How Could She – Part Two, Celebrity Abortion Stories
Do you find yourself inspired by a celebrity abortion story?
This is Us actress Milana Vayntrub hopes so. She really wants you to know she triumphed over childbirth only because she Chose It. Oh, and because she chose that “beautifully boring abortion” she was “privileged” to get ten years earlier. Publishing the story on Yahoo News thinly veiled her purpose of rallying her readers to lobby their representatives to vote in favor of the Women’s Health Protection Act (which failed to pass in the Senate).
Normalizing and destigmatizing abortion is having a moment right now.
Good Morning America meteorologist Ginger Zee has a bestseller centered on the story of her abortion trauma, shame and stigma. But the end of the story is her self-acceptance, not repentance. Is she being stigmatized by anyone? Or rather is she celebrated by her audience with book sales for her actions to get rid of a baby?
Or we have Uma Thurman describing the abortion she had at age 15 as her ticket to stardom. It was hard, and sad and she’s kept it a painful secret until speaking out to rally more teens to grab that brass ring if that’s what abortion will get you.
People magazine recently featured 31 Celebrities Who Have Shared Their Abortion Stories to Help Women Feel Less Alone. The stories are often poignant (rape, fetal abnormalities, abusive partners) and a few even mention their faith. None of them, of course, spoke in terms of getting rid of their babies. Choice, choice, choice is the mantra.
Insider offers 27 Celebrities Who Have Opened Up about Abortion.
Buzzfeed has you covered with 18 Celbrities. Their leading lady, Stevie Nicks, says that her role in a band with two lead women singers and two lead women writers was worth the price of foregoing motherhood. Those of us who love Fleetwood Mac may be a bit put off, “These songs and singers brought to you by the death of my prenatal child through abortion.”
I’m not of an age when celebrity stories influence my choices in any way. But I do remember as a young woman wanting a wedding dress just like Diana’s. I leave it to you to decide if this media blitz impacts young women in their choice to mother their children or to abort them.
But let’s keep going.
Cosmopolitan played it straight–stating in their 2019 10 Celebrities headline that the purpose of the stories was to defeat Georgia’s then-pending heartbeat legislation
Finally, Refinery 29 followed suit–tying the telling of celebrity abortion stories to “Restrictive Laws”.
Again, I leave it to you to decide if these women are part of a grassroots effort to suddenly speak up about abortion. Or do you sense, as I do, an astroturf campaign by pro-abortion actors (no pun intended) whose funding jumped from over $4M in 2019 to over $9M in 2020, and whose past campaigns partnered up with pro-abortion PACs from Planned Parenthood and the Feminist Majority.
What does the Scripture say
Young women have accepted as dogma that only paid careers empower them, and success in work is therefore the ultimate good. Yet God’s Word indicates over and over that the way we achieve in life is determines our success, and much more so than what we may achieve.
The Bible says:
Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.
Psalm 127: 1-3, NLT
Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.
It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night,
anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.
Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
Psalm 127 warns about the right and wrong way to build a future, and verses 3-5 directly includes advice and wisdom about the worth and value of children.
Now that I’m a grandmother I better understand the high value God places on those who pour themselves into raising their children. And as a woman who enjoyed career immensely, I’m glad I had that chance. But the reality of the high price I paid to have that career stalked me and my success. Ultimately I had to reconcile with holy God for my unholy choice.
I’m so grateful that God in Christ shows us mercy, even for the worst sins. That’s why I share my story. As a caution, as a testimony to God’s saving grace.
And if you are looking for a truer and truly-grassroots movement of women sharing abortion stories, please check Silent No More.
The Silent No More Awareness Campaign has been helping women and men express abortion regret and seek their restoration for decades now.
If you want a more balanced view of the aftermath of abortion in the lives of women and men who have chosen it, perhaps you might want to start there.
I would never want to go back to the days of total secrecy and shame surrounding abortion in the past. And the saying is true that you’re only as sick as your secrets. Revealing your abortion story (whether you regret and repent of it or not) confers no special moral authority.
And telling your story to encourage laws which will lead to even more lives lost to abortion is really nothing to celebrate.
