grew up in a family where I'd never heard abortion talked about.

00:07:15.660 I grew up in Connecticut.

00:07:16.900 And it's a very pro-choice state.

00:07:19.220 We don't even have parental notification laws.

00:07:21.580 So teenagers in my high school could get an abortion without even telling their parents. 0.87

00:07:25.180 And I'd never heard abortion talked about in any church.

00:07:27.900 I had never heard abortion talked about at home.

00:07:30.380 None of my family members were pro-life or voted pro-life.

00:07:34.500 I didn't have any frame of reference for the pro-life movement.

00:07:37.780 I couldn't have named one person in the movement.

00:07:39.640 But when I found out that I'd almost died, that I was scheduled to be aborted, and my

00:07:44.320 mom walked out, I felt that God spoke to my heart and said, Christina, I wanted you.

00:07:49.680 And then asked me the question, how do you think I feel about the others?

00:07:53.940 And I really did not know who the others were because I had no understanding of the history

00:07:58.380 of abortion, how it's impacted the Black community, how many of us have died.

00:08:02.640 I had no understanding.

00:08:04.720 But I decided that I would find out.

00:08:06.400 And then I set myself to research and talk to women and listen to their stories. 1.00

00:08:11.160 And I eventually decided that I would join the pro-life movement and I would fight for

00:08:16.440 the ending of abortion for the rest of my life.

00:08:18.840 And that was 20 years ago.

00:08:20.040 And I've never stopped.

00:08:21.200 And I will not stop.

00:08:23.380 Do you think most young women are pressured by doctors in organizations like Planned Parenthood,

00:08:31.880 like your mother was?

00:08:32.660 I absolutely believe that many women are coerced into abortion and pressured.

00:08:38.920 And that pressure and coercion can come in many forms.

00:08:41.840 It can be a boyfriend who tells them, if you don't have this abortion, I don't want to be

00:08:45.880 in a relationship with you anymore.

00:08:47.440 It can be a professor who lets them know that they might not really be able to finish all

00:08:52.660 of their work or their course load if they get pregnant.

00:08:56.600 It can be a parent that says, there's no room for you and a child.

00:09:00.220 So if you have this baby, you have to move out.

00:09:02.840 You can't live here anymore.

00:09:04.140 Or it can just be society and the pressures that they have taken on and the lies that they

00:09:09.720 believe, which is, you can't have a baby and be successful.

00:09:13.420 You need to have an abortion. 1.00

00:09:14.720 This is the way for liberation.

00:09:16.580 This is the way for progress.

00:09:18.780 And of course, as well, the abortion doctors.

00:09:21.400 Many times women feel pressure when they go to Planned Parenthood or an abortion clinic 0.98

00:09:27.260 and it is the agenda or the motive of the doctor to do their business.

00:09:33.380 And their business is performing abortions.

00:09:35.740 And so I worked at a pregnancy resource center for four years and I heard a lot of stories

00:09:40.720 from women, women who told me that they were told that they could see the ultrasound before

00:09:45.380 they had an abortion and then they weren't able to see the ultrasound. 0.93

00:09:48.080 Women who were not told the truth about the possible risks from having an abortion, emotional

00:09:54.660 and physical.

00:09:55.900 Women who were lied to. 1.00

00:09:57.960 So many horrible, tragic stories.

00:10:00.180 And women who've also had botched abortions and been left infertile and left with baby parts 0.96

00:10:05.760 inside of them and who were never able to get justice.

00:10:09.420 Who is Dr. Bernard Nathanson and how does he play into this story?

00:10:14.100 Dr. Bernard Nathanson was an OB-GYN from New York City who in the 1960s, he founded an organization

00:10:22.060 called NARAL, the National Association for the Appeal of Abortion Laws, which is now considered

00:10:27.920 to be NARAL Pro-Choice America.

00:10:30.460 He truly believed that women had to have abortion access as a way to achieve liberation and freedom.

00:10:36.980 And he personally was responsible for over 60,000 abortions, even including his own child, who

00:10:44.120 he said at the time when he performed the abortion only felt pride over his skill in being able

00:10:49.820 to do so.

00:10:51.000 Now, later in life, he had a change of heart and this was due in part to ultrasound technology

00:10:56.380 because when he was advocating for abortion rights, this was prior to the breakthrough of

00:11:01.700 ultrasound technology and when that became more normal and used in medicine, he began

00:11:07.560 to really understand what was happening in the womb, the fetal development of the child

00:11:12.740 and how they responded to abortion.

00:11:15.480 And that was a huge life-changing thing for him.

00:11:18.020 It caused him to produce a film called The Silent Scream, which shows a pre-born child being

00:11:25.360 aborted and how they actually open up their mouth and produce a silent scream when the instruments

00:11:31.660 are coming towards them.

00:11:33.500 And that film was used all across the country, even by President Ronald Reagan, who promoted

00:11:39.100 the film as a way to speak out against the evil of abortion.

00:11:43.520 What were some of the lies that Bernard Nathanson and other pro-abortion advocates used at that

00:11:48.000 time?

00:11:49.160 There were four main lies that Dr. Bernard Nathanson used during the 1960s to promote abortion.

00:11:55.000 One of them was the idea that abortion was merely just a medical procedure and nothing more than

00:12:02.320 that, that had nothing to do with morality or ethics, but it was just a medical procedure

00:12:07.140 that women needed to have like any other medical procedure. 1.00

00:12:11.220 Another lie was that abortion was a way to alleviate poverty.

00:12:16.100 For those women who are impoverished and vulnerable, abortion was a way to help them to alleviate 0.96

00:12:21.780 their ills of poverty.

00:12:23.900 Another lie was that if abortion was not legalized, women would continue to die by the tens of thousands.

00:12:32.400 Unfortunately, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, he greatly exaggerated the amount of women who were dying 0.97

00:12:38.440 from abortions.

00:12:39.680 And he sold that lie to the American public.

00:12:42.940 He later in life said that that was a lie.

00:12:45.820 But at the time, people all across America believed it.

00:12:48.680 And so he continued to say that if you do not legalize abortion, there are going to be

00:12:53.740 thousands and thousands of women every year who are dying in back alley abortions. 1.00

00:12:58.120 And therefore, you need to legalize abortion because they're going to have it anyway, but 0.99

00:13:01.960 at least now they can have it safely.

00:13:04.120 And another lie was the idea that abortion, there's nothing wrong with it, and those who 1.00

00:13:10.600 opposed it were only doing so because of religious reasons.

00:13:13.860 The only reason that someone would oppose abortion is because they have some sort of religious

00:13:18.300 conviction and their faith is telling them to oppose it.

00:13:22.320 And that's the only reason, that it's a religious reason.

00:13:25.360 And therefore, we should reject Catholics and Protestants who are opposing it on those 1.00

00:13:29.280 grounds.

00:13:30.520 Can you respond to the first lie that abortion is a medical issue and not a moral one?

00:13:35.840 Pro-choice advocates like to say that abortion is merely just a medical issue.

00:13:40.520 In fact, I remember once reading on a Planned Parenthood website for teenagers that they

00:13:46.220 said that abortion was like getting a tooth removed or getting a kidney taken out.

00:13:50.720 And this couldn't be further from the truth.

