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The High Honor of Motherhood

My daughter is graduating summa cum laude from college today, so I have spent a lot of time the past few weeks reminiscing about motherhood.

As I think about her graduating with highest honors, I can’t help but think about the honor and privilege of being her (and my sons’) mother. In my life, being a mother has truly been my highest honor. I thank God every day for giving those children to me.

That is why I feel so disturbed and sickened when I read stories like the one about the art exhibit in New York entitled “Abortion Is Normal.”

This exhibit includes shirts that say “Thank God for abortion;” naked drawings with vulgar language; the word “choice” in American red, white, and blue; various paintings; and even what looks like just a simple printout with the words “abortion=normal” on it.

A two-minute blurb about the exhibit features its co-curator speaking about the “importance” of the show. She speaks of “reproductive rights” and about “choice.”

She doesn’t mention that the baby who is aborted has no choice. She doesn’t mention that, at the end of an abortion, the mother is still a mother. Only now she’s the mother of a dead baby. She doesn’t mention the regret that so many women feel after having an abortion. She just proudly announces that women “need to continue to fight and make a splash.”

The pro-abortion movement doesn’t want women to understand the high honor of motherhood. Indeed, it even denies the science of motherhood. It is a fact that a baby is a baby—an unrepeatable human being—from the very first moment he is created.

But facts don’t matter to pro-aborts when they get in the way of personal desire. Facts only matter when they suit their purposes. And this one doesn’t. So they sweep this fact under the rug. They attempt to normalize killing and death and make people feel comfortable about it.

However, abortion is not normal. The killing of an innocent and defenseless child should never be normalized. What is and should be normal is the love a mother has for her baby. What is and should be normal is the respect and veneration of motherhood.

But, for so long, our society has torn down the family and has taught the lie that motherhood is a burden. Society has devalued women—and babies—so much that now women believe they must kill their babies in order to get ahead in their careers, to compete with men, to alleviate a “problem,” or for any number of reasons.

Society has forgotten that motherhood is an immense gift. Society has forgotten that motherhood is a high honor. Sometimes this gift is planned, and sometimes it comes as a surprise. But a baby is always a gift.

The exhibit intends to make a “splash,” and make a splash it has. That is why we must work even harder. We must do all we can to counter the culture that claims that abortion is normal. We must teach that motherhood is normal. We must teach that babies are not a burden.

Babies are amazing gifts from God. And someday, God will ask what we did with the gifts He gave us. Someday, He will ask how we helped save the gifts He gave to others.

How will you answer? Will you hang your head, embarrassed that you did not speak up? Or will you proudly tell Him how you helped build a culture that respects all human beings?

We cannot fall prey to a culture that wants us to believe that abortion is “healthcare” or a “right.” It is neither of those things.

We cannot remain silent when we hear of the attempt to normalize abortion. Abortion is the killing of a baby. Plain and simple.

So let us go forth and make our own splash with the truth: Motherhood is truly one of the highest honors in life.

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About the author

Susan Ciancio

Susan Ciancio is the editor of Celebrate Life Magazine and executive editor for the Culture of Life Studies Program.