By Eilish Norwood
As a young woman and member of Gen Z, being against abortion sometimes feels like social suicide.
I began speaking out against abortion when I was 15. It initially took the form of subtle, life-affirming comments in Religion or Science class and posting anti-abortion posts on my Instagram stories.
While I seldom received praise from older folks for my message, I was regularly (and still am) bombarded with attacks from people my age- almost always women - that took the form of social isolation and venomous direct messages on Instagram.
I was told I hate women and am just desperate for male validation (make that make sense), and I even had people wishing death, sexual assault or infertility on me....
It got to the point where I lost many friends and had to forfeit the chance of becoming school captain because of how unpopular I was.
All this coming from the "tolerant generation".
I then was told that I should keep quiet because "no one likes talking politics".
I began to internalise every insult and lost the belief that I could make a career out of this passion. I wanted to do and say so much but I just simply never had the courage, or the resilience to bounce back from the cruelty
This was until I met Dr Joanna Howe on Instagram who gifted me Lila Rose's biography "Fighting for Life".
Lila Rose is the founder of Live Action, one of the most powerful prolife organisations in the world with over 5 million members. Live Action is responsible for projects such as 'Baby Olivia' which follows the gestation of a baby girl and conducts interviews with former abortionists exposing the harsh reality of the abortion procedures they used to perform. It is a movement that is changing hearts and saving lives.
I was beyond excited to read this book and I coincidentally finished it last month, on the first year anniversary of the overturning of Roe v Wade.
What makes this book so profound is how it reveals Lila Rose’s inspirational personal story alongside the chilling reality of ‘big abortion’ in America today.
I was only seven years old when I stumbled upon the word “abortion” through an innocent browse of the dictionary.
I was 16 when I walked through the killing fields of Cambodia.
I was seventeen when I saw my first image of an aborted baby.
Those images never left me, yet I never had the courage to truly speak up. That was until I read this one quote from Lila's book that has stuck with me:
"Evil depends on apathy, our lukewarmness, our attachment to the safe, the familiar, the comfortable."
These words shook me. They speak to every single evil that mankind has encountered. From that moment, I vowed to never "shut up" again, as being too scared to speak because of my "attachment to the comfortable" was perpetuating this evil.
Abortion is the reflection that society has failed to meet the needs of women.
From one anxious advocate to another, I highly recommend this book to help you find your courage to speak up for women and against abortion.
Eilish Norwood is 20 years old in her second year of Law and Arts at the Australian Catholic University