00:13:53.480 This is a moral issue.

00:13:55.260 This is an ethical issue.

00:13:56.940 We think about morality and what that is.

00:13:59.280 That's basically just the standards that we've come to agree upon as a society as to what

00:14:05.540 is right and what is wrong, what is ethical and what is just and what is not.

00:14:11.460 And even though something may be a medical procedure because it involves medical professionals,

00:14:16.900 it doesn't mean that it's moral.

00:14:19.120 One example of that would be sterilization, particularly forced sterilization.

00:14:24.440 America has a dark history of forced sterilization when it comes to Black women and women of color.

00:14:30.300 Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger, who was the founder of Planned Parenthood, she actually

00:14:35.240 supported forced sterilization.

00:14:38.360 You could argue, someone could argue that this was a medical procedure and merely a medical

00:14:42.960 procedure.

00:14:43.860 But I think all of us can recognize that this is also something that was morally wrong,

00:14:49.740 ethically wrong, unjust.

00:14:52.060 And that's just one example.

00:14:53.600 Nazi Germany could be another example where medical procedures were done on people and camps,

00:14:59.840 but those were not just medical procedures.

00:15:03.060 Those were injustices that were done against a people group because they are being discriminated

00:15:08.460 against.

00:15:09.520 And so, yes, there are medical professionals involved with terminating the lives of pre-born

00:15:15.440 children, but it's still something that is morally wrong.

00:15:21.020 What about lie number two that, you know, oh, if abortion was illegal, thousands of women 1.00

00:15:26.080 a year would die from back alley abortions or coat hanger abortions or improper dosages of taking

00:15:32.020 chemicals for chemical abortions? 0.78

00:15:33.740 How do you respond to that?

00:15:35.400 One thing that's important for people to know is that Dr. Bernard Nathanson, when he was advocating

00:15:40.500 for abortion rights in the 1960s through NARAL, that he grossly exaggerated the amount of people who were

00:15:48.300 dying from illegal abortions.

00:15:49.840 And he did this on purpose.

00:15:51.180 He grossly exaggerated those numbers so that he could convince the American people that he had to,

00:15:58.520 we had to have abortion rights. 1.00

00:16:00.220 So, first of all, it's important to know that those numbers were never correct.

00:16:04.920 In addition to that, the advancement of medicine and technology and things like penicillin,

00:16:11.040 that also has lowered the amount of deaths from illegal abortions and legal abortions as well.

00:16:17.920 When people say, if you restrict abortion rights, you're going to see thousands of women that are 1.00

00:16:23.620 dying in back alley abortions, I think it would be good to take a look at what is happening right 1.00

00:16:29.100 now. Even take a look at the state of Texas. The state of Texas has passed the heartbeat bill

00:16:34.760 legislation that restricts abortion after six weeks. There are so many abortion advocates that are

00:16:41.500 upset about that, and they are paying very close attention to what's happening in Texas.

00:16:46.420 But yet, we've not heard one story of a woman coming out of Texas who's died from an illegal

00:16:52.780 abortion. And trust me, if there was a story, we would have heard it. It would be front page news,

00:16:58.780 but we're not hearing those things. And we have to ask ourselves the question as to why. Perhaps

00:17:04.620 this is a lie, and perhaps it's something that's exaggerated so that people are afraid to protect

00:17:11.540 the pre-born child. Beyond anecdotal examples, are there any more concrete proofs that Planned

00:17:19.060 Parenthood's numbers are just totally fabricated? Apart from even those arguments, even the Washington

00:17:25.160 Post did an article where they fact-checked Planned Parenthood's claims, and they found that they were

00:17:30.140 absolutely false. Can you respond to lie number three, that the pro-life movement is just a bunch of

00:17:35.320 religious zealots who want to force their beliefs on the nation? The pro-life movement does have a

00:17:42.060 large amount of people who are people of faith. Other movements in the past have had that as well,

00:17:46.220 and there's nothing wrong with that. Look at the civil rights movement. Look at Dr. Martin Luther King.

00:17:51.520 He was a minister. Is there ever a question as to why there are so many Baptists and Protestants 1.00

00:17:56.740 and people of color who have faith and were driving the civil rights movement? Was there ever a question

00:18:02.700 why they got together in churches and sang hymns as well as marching out on the streets for justice?

00:18:09.140 Was this ever something that was brought up as an accusation against them? No. It's just part of

00:18:14.080 their belief system. People of faith in the civil rights movement, they combined their beliefs from

00:18:21.100 the Bible along with their beliefs about morality and their value system, and that caused them to fight 0.93

00:18:27.160 the dignity of human beings. That's the same case with the abolitionists. If you look at the abolitionist

00:18:33.480 movement in America, those that were fighting slavery, a lot of them were Quakers. A lot of them 0.99

00:18:38.500 were people of faith. They weren't the only ones, but a lot of them used their faith as a motivation

00:18:43.600 for them to fight for the dignity of the human person. And that is the same thing happening in the

00:18:48.980 pro-life movement. For those that are Catholics or Protestants or Muslims or Jews, many of us

00:18:54.580 look at our faith as a motivation for us to fight for the dignity and worth and value of the pre-born

00:19:00.760 person. But there are other people who are atheists, secular people, who they look at their own morals

00:19:08.040 and their own value system, and that causes them to fight for the dignity of the pre-born person.

00:19:13.900 Right. I think one of the kind of story that pro-abortion advocates weave is,

00:19:19.920 you know, oh, we're going to end up in a handmaid's tale, you know, where women are just 1.00

00:19:25.560 like slaves to the men in society and, you know, women don't have autonomy over their own bodies. 1.00

00:19:31.500 You know, is that a fair critique? And does that even relate to the fact that, yeah, a lot of the

00:19:36.100 reason is a religious one, but are we, does fighting for life equate to like theocracy where,

00:19:41.600 you know, women have no rights, I guess? 1.00

00:19:43.240 I would say that if you look at the laws in America, you'll notice that there are times where

00:19:50.420 morality, you know, American laws and faith, they overlap or they're interconnected. So the laws that

00:19:56.700 we have about stealing, the laws that we have about murder, those are also things that you can find in

00:20:04.320 the Bible, biblical principles that say thou shall not steal or you shall not murder. Now, you don't have

00:20:10.380 to be religious to understand that stealing hurts someone. You don't have to be religious or a person

00:20:16.280 of faith to understand that committing murder hurts someone. You may not say it's a sin against that

00:20:21.460 person, but you would say that that's something that's hurtful and that you don't want that in a

00:20:25.980 just society. And so therefore, fighting abortion is one other example where, yes, you can find biblical

00:20:33.720 reasons to be against it, but also you can find reasons to not want something that is ending the

00:20:40.640 life of a human being to be part of a just society, to not want that to be something that is part of the

00:20:47.320 moral fabric of our nation because it hurts the pre-born child, but it also hurts women and men and all of us,

00:20:55.280 I would argue. And so therefore, you don't have to be religious to recognize that that is a moral wrong.

