Embracing Life — Day 24

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Embracing Life -- Day 24

Chandra White-Cummings

Day 24: Generational Pain

I’ll start with some good news–40 Days for Life has received reports of 157 babies being spared the tragedy of abortion. Praise God! And that’s not just good news for the babies and moms; it’s good news for all of us.

Now I’ll move on to more sobering conversation. Often when abortion touches a family, it’s just the tip of a massive iceberg that sits undisturbed beneath the surface of that family’s interactions. Things are going on within that family that outsiders would never imagine, and that family members strain to ignore. Abortions allow people to keep, protect, and perpetuate secrets that eat away at the fabric of people’s souls. For example, it’s not uncommon for a young girl to be molested by a relative. If that girl becomes pregnant, panic breaks out. No one can blame them for that. But an abortion doesn’t help the situation, although it might seem to.

Getting rid of that child enables the molester to escape tangible accountability, and it compounds the shame and guilt of the girl involved. Rather than just having to deal with the sexual violation of a family member, she now has to also reconcile in her mind the fact that her child has been aborted. Trouble wall to wall.

Abortions also hide illicit sex between coaches and athletes, clergy and congregants, and spouses and lovers. Each a very complicated situation to be sure. Sexual secrets have become a major problem in families, churches, and elsewhere. But my heart especially goes out to the families.

Generations of African American women are imploding from the pressure of trying to maintain a very well-cultivated falsehood that revolves around the secret fact that they have had an abortion. I firmly believe this is why so many of us have become angry, bitter, depressed, and emotionally dysfunctional. Our telltale hearts betray us at the least provocation–a wrong look, a broken date, a talkative child. What’s to be done with all this pent up regret? Right now, nothing productive. We won’t go see a therapist. We don’t tell our friends because we don’t want our ‘business’ in the street. But mama knows. And sometimes our daughter knows. We swear them to secrecy and make them co-conspirators to our own pain.

Generations are being impacted by this vicious cycle. Let’s think about that today. Do you know a woman or girl who’s had an abortion? I bet you do. You just might not know it.

Find out more at the 40 Days for Life website.

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