PBH205H: AVP and the Post-Abortive
does this belong under heart apologetics, or under strategy (defending use of AVP)?
- UTSFL specific story
- Claiming My Woundedness blog post from a PhD student at U of T who had an abortion as a teenager in response to our “Choice” Chain campaign
- She saw “Choice” Chain the same day as she heard about a serious threat of violence from an internet commenter specifically targeted at feminists, bringing to mind past examples of violence against women and real instances of feminist students being targeted on campuses (e.g. Montreal). She describes these as “two separate events” as doesn't link them in a causal way at all, but they are parallel and related in her mind.
- She didn't react well or respond to an attempt I made to reach out by email (decided not to comment publicly, thought email would be more respectful)
- And… to put this is context… look at the rest of what she had to deal with on Twitter that same day, in response to “shouting her abortion”…
- “it smells like #feminism, and feminism is #shit”1)
- “#women that get drunk fuck some random guy regret it and scream #lie #rape to destroy his life are a threat”2)
- “we don't need to teach men not to #rape because not all men are rapists or rapists men, so do fuck off you #sexist cunt” 3)
- “Today I blocked and reported 2 ppl b/c of harassment (“sexist cunt”) and a tweet that told me not to cry b/c “I'm going in dry” #misogyny” 4)
- How and what specifically can we do better when addressing the need to expose the injustice of abortion in the face of an emergency that pre-born children are facing, but in a context of such woundedness from abortion and such misogyny in response to it?
- Including SNMAC at outreach
Does AVP re-traumatize the post-abortive?
this was an email Maria sent to a friend who was conflicted re: AVP – later edited into a document, passed around LAA and other people
avp_and_the_post-abortive_3_.docx
Angelina Steenstra re: AVP
Capture of original article: https://web.archive.org/web/20170615034253/http://colf.ca/en/testimonies/item/181-angelina-steenstra-a-witness-to-healing-and-liberation-national-coordinator-of-silent-no-more-canada
“One of the truths I needed to face was how Sarah Elizabeth died. So I did some research, and I obtained an image of an aborted baby. It was looking upon this image that connected me back to the day of the abortion, to the memory, to the guilt, and to the shame that I had suppressed. While it was one of the most painful actions of my life, it was one of the most liberating. Some years earlier, I had seen a similar image, and that encounter actually led me into the prolife movement. Even though I had not yet processed my own grief, the image of the aborted baby moved me to action on behalf of the unborn, and ultimately into my own healing.”
Sharon, another SNMAC speaker: https://youtu.be/OyiQ1il8ENA?si=5pn2hmj4A1Gnpeql
https://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/testimonies/testimony.aspx?ID=2911&fbclid=IwY2xjawFIKS9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHR8gkIo1Yx5FshU_AMmW2PmK1CP_pWyfgOsavZh53e0qgqaIBm9svdJUtg_aem_UuP-Xp4RUV8J59LPq1OOng “Many years later, I saw a photograph of an aborted baby in a garbage can. It was a human person, not the blob of tissue I'd pretended to myself was removed from my body. For the first time, I faced what I'd done and I cried. The general anesthetic had prevented me from seeing, feeling, touching or hearing anything related to my actual abortion. It allowed me to lie to myself…Silent No More Awareness initiated my healing by giving me permission not to hide any longer, to tell the truth”