Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. (Photo credit: YouTube/247coolman)

In Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel, The Hunger Games, the rulers sit in luxurious offices in the Capitol and wax poetic about the selfless bravery of the games’ tributes. Actually, and tragically, the young contestants are chosen at random and forced to face off in a grisly battle to the death. This may be a work of fiction, but unfortunately our present reality is not altogether different.

Like the oppressors in The Hunger Games who applaud the “brave choice” of the contestants, abortion activists misuse language to cloak a deadly practice. Abortion extremists champion it as a “brave choice” - but is abortion truly a choice? How many of us women make the “choice” for abortion from a place of freedom and liberty? Don’t we “choose” abortion precisely because we feel that we have no other options?

Abortion is actually the calculated and intentional extermination of a distinct and unrepeatable human life. Abortion is not a choice for the child, whose life is taken in the process. Abortion is only a choice for the more powerful who inflict not only direct harm on the child at the center of this issue, but also general harm on the body politic by manipulating our vocabulary to mask the malice of their actions.







Pro-choice activists proclaim that abortion is the preeminent choice—the most important choice among many competing but equally praiseworthy options. Indeed, we’re told that without a culture of unregulated abortion, ideally provided at no cost through taxpayer funding, all women would suffer. We’re told that our choices would be narrow and our options few. Our lives would be confined. In order to be truly free, we’re told, we must have the power to end human life.

We know this isn’t true. Abortion can be said to change our options, but the self-harm and violence inherent to abortion never genuinely increases our options. In rejecting the challenge and opportunity of new life, abortion brings mental health challenges of the sort documented by Dr. Priscilla Coleman, ranging from anxiety and depression to substance abuse. The choice of abortion narrows our options precisely because it is an irrevocable choice—we cannot return to the clinic the next day, get a refund, and resume our pregnancy. We cannot turn back time and restore the life of our child. We cannot weigh the options of motherhood, co-parenting, or adoption that were available to us the day before. All we can do is make peace with our decision and attempt to move on with our lives. We have no other choice.

Few women would describe their abortion as an act of free choice. We typically turn to abortion because we see it as a last resort. Catherine Glenn Foster, president & CEO of Americans United for Life, describes this dynamic perfectly: “I went into that [abortion] facility because I didn’t know where else to turn. I didn’t feel like there was any other choice.”

We women should be encouraged and supported when we unexpectedly become pregnant - not coerced. We should look out for our sisters and girlfriends. Like the heroes of The Hunger Games, we should refuse to participate in the culture of violence we’re given by Planned Parenthood and other abortion activists. We need a revolution of the heart on this issue - to affirm ourselves in courage and strength, to reject violence and self-harm, and to be the culture of love and caring that we wish to see.

Evelyn H. Gardett writes for Americans United for Life.





