Shawn Carney and Steve Karlen
(ZENIT News / USA, 09.15.2024).- When discussing the transgender craze and abortion, less is often more. But the alliance between the trans movement and the pro-abortion movement has become so aggressive that we can’t avoid talking about it (as much as we might like to).
At first glance, the issues of abortion and LGBTQ appear unrelated. Same-sex relationships are sterile and can’t result in pregnancy. But the homosexual movement has actively inserted itself into the abortion debate because both the trans and pro-abortion movements are built on a shared philosophy: sexual license that accepts no sexual limitations from church, state, or culture.
Abortion advocates and LGBTQ advocates alike generally believe that sex should be free for any reason, with anyone, and with zero consequences. And they demand that this philosophy be accepted by everyone.
The two movements are locked arm-in-arm, not only in principle but financially. This is why you see so many “Pride” flags at pro-abortion events and abortion rights signs at “Pride” parades.
Enter the transgender movement.
Gay rights activists achieved total victory in 2015 when the Supreme Court forced all 50 states to legally recognize same-sex unions as marriages. But the revolution never ends—it just finds a new outlet for upending society. So it’s no surprise that the same year, the TQ (transgender/“queer”) end of the LGBTQ acronym rose to prominence as Olympic legend Bruce Jenner insisted he is a woman named Caitlyn.
Just like the homosexual cause, the trans movement has joined forces with the pro-abortion movement. Abortion appears to be next, as trans advocates shout, “Trans men are men … and sometimes they need abortions!” We are reaching peak insanity.
The pendulum may well swing back toward sanity sooner rather than later because the coalition of sexual deviants supporting the abortion industry becomes increasingly unstable.
The abortion industry long has been allied with a feminist movement built on advancing the interests of women. But now the abortion industry has joined forces with a trans movement that essentially denies there is such a thing as a woman.
Increasingly bizarre rhetoric reveals that the unholy trinity of the abortion industry, radical feminism, and LGBTQ is built on a house of cards. And it’s on the brink of collapse.
Perhaps no two movements in the history of the world have put more emphasis on the reality of biological sex than feminists and homosexuals.
For more than a century, feminists have worked for equality in the workplace, equality in sports, and celebration of the many things that women can do as well as or better than men. This approach is well intentioned—even if it sometimes seriously goes off the rails by veering into advocacy of abortion and other evils.
But whether the feminist movement is right or wrong on a given issue, it’s indisputably true that for feminists being a woman matters. The difference between women and men matters.
Your sex was no more “assigned at birth” than the reproductive organs you have. Vaginas and penises are not interchangeable to feminists. They are absolutely binary, and they are relevant to feminists and to their cause.
Men cannot get pregnant. Men don’t bear the joys and pains of pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Men don’t make the sacrifices necessary to breastfeed their children. The feminists know this as well as anyone, and they have traditionally been the loudest in sharing it.
The homosexual movement, too, understands that “biological sex” is a redundant term. This is why the LGBTQ movement was always destined to fracture.
On one hand, you’ve got the “TQ” side of the acronym that argues an infinite number of genders exist, genders can change, or there’s no such thing as gender. On the other hand, the “LG” side of the acronym takes the reality of biological sex so seriously that homosexual people choose their sexual partners based on the reality of their biological sex.
Homosexual men want to have sex with other men because they’re men. Lesbians want to have sex with women because they’re women.
Homosexual people often go so far as to root their very identity in their attraction to the same sex. They dedicate an entire month to celebrating their attraction to members of the same sex. They spent decades pushing for legal and social recognition of same-sex marriage.
Christians and homosexual activists sharply disagree on the morality of sexual relationships between two individuals of the same sex. But we can at least agree on what those relationships are and who they involve.
Transgender activists throw that shared understanding—which has been in place for all of human history—right out the window. Some insist that gay men actually must be straight trans women. Others insist that lesbians are bigots if they refuse to date trans women (who are actually men).
The previous paragraph would be laughable—if it wasn’t the dominating philosophy in media, politics, business, entertainment, and academia. But the bottom line is, the transgender movement is driving a wedge between itself and some of the other progressive movements you probably think of as their natural allies: the feminist and homosexual movements.
They don’t always admit it publicly, but many feminists and homosexuals are outraged at how the trans movement has hijacked their causes. We got a peek at this when there were split opinions on whether trans women (actual men) could be part of the Women’s March. These types of divisions show why the alliance between feminism and transgenderism isn’t sustainable.
Remember these three points when transgender nonsense enters your discussion of abortion:
First, you’re not crazy. Men cannot be women and women cannot be men. There are two sexes—always have been and always will be. No medication or surgery can change this reality.
To affirm those suffering gender dysphoria is to participate in a lie. We cannot participate in the lie no matter how loudly and forcefully transgender advocates shout. If I demand that you call me a woman (or address me as Frank Sinatra or Rosa Parks or President Ulysses S. Grant), you should not acquiesce.
Second, the notion that men can get pregnant and have babies is the greatest insult to women of our lifetime. And it’s brand new. Can you imagine Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Hillary Clinton, or any feminist from even 20 years ago saying, “Men can have babies”?
But amazingly, some of the same feminists who championed abortion by arguing, “I’m a woman, not a womb,” now reduce their identity to their reproductive capacity by self-identifying as “birthing persons.”
Clearly, the feminist movement has failed if women no longer can claim exclusive domain over the unique genius to conceive, bear, nourish, and nurture another human being. And if men can have babies, it was only a matter of time before we’d be told that men can have abortions.
Third, women who have abortions—whether they regret it or not—know it was a serious and hard decision. The way abortion supporters discuss the topic, you’d get the impression that abortion is the Vince Lombardi Trophy of what women can accomplish in post-Roe America. The staunchest and loudest abortion supporters have turned it into a sacrament.
In this brave new world, the essence of womanhood is access, willingness, and ability to get an abortion. Abortion is seen as the pinnacle of the female experience—socially, politically, and morally. There’s just one problem: Real women don’t agree.
Attacking women in the name of women’s rights isn’t something new. And it’s not something we should fear in conversation.
But the transgender attempt to annihilate women is just one more piece of evidence that the pro-life side is the side of science, reason, nature, compassion, medical alternatives, and—of course—women.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted excerpt from the book “What to Say When 2: Your Proven Guide in the New Abortion Landscape—How to Discuss, Clarify, and Question Abortion in a Hostile Culture” (Kolbe & Anthony, Sept. 10).
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