00:21:01.680 What about lie number four that feticide is a way of fighting poverty and other social issues? 0.92

00:21:07.080 As a woman of color, as someone who was rescued minutes before being aborted, as someone who grew

00:21:13.700 up with a single mom and did struggle through poverty, it is so offensive to me when people argue

00:21:21.280 that we need abortion rights because if we don't have them, children are going to be poor or children

00:21:27.380 are going to grow up and be put into the foster care system, they're still human beings. Regardless

00:21:33.920 of how much money they have, regardless of the careers that they have, regardless of the circumstances

00:21:40.560 that they may face, they're still human beings. And none of us actually know the potential that a child

00:21:49.100 has and who they will become. In fact, we celebrate those who overcome. We celebrate those who were born

00:21:57.500 with single mothers, were born into poverty, and then they got their doctorate or they became a lawyer

00:22:04.120 or they went to the White House or they got involved in politics. We love to look at their backstory and

00:22:09.560 say, isn't it amazing? They started here and then they were able to advance in society.

00:22:15.300 Now, we acknowledge that and celebrate that, but at the same time, when we talk about abortion,

00:22:22.800 we're basically saying those people shouldn't exist. So which is it? Should they not exist? Or do we look

00:22:30.700 at them as an example of those who have overcome? It's offensive to think that we would advocate for

00:22:38.600 the death of those that are poor when really women and families need support and resources,

00:22:46.160 not an offer to terminate their children. I think that's a good segue into the discussion of

00:22:53.260 whether the poor and minority communities are targeted by, you know, the abortion lobby and

00:22:59.920 abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood. So I guess, you know, to what extent is that happening?

00:23:06.340 In the 1930s, Margaret Sanger, who was the founder of Planned Parenthood, she had something called the

00:23:12.640 Negro Project. She hired Black ministers to promote birth control outside of tent revivals or different 1.00

00:23:20.520 places that Black people would gather. And she wrote in a letter that she didn't want word to get out

00:23:26.340 that she wanted to exterminate the Negro population. Now, some people argue that that's not what she meant 0.93

00:23:32.700 by that. They say that, oh, she just realized that Black people had certain fears during that time

00:23:38.340 period and they wouldn't trust maybe white people who were offering them birth control. And they might 0.93

00:23:42.900 think that they were trying to exterminate their population. But my question is this, what are you

00:23:48.300 doing if you have to wonder if people are going to think that you're trying to exterminate a population?

00:23:55.120 I've never done anything in my entire life that I would have to think, I wonder if people are going to

00:23:59.740 think that I'm trying to exterminate a people group by what I'm doing. So that causes you to question

00:24:05.680 really her actions. But in addition to that, the Negro Project, and that's what she had. She had a 0.74

00:24:11.940 one specific project focused on Black Americans. Unfortunately, those evil roots of eugenics, 1.00

00:24:19.600 it really has borne fruit over hundreds of years where you see that African American women, 1.00

00:24:25.700 we are three times more likely to abort than other races. And we have abortion as the number one 1.00

00:24:31.920 cause of death in our community. And it's truly devastating. Just recently, Planned Parenthood

00:24:37.580 in New York, they removed Margaret Sanger's name off of their abortion clinic. And because they want

00:24:43.060 to move away from her, because they understand that she believed and supported eugenics philosophy,

00:24:50.100 and that's evil. But even though they removed the name of her from their building, they can't remove

00:24:56.980 what she's done and what's happening now. I'd like to give an example from my home state of Connecticut

00:25:02.920 of what's happening right now in the abortion industry. In Connecticut, over 70% of the abortions

00:25:09.780 are with women who are on Medicaid. So 70% of the abortions that are paid for in Connecticut are paid

00:25:16.440 for by taxpayer dollars. So the women who are having 70% of the abortions are low-income women 1.00

00:25:22.760 who are depending on the state for resources and aid. But tragically, the state is offering them

00:25:29.280 abortion. They're not offering them adequate housing. There is a maternity home that closed

00:25:35.360 down in Hartford, Connecticut because the state wasn't giving it enough funding. So women are in need 1.00

00:25:41.580 of housing. They're in need of prenatal care. They're in need of resources. But the state is

00:25:46.880 offering them abortion. In addition to that, the progressives and feminists and pro-abortion liberals

00:25:54.700 in our state are punishing and trying to harass the pregnancy resource centers, the very centers that 1.00

00:26:02.340 are helping pregnant women and supporting them. They've accused them of false advertising. They've accused

00:26:08.200 them of being fake clinics. NARAL, the abortion rights organization that Dr. Bernard Nathanson

00:26:13.380 started. They are active in Connecticut harassing these centers. They even passed legislation against

00:26:19.700 them last year. But many of these pro-choice progressives who are fighting the pregnancy centers

00:26:25.880 on behalf of Black women, and this is what they say, we're supporting Black women. We're fighting for

00:26:30.600 Black women and their abortion rights. They've never stepped foot in the pregnancy centers. 1.00

00:26:34.240 They've never even gone to see how many Black women and women of color are being served and being

00:26:40.420 helped. And so it's very shallow. It's very hypocritical. And they are supposedly fighting for Black women,

00:26:49.100 but those are the same women that are not on the streets fighting for abortion rights, that want to make 1.00

00:26:54.880 sure that they can provide for their children and they can have social services and support, but they're not on the

00:27:00.720 streets advocating for abortion rights. But white progressives are doing it for them. But really, I think

00:27:05.800 they're doing it for themselves in the name of them.

00:27:09.880 Why would progressive politicians and activists, specifically white activists and progressives,

00:27:16.960 why would they be pushing for more abortion access for minority communities and Black women? 1.00

00:27:22.360 White progressives, especially white female progressives, abortion is an idol to them. It is something 0.83

00:27:28.280 that is part of their identity. And in Connecticut recently, a Black pro-life female Democrat got 1.00

00:27:35.380 elected. And a white progressive said of her, because she's pro-life, she should have never been

00:27:42.460 elected because it needs to be a litmus test for those who are elected. And the litmus test has to be

00:27:47.820 whether you support abortion or not. Even though this Black pro-life Democrat is active in the Black 0.79

00:27:54.580 community, helping women, helping families, and agrees with her progressive allies on issues like

00:28:02.940 social justice for the Black community and things like that, none of that mattered to them because

00:28:08.040 they're so focused on the fact that she's pro-life. And that's just an example of how much they

00:28:15.240 prioritize abortion access above everything else. And therefore, they think of themselves as some

00:28:24.040 sort of saviors for the Black community. Oh, these poor Black women, they're having so many 1.00

00:28:30.080 children. They really need our help. They need us to fight for them on behalf of abortion. And it's a 0.97

00:28:36.760 lie. Really, Black women in my state of Connecticut and all across the country, they're looking for 1.00

00:28:42.520 resources. They're looking for support. They're often having abortion because they're coerced or because

00:28:47.560 they don't have financial resources and help. But they offer them abortion. It's really patronizing.

00:28:52.900 And it's really evil. 0.76

00:28:54.640 It reminds me almost of the white savior complex.

