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August 29, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The abortion industry is full of tales of hopelessness. Mothers, told they are not good enough or competent enough to raise their own children. Mothers experience shoddy medical care and years of grief which, like an abuse victim, they believe they “deserve.”

Even with that background, nothing quite prepared me for reading an article published yesterday in the Irish Times titled, “My mother tried to abort me but I am still pro-choice.,” in which an anonymous writer feels she is serving the world by broadcasting her palpable lack of joy over her own life.

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The credited author is Emer O’Toole, who says she was spurred to write by her disgust at “smiling pictures” of “an anti-choice advocate who claims to have been born following an unsuccessful abortion.”

She blasts “the existence of such Bible-thumpers,” presumably like Gianna Jessen, who shared her story and the stage with me at this year’s CPAC conference. Her life is an inspiration, and she’s far from alone.

The heart (so to speak) of O’Toole’s article is not written by O’Toole but by an anonymous woman who survived an abortion. We’re told that “Maria” survived an attempted abortion inside a country that prohibits most abortions, is now a scientist, and supports abortion-on-demand.

“Maria” writes that she learned about the circumstances of her birth after her mother told her at age 14 or 15, “I should have aborted you – and I did!” She then proceeded to explain the pills she took failed to abort her daughter.

“It p–sed me off,” Maria confessed.

But like a lot of abuse victims, she appears to have internalized the criticism.

With an abundance of low self-esteem, and aware of the corner into which she is painted, she wrote:

Am I glad that she didn’t succeed? I don’t really care. I am glad I am alive, but not necessarily because I am glad my mother didn’t do it. I shouldn’t have a say in it. It’s her body. It’s her choice.

“It would have been much better for my mum’s mental and physical health if she had had the abortion,” she wrote. That’s a sad self-assessment, since we know from her article that her mother did not experience “a serious physical situation” during the pregnancy.

“Maria” holds forth:

It was never an idea for me that women shouldn’t be given the right to abort because their kids could grow up, get an education, get a good life, all that.

When it comes to anti-abortion laws, if it’s not religious or it’s not political, it’s always very sentimental: it makes your eyes teary, but it doesn’t solve many women’s problems.

Actually, for me becoming prolife was entirely scientific. I invite our scientist to follow suit, perhaps breaking ground by disproving the scientific consensus that life begins at conception.

In the meantime, you can read her whole article here.

But don’t stop there, or you might want to end your own life.

When you’re done, be sure to read this story from Rebecca Kiessling about how her mother tried to abort her, twice. As you read, contrast Maria’s indifference to life with the sheer joy expressed by Kiessling, who makes it a habit to tell people, “Happy birthday – I'm so glad you were born!”

How can you bring joy into others’ lives when your ideology keeps you from celebrating your own?

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Ben Johnson is U.S. Bureau Chief of LifeSiteNews.com. The author of three books, Ben was Managing Editor of FrontPage Magazine from 2003-10. He is also a regular guest on the AFR Talk network's “Nothing But Truth with Crane Durham.”