I’m going to be real for a minute. #ShoutYourAbortion makes me want to throw up. As soon as I saw the hashtag yesterday, it made my stomach twist into unholy shapes and I haven't been able to sleep. Before reacting out of my initial emotion (anger), I took to the internet to learn more about it and how the campaign came to be. While the hashtag was created to unify women that have had an abortion and remove the stigma attached to the word, it has turned into a platform celebrating death for the advancement of an individual. How can it be that living, breathing women would glorify something as lethal as abortion? It simply breaks my heart to see a social media movement that devalues life, as I know it. As an adoptee, I value adoption over abortion because I value my own life.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am a feminist; I believe in women’s rights. I believe in the right to make equal pay in the work place; I believe in the right not to shave my armpits (not my thing, personally, but hey: girl power); I also believe in the right to make imperative decisions about my own well-being. More than all of those things, though, I believe in the right to life. Plain and simple, the issue of abortion hits home to me. My birth mother had the very real option of aborting me, and for my own welfare she didn’t. Instead of ending the crisis pregnancy, she chose to end the crisis. She realized that my life was not a crisis. Becoming a mother to two when she struggled making it by with one is a crisis. So, instead of considering me the problem, she considered the situation a problem. Big difference.

I value my birth mother as much as I value my life. She is the selfless, strong woman that she is because she willingly carried me for nine months knowing full well that she would not have the opportunity to raise me. Want to have a real discussion about strong women? Then we have to have a discussion about birth mothers. These women, these WARRIORS, wake up every day with their bellies growing a little bit larger. These same warriors looked death in the face when they were given the option to abort their baby. These warriors had the courage to say, “No, I will sacrifice myself so that death will not win.” Sound familiar to anyone? (Luke 9:23-27; John 15:13; John 3:16)

In a world running rampant with horrific deaths plastered across the media, why choose to glorify death when it is convenient? Many women have taken to Twitter to express their gratitude for the procedure because of the time it gave them to advance their career. We should be standing up to employers that allow pregnancy to derail successful careers. I’m ready for the day when women across the country stand up for themselves by saying “no” to the lie that they should be ashamed of their pregnancy. I’m ready for a generation of strong, selfless women to step up, own their decisions and choose better for their bodies and the child inhabiting them. I want to hear women say “no” to the lie that the child they carry is karma, or a curse or “just a fetus” (Psalm 139:13-16). How can bearing life be associated with shame and regret? It is the ultimate oxymoron.

I am not ashamed of being adopted, and I will not let anyone shame me for standing up for my belief that every life deserves a lifetime. I was given my chance at a lifetime by the grace of my Heavenly Father, who strategically chose my birth mother to carry me. I was given my chance for a lifetime because of the strength of her character and her un-crushable spirit. Women, can we not rise and be proud of what our bodies are meant to do? Planned or unplanned, a pregnancy is not a crisis. The crisis is the glorification of abortion when adoption exists to offer life in the face of death. It is the most profound, worldly, redemption story. I stand with #ShoutYourAdoption.

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