00:28:58.360 Absolutely. It's definitely a white savior complex. I know what's best for you. But when 0.97

00:29:02.700 it comes to their own family, maybe it's a different story. But when it comes to the poor

00:29:06.940 Black woman on the street, they think, oh, abortion is the best thing for her. She needs abortion. 1.00

00:29:12.200 She needs abortion. Well, why does she need abortion? Because of what? Because she's going to have too many 1.00

00:29:17.780 kids. In your opinion, is that why she needs abortion? Because those kids might be on social 1.00

00:29:23.400 services. Because they might be on welfare. I mean, it goes back to the eugenics philosophy 0.99

00:29:28.320 that Margaret Sanger had when she started Planned Parenthood. It was the same idea. She worked with

00:29:33.940 the elites to convince them that these poor Black people, they really need our help. They're having

00:29:39.960 too many children. We need to offer them birth control and then later abortion. Now they've 1.00

00:29:45.460 just reimagined themselves as being some sort of helpers and alleviating the ills and the issues 0.51

00:29:54.520 of the Black community by offering abortion. But they never acknowledged the Black women who've

00:30:00.940 been hurt by abortion. And they never acknowledged the Black women like Tanya Reeves, like Lakeisha

00:30:05.580 Wilson, like Cree Irwin, who've actually died at the hands of the abortion industry. No, they never

00:30:10.820 want to talk about their stories. Or the many women who we don't even know their names, but they've had 0.93

00:30:15.400 botched abortions. There's no room to mention them as well. It's only advocating for abortion as a means

00:30:23.120 of liberation and aid to the Black community. And it's a lie. 1.00

00:30:29.940 Rose overturning was an historic victory, but abortion is still legal in many states.

00:30:35.580 And the only way we'll truly see lasting cultural change is by changing the hearts and minds of

00:30:42.020 pro-abortion people. Live Action is the most prominent pro-life online group in America, reaching

00:30:48.520 millions of young men and women with the truth about the killing of pre-born children. No other

00:30:54.400 organization reaches as many people online as Live Action. Its content has proven to transform opinions

00:31:00.820 from pro-abortion to pro-life. Most pro-choice people don't know what abortion actually entails.

00:31:08.380 When they see the brutality it inflicts on pre-born children, they rethink their stance.

00:31:14.200 You can save the lives of countless children by making a donation today at liveaction.org

00:31:20.220 slash dailywire. That's liveaction.org slash dailywire. Live Action is a non-profit organization that I

00:31:28.180 support. They've done tremendous work in building a culture of life. Please make a donation today

00:31:34.740 to help them reach young people with the truth so we can wipe out abortion in this country once and 1.00

00:31:40.740 for all. Donate today at liveaction.org slash dailywire. That's liveaction.org slash dailywire. And thanks for

00:31:50.280 your support.

00:31:59.520 I think it's worth even, you know, specifying this for audiences. Is Planned Parenthood in our abortion

00:32:06.700 advocates actively saying people of color, minority communities, they need more access to abortion?

00:32:15.680 Absolutely. I've testified multiple times before Congress on abortion-related bills. And in these

00:32:23.220 meetings, I have heard pro-choice advocates, doctors, abortion doctors, and activists from Planned

00:32:30.680 Parenthood and other organizations say that we need abortion access because of black and brown women, 1.00

00:32:37.600 because women of color need to have abortion access. This is the number one thing that I have 1.00

00:32:43.940 heard people say when it comes to fighting for abortion access, the need, supposed need for women

00:32:50.120 of color to have abortion rights. 0.99

00:32:51.540 Why is the discussion of abortion and its history and its kind of philosophical, you know, background,

00:33:00.340 specifically kind of, you know, the origins of Planned Parenthood and a lot of the advocates of

00:33:04.020 abortion early on? Why is that discussion of abortion's history maybe more important now than ever?

00:33:11.880 We're in a time in America where we talk a lot about racism. And some people don't like how much

00:33:19.500 it's talked about, but that's where we're at. And people are looking at different areas and societies

00:33:27.260 and institutions and asking themselves how they can be better towards people of color and how they

00:33:34.120 can be more just. But yet we have Planned Parenthood, who we are funding through our taxpayer dollars,

00:33:42.360 who are getting millions and millions of dollars every year from the government. And this is an

00:33:47.880 organization rooted in eugenics, rooted in racism, that every day is preying upon poor women,

00:33:56.880 preying upon women of color, preying upon women who've gotten word that their child might have a

00:34:02.260 disability. How can we not in a time like this, when we are having these national conversations

00:34:08.420 about race and racism, how can we not examine Planned Parenthood? How can we not look deep into

00:34:14.480 their history and their present and ask ourselves, are they really helping women of color or are they

00:34:20.900 profiting off of their pain? Are they taking advantage of them? They're not a charity, they're a business,

00:34:26.220 and they're making a lot of money and getting a lot of money from our government in order to terminate

00:34:33.140 black and brown children by the millions. Is Planned Parenthood the only culprit? Or are they the main

00:34:42.080 one? Or, you know, just give audiences a sense of, you know, why are we talking so much about Planned

00:34:46.520 Parenthood? Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider. And they are very much

00:34:52.920 a household name. If a woman is thinking of having an abortion, very often she's going to think of

00:34:58.420 Planned Parenthood. And that's simply because of their marketing. They spend millions of dollars doing

00:35:04.120 marketing. Even Margaret Sanger, when she had the Negro Project in the 1930s and 1940s, she also had

00:35:10.640 things that she wrote, like the Birth Control Review, like the Woman Rebel, No Gods and No Masters, where

00:35:16.300 she was putting out propaganda, and she was putting out information to change the opinions of Americans.

00:35:22.020 And that's still happening today with Planned Parenthood. They're the ones that are on the front line saying

00:35:27.420 that abortion is health care. They're even saying that abortion is self-care. And they're saying that abortion

00:35:33.540 is needed for women of color. And they are also the ones who are lobbying and sending their lobbyists into 0.99

00:35:40.420 capitals all across the country to talk to legislators, to get them to push certain bills, and to get them to fight

00:35:47.980 against other bills. And so they are this Goliath, this giant, when it comes to abortion. And so we must talk about

00:35:55.740 them. But aside from them, of course, there's so many other organizations and institutions

00:36:01.300 that have blood on their hands when it comes to abortion. Those that have partnered with Planned

00:36:07.340 Parenthood, those that have covered up their lives, the FDA, who has said, okay, abortion pills can be sent 0.99

00:36:14.900 out through the mail permanently, even though they know that that is dangerous for women to have 1.00

00:36:21.180 abortions in their own home and not see a doctor, but they're in bed with Planned Parenthood, so therefore they let that 0.69

00:36:29.160 go. There's responsibility there. There's responsibility for doctors and organizations in the American Medical

00:36:36.380 Association that would look the other way and not truly report on what's happening with botched abortions, or would say that

00:36:44.320 post-abortion syndrome or people who have negative effects after abortion, that that's not really a thing.

00:36:51.180 Or that most women are just going to feel relief after an abortion. And even the church, where we have not called out this 0.88

00:36:59.160 evil and injustice, even we bear responsibility for that. And so Planned Parenthood is a Goliath, but it's definitely

00:37:06.020 supported by all sorts of different people groups and organizations and institutions that props it up and allows it to have the

00:37:14.340 power that it does. One of them being our United States government, because we are funding them.

00:37:19.320 What are the objectives of the pro-abortion movement?

