I Aborted to Show What a Good Mother I am

Catholic Matriarch in my Domestic Church highlights an article that contains some disturbing post-Christian thoughts on what it means to be a good mother. The entire article can be found here. One portion of the article laments that Miranda Sawyer was interviewed about her views on abortion and how they have been evolving since the birth of her son:

On Wednesday, More4 broadcast Travels with My Camera — A Matter of Life and Death, a “personal journey” by the journalist Miranda Sawyer. This was heralded by a piece in The Observer, written by Sawyer, explaining the purpose of her quest.

Sawyer’s dilemma has been that, until recently, she had been a dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying, pro-choice feminist. After the birth of her son last year, however, she began to have doubts about the ethics and logic of abortion. “I was calling the life inside me a baby because I wanted it,” she wrote, after visiting picketed abortion clinics in America. “Yet if I hadn’t, I would think of it just as a group of cells that it was OK to kill. It was the same entity. It was merely my response to it that determined whether it would live or die. That seemed irrational to me. Maybe even immoral.”

Later she explained that: “When you’ve experienced . . . pregnancy and birth, and the fantastic beauty of the resulting child, it’s hard not to question what a termination does, or is.” In a nutshell, since becoming a mother, Sawyer has found herself — while still ultimately agreeing that women should be able to have abortions — becoming more troubled by the pro-life argument.

Actually, the way I would have phrased that is that Miranda is troubled, not by the pro-life argument, but by the pro-choice argument. It is the latter, not the former, that seems troubling to her now. The mere way Caitlin puts this belies the way she'll go here. You see, she is about to explain to us how being pro-abortion - and, indeed, having one to make sure you aren't having too many babies - is really what good motherhood is all about. She writes:

Abortions are never seen as a positive thing, as any other operation to remedy a potentially life-ruining condition would. Women never speak publicly about their abortions with happy, relieved gratitude, in the same way that they would about, say, leaving an abusive partner — despite the fact that this impacts much, much less on their lives than an unwanted child.

Life-ruining? Even potentially, that is a horrific thing that Caitlin's children might come upon. Or how about the way she compares aborting a child with leaving an abusive partner? Yes, that helpless child in your womb is just like an abusive man. Actually, judging by her next sentence, it's worse.

And, really, Caitlin continues, having an abortion is responsible and loving. It's a great thing for a mother to do when she's already had a couple of rugrats.

My belief in the ultimate sociological, emotional and practical necessity for abortion did, as I have mentioned before, become even stronger after I had my two children. It is only after you have had a nine-month pregnancy, laboured to get the child out, fed it, cared for it, sat with it until 3am, risen with it at 6am, swooned with love for it and been reduced to furious tears by it that you really understand just how important it is for a child to be wanted. And, possibly even more importantly, to be wanted by a reasonably sane, stable mother. Last year I had an abortion, and I can honestly say it was one of the least difficult decisions of my life. I’m not being flippant when I say it took me longer to decide what work-tops to have in the kitchen than whether I was prepared to spend the rest of my life being responsible for a further human being. I knew I would see my existing two daughters less, my husband less, my career would be hamstrung and, most importantly of all, I was just too tired to do it all again. I didn’t want another child, in the same way that I don’t suddenly want to move to Canada or buy a horse. While there was, of course, every chance that I might eventually be thankful for the arrival of a third child, I am, personally, not a gambler. I won’t spend £1 on the lottery, let alone take a punt on a pregnancy. The stakes are far, far too high.

I am personally amazed at the people who, upon learning that I homeschool my two daughters, tell me that they love their children but can't stand to be around them all day long. Is this what modern feminists have done to motherhood? Reduced it to a burden, a drag, something that "hamstrings" a woman's career? And how is it that this woman gave birth twice and still thinks that her love is divided, not multiplied, by further additions to her family?

I pray to God that the children of women like this - those who abort after having children already - are not too damaged by the knowledge that their mothers love them conditionally. They are loved only because they were convenient to career and lifestyle.

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!