Talking to Kids about Abortion

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blackforest

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Pro-life parents, please share your stories. How did you tell your kids about abortion? Was it something they asked about, or something you volunteered? Were you able to describe it in a way that is truthful and informative but not so graphic as to induce nightmares?

Also, do you include your kids in your pro-life advocacy in any way? I’m trying to think of a way to get my children engaged. There’s a weekly prayer group that meets by our local Planned Parenthood, but we have a scheduling conflict. We’re also already doing volunteer work with another ministry, so I’m feeling swamped. But I’d welcome any ideas!
 
I don’t bring abortion up directly with my kids (they are very young) but we do take about dignity, respect for life, and how the devil twists things to confuse us about right and wrong. Oh, and we refer to babies and mommies and daddies, not fetus or pregnancy.
 
I don’t think I ever really asked about it. But at school we were made to watch a video of one.

I would probably be in the same boat as @Believe_85 with the " Parents and Babies " rather than indicating the child was somehow not human yet.
 
It’s going to vary by age. Starting out by celebrating life in all of its stages as a gift from God when they are young will set the framework for future discussion. At a very early age, books celebrating life are available.
A more recently published book that I love is called Angel in the Waters and can be read to very young children. (although I’ve also read it to 11 year-olds and discovered older kids also love to think about these things-they just might be a bit more awkward about the way they express this.
Little kids love to hear about being in mom’s tummy and how exciting it was for mom, waiting to see them for the first time. Spotting expectant moms and sharing your excitement and wonder about what is happening with your child can stir their imaginations. The little kids I have known are naturally pro-life.
If you ask a kid if it is right to kill a baby, in my experience, the kid will be shocked and wonder why you would ask such a thing.
They are taught to justify killing later.
As children age, talking about how sad it is that some people think it is o.k. to kill a baby is shared and then we pray for those people and for their babies.
Perhaps your children can help you think of something to bring to a baby corner to share with mommies who need help. Then they can be part of finding just the right present to share with an unknown baby. Every parish I’ve been associated with has an active apostolate for babies and struggling families.
They can spiritually adopt a baby and pray for that baby each day.
Life is beautiful. Children know that, and we can celebrate it with them.
 
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Do you do the same thing with homicide and theft? just “oh, well, I’ll let society form my kids, and not take an active role.”

Not trying to be a provocateur- genuinely curious
 
I agree.

I also believe that as girls are educated about their bodies in the run up to puberty the emphasis should be very firmly on motherhood, the preparation for motherhood in marriage and God’s blessing of life in womb.
 
The truth about every abortion is that there are two victims and someone dies. Telling my own kids that truth at an appropriate age is not pushing ideology on them, it’s forming their conscience. :slightly_smiling_face:That’s my responsibility as a parent and so that’s how I see it.
 
i have a 20 year old daughter, when she was younger I don’t remember talking about abortion specifically, probably until middle school. Pretty sure she heard something about it at school and came home and asked me about it.

In high school we went to the March for Life in DC her sophomore year with her youth group. She went again her Senior year. It was a great experience for both of us.

You need to be clear about what the church teaches on the subject. It’s a non-negotiable as a catholic, but you also need to realize that not all of her friends at school (even those who claim to be catholic) will agree and teach her the skills to stand up for her beliefs without getting embroiled in the nastiness often associated with the debate.

My kiddo didn’t get involved in debating the issue in depth in school, she would state her belief and then respectfully decline to discuss it further because it just got too heated. The two sides are coming at the issue from very different points of view and she just didn’t feel equipped as a teen to debate the subject. We had a lots of discussions and I had some books that I shared with her. Now she’s much more capable of having conversations with those who disagree with her in a healthy and dynamic, respectful way.

As far as activities in pro-life volunteering, DD is away at college now and very involved in the campus ministry at Ole Miss. She is aware of my volunteering in pro-life advocacy. When she was living at home, we did a lot of volunteering together, food pantry work, etc, actually more well-rounded than just being involved in the March for Life and/or walking at the Planned Parenthood Clinic. Pro-life is much more than anti-abortion and I wanted her to realize that early on.
 
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My mom simply told me what it meant when I came across the word. And she showed me some pictures of aborted fetuses. Yikes, lol.

As for my little sister (mom died before she could do anything), I basically bring up the fact that there are people who end the life of their kids when we talked about pregnancies. She immediately realized that was killing so it’s not like I have to jump through hoops to explain the pro life position. She’s a little older and is asking about instances of rape and such, so I simply answer them based on that.
 
“My mom simply told me what it meant when I came across the word. And she showed me some pictures of aborted fetuses. Yikes, lol.”

This is more or less how I learned about it. I was ten years old, and encountered a brochure with graphic photos. “MOOOOOOO_OOOOOOOM!!! What is this???” (It was just lying around in our messy house, lol!)

My mom was one of the pro-life trailblazers, volunteering at Birthright from time of its inception. She and her young mom friends would swap childcare so that they could each take a shift.

“She immediately realized that was killing so it’s not like I have to jump through hoops to explain the pro life position.”

Kids get it. They’re not old enough to sugarcoat an act of violence with rationalization and euphemism.
 
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Exactly! You realize their stance changes because abortion is rationalized. You don’t have to bend over backwards to explain the pro life position tbh. You can basically tell a child the definition of it and they would know it’s wrong.
 
“You need to be clear about what the church teaches on the subject.”

I’m not sure why abortion gets any sort of special treatment as an issue. I lump it in with all other human rights issues that the Church upholds. Womb to tomb, we don’t kill defenseless human beings, and we treat them with the Works of Mercy. This shouldn’t be so complicated, but society is weird.

I’ve long argued that killing, like other human right violations, is a lot easier to rationalize when the lives in question seem like a distant abstraction, be it a child we can’t see in another woman’s womb or a child we can’t see getting drone-bombed across the ocean.

“Pro-life is much more than anti-abortion and I wanted her to realize that early on.”

I currently volunteer in refugee resettlement and drag the children along to home visits and trips to the food closet. It’s been such an enlightening experience for them!

I’d love to get them involved in the human aspects of assisting pregnant women - even if that entails something as mundane as sorting through donations of baby clothes. I’ll have to poke around for opportunities. Pregnancy resource centers have improved a lot since I was young, but I still need to screen them to make sure they aren’t Evangelical insider-clubs.
 
Facts would involve discussion sex, reproduction, and fetal development. In order for an abortion to be successful, a separate human being must be killed.

I agree about presenting facts, but parents should also communicate their values. We are a family that upholds Catholic Social Teaching and basic human rights. My children know that it is our duty to show enough love and compassion toward women with unexpected pregnancies that they don’t feel desperate enough to abort their offspring.
 
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I agree - except that everyone should be taught this, not just girls. My brothers were assuredly taught this as much as we were.
 
Are you raising your children in the Catholic faith? I would say you need to check your attitude and start setting the example you should be. Your “ideology” would be a big part of that.
 
I would tell them to move to Mississippi & enjoy the worst health care in the country 😂
 
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