00:37:24.320 Abortion on demand without apology. That is the objective of the pro-abortion movement. Abortion on demand without apology. 0.85

00:37:32.300 They believe that abortion is a right for women to have. And that's something that they should not have to apologize. They

00:37:39.300 shouldn'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 1.00

00:37:46.300 whether 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. 0.82

00:37:55.300 And 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. 0.55

00:38:07.300 They 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

00:38:16.300 think about abortion. And so in the years past, even pro-choice politicians would refer to abortion as something that was tragic or

00:38:24.300 something 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 0.91

00:38:32.300 lessen. 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.

00:38:42.300 Because 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

00:38:49.300 being 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

00:38:57.300 legal up until the point of birth and fighting for that. And they want people to see it as something good. They actually want

00:39:05.300 people to see it as a, as a good, as a societal good.

00:39:10.300 For audiences who don't know, you know, what is Planned Parenthood?

00:39:14.300 Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider. They also provide STD testing and they also provide birth control.

00:39:21.300 There's some things that they say that they provide, but it's not actually true that they've lied about and been caught

00:39:27.300 lying about mammograms or prenatal care and things like that. But not only are they a massive organization in America,

00:39:35.300 but they also reach out globally to many different nations. And they also have a, an arm that lobbies and does politics.

00:39:42.300 And 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.

00:39:53.300 So 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.

00:40:01.300 You, you mentioned the 60 million abortions since Roe v. Wade. How many lives have been taken since the passage of Roe v. Wade?

00:40:09.300 Sure. Live action has done some work researching and we have come up with the number two, three, six, three,

00:40:17.300 that every day there are 2,363 preborn children that die from abortion.

00:40:24.300 And since 1973, we are looking at over 60 million deaths from abortion that we know of that are recorded.

00:40:32.300 And of course there's more, that's just in America. So there's more globally.

00:40:37.300 And that is because we have abortion on demand, abortion for any reason at any time.

00:40:43.300 And that is, that's what's left us with this enormously high amount of abortions. 0.99

00:40:49.300 Can 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.

00:40:57.300 Like, right. But what, like, what's that mean? What does 60 million mean?

00:41:01.300 You know, it's hard for people to connect with a number like 60 million because we don't know 60 million people.

00:41:11.300 I mean, some of us don't even know 600 people.

00:41:14.300 Some of us don't even have 600 followers or 6,000 followers on our, you know, social media accounts.

00:41:21.300 And 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.

00:41:34.300 And so for me, that's why I like to tell my personal story about my mom walking out of an abortion clinic.

00:41:45.300 Because 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,

00:41:56.300 Christina is one of the ones that was scheduled to die, but she made it out.

00:42:01.300 But it would be as if she times this many every single day, my life completely lost.

00:42:10.300 No family, no husband, no children, no future.

00:42:13.300 And that's happening every single day over 2,000 times.

00:42:18.300 And as people, we often do connect with the one, you know, save the one.

00:42:24.300 We connect with the story of the one.

00:42:26.300 And 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,

00:42:35.300 they 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.

00:42:48.300 One of the tactics of the pro-abortion lobby and their activists is to push chemical abortion.

00:42:57.300 They realize that states across the country are restricting abortion and banning abortion and therefore they are fighting hard to push chemical abortion.

00:43:06.300 The 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.

00:43:17.300 When I was speaking at a rally at the Supreme Court, there were activists dressed in black who were taking the abortion pill.

00:43:25.300 Was it actually the abortion pill? I don't know, but they said that it was.

00:43:29.300 And 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.

00:43:38.300 Shortly 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.

00:43:48.300 This pro-abortion advocate paused and said, I'll show you how simple it is to take the abortion pill.

00:43:54.300 And she took the abortion pill on air. So they are really trying to normalize the abortion pill.

00:44:00.300 I've seen many advertisements where they're saying, oh, it's safer than Tylenol.

00:44:04.300 Just like they lie and say that abortion is ten times safer than natural birth.

00:44:08.300 They want people to think that this is something that's safe, that has no consequences to it physically or even emotionally.

00:44:15.300 And they are campaigning to normalize it.

00:44:18.300 And, you know, how do you respond to those arguments that, you know, abortion is safer than, you know, childbirth?

00:44:24.300 It's a lie to say that abortion is safer than childbirth. 1.00

00:44:28.300 But one thing that's important for people to recognize is that not every state keeps accurate records of abortions that are botched.

00:44:36.300 I 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.

00:44:49.300 And those numbers are not recorded. Those numbers are not taken in.

00:44:52.300 Even 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.

00:45:03.300 And 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.

00:45:14.300 And abortionists who are not really giving accurate records are states who are not requiring those things to be recorded.

00:45:21.300 And then they're saying abortion is 10 times safer than natural birth.

00:45:26.300 But 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?

00:45:33.300 And the answer is no. So you can't even claim that that's true because you don't have the accurate numbers.

00:45:39.300 The fact that they don't have the accurate numbers, do they have an incentive to not actually have the numbers?

00:45:45.300 They don't want the numbers of women who've had botched abortions. 1.00

00:45:49.300 They don't want to hear the stories of women who have suffered from the chemical abortion pill.

00:45:54.300 They don't.

00:45:55.300 In all of my years of working, even doing political things near the Capitol, working with legislators, I've never seen pro-choice activists say,

00:46:04.300 we 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.

00:46:14.300 I've never heard that. I've never seen a bill proposed to have that sort of information.

00:46:19.300 In fact, I just testified against some legislation that is very harmful coming to the state of Connecticut.

00:46:26.300 They're trying to allow midwives and nurses to perform abortions. 1.00

00:46:31.300 And 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,

00:46:37.300 oh, 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. 1.00

00:46:45.300 And so are they truly concerned about women's health and safety? I would say no, they're not.

00:46:50.300 They're concerned about access to abortion, abortion on demand.

00:46:54.300 And 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?

00:47:04.300 Where do their incentives lie and why would they, you know, keep records and data on the damage of abortion?

00:47:12.300 Abortion 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,

00:47:20.300 if 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,

00:47:29.300 here's a couple hundred dollars for you to kill my baby, he would take it and he would do it.

00:47:34.300 And tragically, abortion is a money making business. There's a lot of money involved in this business. 1.00

00:47:43.300 And why would abortionists, why would their advocates want to truly look at the ways in which women have been hurt by abortion?

00:47:53.300 They don't want to because it's going to be contrary to their narrative.

00:47:57.300 They 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.

00:48:06.300 Recently in D.C., there were pro-life activists who were outside of an abortion facility.

00:48:14.300 And there was a truck that was there from an organization that was picking up medical waste.

00:48:20.300 And the activists assumed that that medical waste was fetal remains.

00:48:24.300 And they asked the truck driver, could they have the box?

00:48:29.300 And he wondered, what are you going to do with it?

00:48:31.300 And they said, we believe that it's babies in there and we would give them a proper burial.

00:48:36.300 So he ended up giving them this box.

00:48:38.300 Well, there were over a hundred babies in that box.

00:48:42.300 The majority of them, 110, were first trimester, but there were five that were later trimesters

00:48:48.300 that looked like they could have been late-term abortions. 1.00

00:48:51.300 And so they ended up bringing them home to one of the activists' homes and they buried the 110.

00:48:58.300 But then the five, they contacted the D.C. police and they let them know what was going on

00:49:04.300 because they wanted an autopsy to be done.

00:49:06.300 But tragically, because of some other legal issues related to one of the activists,

00:49:12.300 the D.C. police came and actually it was the homicide unit that raided the person's house

00:49:17.300 and they got the five fetuses.

00:49:20.300 And the person who was holding them is facing various charges.

00:49:24.300 But what's interesting is that, well, a lot of things are interesting about this story,

00:49:28.300 but there's been such outrage against the activist who was holding the fetuses in her home. 0.91

00:49:34.300 And so many people are accusing her of being corrupt and evil and sick, 0.83

00:49:40.300 but she didn't murder those children. 1.00

00:49:44.300 She didn't cause those late-term abortions. 1.00

00:49:47.300 And it's mind-boggling how people can be so angry at her because she was trying to give them a proper burial

00:49:55.300 and investigate to see if they were killed in an illegal way,

00:49:58.300 but yet she's in the wrong for doing that, whereas the abortion doctor, 0.99

00:50:03.300 people might consider him to be a hero and there's no consequences coming towards him.

00:50:08.300 And the D.C. police and even the mayor is unwilling to perform an autopsy,

00:50:14.300 even though there are some signs that doctors have looked at the pictures of these babies

00:50:19.300 and said this looks like an illegal partial birth abortion. 1.00

00:50:23.300 But the mayor and the police are refusing to do an autopsy,

00:50:27.300 which goes to show you how often corruption is overlooked in the abortion industry.

00:50:32.300 The abortion lobby would have us believe it's, you know, risk-free, pain-free, no problem, you know,

00:50:38.300 just easy, come on in, get an abortion and everything will be good. 1.00

00:50:42.300 Is that the reality?

00:50:43.300 People like to say that abortion is safe, 0.91

00:50:46.300 but they don't recognize the fact that in every single abortion,

00:50:51.300 every successful abortion, one person dies.

00:50:54.300 So right away we're looking at something that,

00:50:58.300 how can you label this safe when the end result is that

00:51:03.300 there are two people before the procedure and that there's one after?

00:51:07.300 Some people like to say that still it's relatively safe,

00:51:11.300 but we don't know all of the stories

00:51:14.300 because there are many women who do not report the stories 1.00

00:51:17.300 or if they do report them, the states don't collect the data

00:51:21.300 and we haven't, no, we don't hear about it.

00:51:24.300 We don't know all of the truth of how many women are hurt. 0.93

00:51:28.300 In addition to physical complications from abortion, like a preferited uterus,

00:51:33.300 like hemorrhaging, like infection, like infertility.

00:51:37.300 In addition, there are the emotional consequences.

00:51:40.300 I've talked to women who have suffered greatly because of an abortion,

00:51:45.300 even decades later after they've had the abortion, they will say,

00:51:50.300 when I hear the vacuum, it reminds me of the sound of the suction machine

00:51:54.300 when I had the abortion.

00:51:55.300 Women who their relationships have broken up, they've had divorces,

00:51:59.300 they've lost people they loved because of the pain that they went through

00:52:03.300 when they chose abortion.

00:52:05.300 Women who have even been driven to the point of suicide

00:52:09.300 are wrestled with suicidal thoughts because they have had an abortion.

00:52:14.300 And so there is a lot of trauma that women have suffered related to abortion and men.

00:52:21.300 It's important to not forget that men as well weep.

00:52:25.300 Men as well have pain.

00:52:27.300 They have sorrow and at times feel helpless

00:52:30.300 because they know that they don't have any say when it comes to fighting for the life of their child

00:52:36.300 because it is seen as a woman's rights issue 1.00

00:52:39.300 and only the woman has the legal right to decide what she wants to do with that child. 1.00

00:52:44.300 So there's a lot of hidden pain that we as a society have not recognized.

00:52:49.300 A lot of people are talking about, you know,

00:52:51.300 oh, the Dobbs case could end abortion access as we know it.

00:52:54.300 But a lot of what I'm hearing you say is, you know,

00:52:57.300 in some way the fight will just change.

00:52:59.300 It won't go away.

00:53:01.300 Can you give audiences a sense of, like, is the topic of abortion and its importance, you know,

00:53:06.300 as a discussion and as a history to know and as an issue to be aware of,

00:53:12.300 does the significance go away when the Supreme Court makes a decision, you know, on Dobbs or really any case?

00:53:18.300 Right.

00:53:19.300 It's important for people to know that although Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton

00:53:23.300 legalized abortion across every state in America in 1973, prior to that states had individual laws on abortion.

00:53:32.300 And if Roe vs. Wade is overturned, Doe vs. Bolton is overturned, it's going to go back to the states.

00:53:38.300 And so what's happening right now is pro-life states are passing legislation in preparation for Roe vs. Wade to be overturned.

00:53:46.300 And pro-abortion states are passing legislation in preparation for Roe vs. Wade to be overturned.

00:53:51.300 So my home state of Connecticut, they have codified abortion into our state law.

00:53:56.300 And they're right now looking to pass a bill that would make it a part of our state constitution.

00:54:01.300 Hopefully it doesn't pass, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.

00:54:05.300 That means when Roe is overturned on a national level, abortion would still be legal in Connecticut.

00:54:11.300 Abortion would still be legal in California. Abortion would still be legal in New York, all the way up until birth.

00:54:17.300 They are making essentially abortion sanctuary states.

00:54:21.300 And so we're going to see something that is somewhat similar to pre-Civil War America, where you had pro- and anti-slavery states.

00:54:30.300 You're going to see pro-choice and pro-life states.

00:54:34.300 And that's going to change the way that we look at the abortion debate. 0.96

00:54:37.300 But still, abortion is going to be an issue that we have to continue fighting.

00:54:42.300 Regardless of what happens with, you know, future Supreme Court cases, future state laws, will the pro-choice movement ever give up their fight?

00:54:50.300 I look at Dr. Bernard Nathanson. I look at Dr. Levitano and other abortion doctors who have had a change of heart.

00:55:02.300 And I believe we will see more of that as we continually advance with technology and understanding of when the pre-born person feels pain.

00:55:10.300 As we continually illuminate the beauty of the pre-born child, I believe we'll see more hearts change.

00:55:16.300 But there will be some people who are always committed to abortion rights.

00:55:20.300 I think particularly among women who've had abortions, you see a fierce commitment to abortion rights.

00:55:27.300 And that is because they have to convince themselves that their decision was the right one.

00:55:36.300 And 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.

00:55:45.300 That takes a lot. It's painful.

00:55:48.300 And that's why women who've had abortions are often in need of healing and therapy. 1.00

00:55:53.300 And there's programs like Forgiven and Set Free and Rachel's Vineyard that offer that to women. 1.00

00:55:59.300 But that driving force of pain because you've had an abortion, so therefore I have to fight for it. 0.87

00:56:07.300 You see that a lot with the abortion activist groups, who many of them on the front lines are women who've had abortions.

00:56:15.300 And so I have a great empathy for them.

00:56:17.300 They don't have to live in that pain and they don't have to use it to justify fighting for abortion.

00:56:22.300 But it would take a real awakening for them to come out of that.

00:56:27.300 What 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?

00:56:41.300 What do you say to someone who has had that?

00:56:44.300 To a woman who is celebrating her abortion, I would ask you to think about the reasons why you had an abortion.

00:56:56.300 Was it really you exercising your right to choose?

00:57:01.300 Did you feel afraid?

00:57:02.300 Did you feel like you had any other choice?

00:57:05.300 Were you supported?

00:57:06.300 Did you have the love that you need?

00:57:08.300 How did you feel when you first found out that you were pregnant?

00:57:12.300 And to consider, if anything was different, could there have been a different outcome?

00:57:18.300 If you had the support, if you had resources, if you had the love, would you or could you have chosen to parent or adopt?

00:57:27.300 Perhaps 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.

00:57:35.300 But I want you to recognize and acknowledge that there was another human being and that life is forever lost.

00:57:43.300 And what was your responsibility to that human being?

00:57:47.300 Perhaps you have other children and you look at them and you value them and you love them.

00:57:52.300 Know that the child who was lost is just as valuable and just as loved.

00:57:58.300 And 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.

00:58:05.300 And 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.

00:58:15.300 And 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?

00:58:28.300 One in four women have had an abortion in America. That's what the statistics say.

00:58:34.300 And if you've had an abortion, you are not alone. There are millions of women who have also suffered that same pain.

00:58:40.300 It is a tragedy and is sorrowful. And I want you to know that you can grieve. Allow yourself to feel those emotions.

00:58:49.300 Perhaps they feel overwhelming to you and you need someone else to walk with you through the journey of healing.

00:58:55.300 Know that there are therapists, there are professionals that you can talk to, and you can confide in them and let them know.

00:59:05.300 Pregnancy resource centers all across the country, many of them offer what's called post-abortion healing groups or support groups.

00:59:11.300 Groups like Rachel's Vineyard for Catholics, Forgiven and Set Free, Pro-Catholics and Protestants, and other people as well.

00:59:18.300 You 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.

00:59:26.300 Buy a book. Read a book about abortion healing. Call a number. There's an organization called Support After Abortion.

00:59:35.300 Look Support After Abortion up. Call them on the phone and talk to them. Start somewhere small and then take a step day by day. 0.82

00:59:44.300 Healing is worth it. You do not have to live in shame. You do not have to live in fear.

00:59:49.300 And you don't have to live the rest of your life in regret. There is hope and healing available to you.

00:59:55.300 What 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? 0.76

01:00:01.300 If 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.

01:00:12.300 To look at images of the pre-born child growing in a mother's womb. To look at fetal development.

01:00:20.300 And to acknowledge the fact that this is not just part of the woman's body.

01:00:25.300 That a pre-born child has a separate, distinct, unique body.

01:00:29.300 I came from my mother and she carried me for nine months.

01:00:33.300 But I am not her. I am a separate, unique person.

01:00:37.300 And a woman has a wonderful gift to be able to carry a child for a very small amount of time.

01:00:44.300 But then, hopefully, that person will go on and live maybe 90 years.

01:00:50.300 So 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. 0.97

01:01:00.300 And so what is our responsibility to that life?

01:01:05.300 What is our responsibility to that unique, separate person with a separate heartbeat and DNA and all of these unique things about them?

01:01:14.300 What do we owe them?

01:01:15.300 We owe them the opportunity to live.

01:01:18.300 We owe them the right to life.

01:01:21.300 Would people be shocked if they learned what really happens in an abortion?

01:01:27.300 People would be disgusted if they learned what really happens in an abortion. 0.99

01:01:32.300 People 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.

01:01:50.300 Because 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. 1.00

01:01:59.300 And so even that part of it is just so morbid and gruesely and barbaric.

01:02:06.300 But people don't see that when Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry does advertising.

01:02:10.300 It's smiling faces.

01:02:11.300 It's women's choice. 1.00

01:02:13.300 It's billboards that people put up about abortion as self-care.

01:02:16.300 And we're going to have new clinics where people can come in and have robes and drink tea and everything else.

01:02:22.300 And it's just hiding the reality of how barbaric this is.

01:02:27.300 When stories come out about babies that were born alive after abortion or babies that were found, people are shocked.

01:02:37.300 But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

01:02:41.300 It's just the tip of the iceberg.

01:02:43.300 I don't know when America will ever fully know what's going on because so much is hidden and so much is covered up.

01:02:50.300 Is Planned Parenthood trying to normalize abortion through history?

01:02:55.300 Planned 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.

01:03:09.300 But that's really not the case.

01:03:11.300 Even 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.

01:03:26.300 They spoke out against abortion.

01:03:28.300 If you look at the civil rights movement, you see black women like Mildred Jefferson. 0.99

01:03:35.300 You see women like Fannie Lou Hamer, who were strong advocates.

01:03:40.300 Fannie Lou Hamer is a well-respected Democrat leader and a civil rights leader.

01:03:46.300 And she was forcibly sterilized.

01:03:49.300 And she spoke out against that, calling legal abortion, legal murder. 0.98

01:03:54.300 Those are just a few examples.

01:03:57.300 But 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.

01:04:07.300 And they represent tens of thousands, millions perhaps, who maybe you don't know their name, but they too oppose abortion.

01:04:16.300 What 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?

01:04:29.300 In the early 1960s, the FDA approved the birth control pill.

01:04:34.300 It'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.

01:04:43.300 In addition, her wealthy friend, Catherine McCormick, used her fortune to provide finances to research the birth control pill.

01:04:51.300 Margaret Sanger used this because she wanted to control the population of people that she thought were unfit and shouldn't really reproduce. 1.00

01:04:59.300 But 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.

01:05:08.300 They considered that motherhood could be a burden to women. 1.00

01:05:11.300 And the pill provided that freedom for them, or what they thought was freedom.

01:05:17.300 Was 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?

01:05:28.300 After 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.

01:05:38.300 They pushed the lie that without legal abortion, thousands of women would die in back alley abortions. 0.85

01:05:44.300 And so they fought hard for abortion on demand and abortion without apology.

01:05:49.300 The pro-choice crowd argues that abortion protects women's rights and gives them more power.

01:05:55.300 Is that true or does abortion actually take away female empowerment? 1.00

01:05:59.300 The 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.

01:06:19.300 And there are many ways in which we are lacking the power that we need.

01:06:24.300 And abortion is a false promise.

01:06:27.300 It's a lie telling us that all you need to do is sacrifice your fertility.

01:06:32.300 All you need to do is sacrifice your reproductive health. 1.00

01:06:35.300 All you need to do is offer up your child as a sacrifice.

01:06:39.300 And then you can have whatever you want.

01:06:41.300 You can be equal to men.

01:06:43.300 You can get that job.

01:06:44.300 You can get that career.

01:06:45.300 We've seen actresses say that without abortion, I wouldn't have been able to do this movie. 1.00

01:06:51.300 Without abortion, I wouldn't be able to have my career in Hollywood. 0.99

01:06:54.300 Multiple actresses have said this. 1.00

01:06:56.300 And it's a lie.

01:06:58.300 That's not what female empowerment looks like. 1.00

01:07:00.300 That is what oppression looks like. 0.99

01:07:03.300 You have to kill a part of you, even if you just believe, oh, it's just a woman's body. 0.99

01:07:09.300 Even if you believe that. 0.99

01:07:10.300 That's a part of you, isn't it?

01:07:12.300 When you're saying you have to let a part of you die in order for you to have true freedom and liberation, that's very sad.

01:07:21.300 That's not empowerment.

01:07:23.300 What about the argument that abortion prevents, you know, single mothers and women in general from sliding, you know, further into poverty?

01:07:31.300 I 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.

01:07:48.300 It'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.

01:08:05.300 When we're discussing poverty and how to alleviate that, why don't we talk about the things that are truly helpful?

01:08:12.300 Like 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.

01:08:20.300 Why are we not promoting things like education?

01:08:24.300 Why are we not promoting family?

01:08:26.300 Why 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?

01:08:36.300 But what if we were to offer them resources and support as a society?

01:08:41.300 What 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. 0.57

01:08:54.300 And 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 0.95

01:09:10.300 environment where she can be a mother and have a career as well. 0.66

01:09:15.300 I believe that abortion makes it worse for low income women. 1.00

01:09:19.300 I believe that it makes it worse for women of color, especially when you see how many women are having multiple abortions. 0.96

01:09:25.300 And you see states like Connecticut where 70% of the women who have abortions are doing it through Medicaid.

01:09:31.300 And 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.

01:09:40.300 And doing that didn't automatically alleviate them from any of their circumstances.

01:09:46.300 And so let's just think through this.

01:09:48.300 If 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,

01:10:02.300 it 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.

01:10:17.300 She might just get pregnant a year from now and then go have another abortion. 1.00

01:10:22.300 And she might just be stuck in a cycle.

01:10:24.300 And 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.

01:10:35.300 Because 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.

01:10:41.300 I'm going to graduate and I'm going to walk across the aisle with my son.

01:10:45.300 I know women who have been struggling and making actually poor decisions and they get pregnant and that's a wake up call for them. 0.76

01:10:52.300 And they say, OK, now it's not just about me.

01:10:54.300 Now it's about my child as well.

01:10:56.300 And 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.

01:11:10.300 I know moms who have said, I used to be out there, I used to be wild, but my baby helped me.

01:11:16.300 And not that we are telling mom to look to their children to cause them to be more responsible.

01:11:22.300 But 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.

01:11:31.300 And 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. 0.94

01:11:39.300 Whereas a woman who chooses to have a child, that could cause her to to grow and to mature and to have responsibility. 1.00

01:11:45.300 So it's not so black and white as people think.

01:11:48.300 Does abortion let men off the hook? 0.94

01:11:52.300 Abortion absolutely lets men out of the responsibility of being fathers and being caretakers. 0.89

01:11:59.300 Think about the way society has changed. Prior to abortion, if a woman got pregnant, where was the pressure in society?

01:12:06.300 The pressure was on the shoulders of the man.

01:12:09.300 You need to marry her. You need to make things right.

01:12:12.300 Yes, 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.

01:12:21.300 Now, should every woman who gets pregnant by a man marry that person? 0.99

01:12:25.300 I'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.

01:12:32.300 Now, because of 50 years of abortion, now where is the pressure?

01:12:37.300 If a woman gets pregnant, where is that pressure?

01:12:40.300 Is it on the man's shoulder to marry her? Is it on the man's shoulders to do right by her?

01:12:44.300 Absolutely 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.

01:12:53.300 This is your choice. You've got to take care of this. What are you going to do? Are you going to get an abortion? 0.99

01:12:57.300 It'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.

01:13:09.300 A 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. 0.85

01:13:19.300 Homicide. Women are dying through homicide. They are being killed by men. They are being killed by partners.

01:13:26.300 And sometimes that's because they are saying no to having an abortion.

01:13:30.300 Well, why would that happen? Well, 50 years of men being told that their children are objects that can be disregarded.

01:13:40.300 Their children are objects that can be discarded. They're objects that can be destroyed if they're inconvenient.

01:13:46.300 Well, then their mindset also thinks maybe perhaps the women are as well.

01:13:51.300 And you see cases. There is a couple of well-known cases that made the news.

01:13:54.300 One involving a football player and a cheerleader, and she got pregnant.

01:13:58.300 And he ended up killing her and the child. And he said, well, she wouldn't have the abortion.

01:14:02.300 She refused to have the abortion, so I had to take care of it.

01:14:05.300 And him having to take care of it was killing her and the child.

01:14:09.300 And this happens. This happens. And we don't like to talk about it in society, but where is that connection?

01:14:15.300 Well, men have been told that it's not their responsibility. It's a woman's body. It's a woman's choice. 0.96

01:14:22.300 And 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.

01:14:30.300 And it's very sad. You know, if a man has a child, he knows that he might have to pay child support.

01:14:38.300 And perhaps that's part of the motivation and not wanting to do that.

01:14:41.300 And so, there goes the pressure to have an abortion.

01:14:45.300 Is it a lie, then, that abortion is the pro-woman stance? 0.89

01:14:51.300 Abortion is not pro-woman. Abortion hurts women. Abortion hurts family. Abortion hurts pre-born children, who many of them are little women.

01:15:04.300 They are females. They will grow up to be women. 1.00

01:15:07.300 And 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. 0.56

01:15:18.300 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. 0.98

01:15:28.300 I wouldn't have been able to be the woman that I am and to live out my life. 0.98

01:15:32.300 It's absolutely hypocritical of pro-abortion advocates to say that we are the ones that are pro-woman.

01:15:38.300 No, we in the pro-life movement are pro-women from the womb to the tomb.

01:15:43.300 We are pro-women from the moment of conception all the way to natural death.

01:15:47.300 We are fighting for them in the womb and outside of the womb.

01:15:51.300 We want them to live, to thrive, to prosper, and to be whole.

01:15:56.300 The abortion industry uses women for their own profit. 0.99

01:16:09.300 These lies are pervasive.

01:16:12.300 They're not difficult to refute, but it can be difficult to penetrate that culture of lies to get the truth out there.

01:16:22.300 We have to do it. We have to do it because it's right.

01:16:26.300 We have to do it for the victims of abortion.

01:16:29.300 We have to do it for the women who are taken in by this industry, who are used for dollars, even to their own detriment. 1.00

01:16:38.300 If you enjoyed this conversation with Christina Bennett, you'll want to check out our Daily Wire original documentary, Choosing Death, The Legacy of Roe.

01:16:47.300 In it, we take a wrecking ball to the four fallacies keeping the abortion industry alive. 0.94

01:16:53.300 To watch it right now, go to dailywireplus.com.

01:16:56.300 Today, if you join, you will see not only this full movie, Choosing Death, The Legacy of Roe,

01:17:05.300 but 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.

01:17:15.300 I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Choosing Life Podcast. We'll see you next time.

01:17:24.300 The Choosing Life Podcast is a Daily Wire production produced in association with Outer Limits.

01:17:30.300 Our technical and support team includes Ian Reed, Jesse Eastman, Ryan Moore, Mariah Cormier, and Jim Wirt.

01:17:37.300 Copyright Daily Wire 2022. Thanks for listening.

The Michael Knowles Show - October 01, 2022

Choosing Life： Abortion and the Black Community - Christina Bennet

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