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Mar and Carly, co-creators of the book 'What's an Abortion Anyway?' reading the book live on Instagram.whatsanabortionbook / Instagram

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June 22, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Back in 2019, I reviewed a fantastic new book called Pro-Life Kids! by Bethany Bomberger, wife of pro-life activist Ryan Bomberger and co-founder of The Radiance Foundation. It is a Dr. Seuss-style book on life in the womb and why pre-born babies should be protected, written in an age-appropriate fashion. Children instinctively recognize the preciousness of babies in the womb, and Bomberger’s beautiful children’s book helps to ground those instincts.

Earlier this year, a very different sort of book was released. What’s an Abortion, Anyway? is a so-called children’s book produced by two abortion doulas: Mar, who utilizes the pronouns “they/them,” is “a brown genderqueer” who uses the name “Emulsify,” and is in a same-sex relationship with a woman who provided the illustrations. Carly Manes, who describes herself as a “white, queer” woman who “has been a practicing abortion doula for over six years, supporting more than 2,000 individuals during their in-clinic procedures” provided the text.

According to Mar and Carly, the book is intended to help children understand abortion and those who have had abortions. They also emphasize that people “of all gender identities get pregnant,” and thus people of all “gender identities” also get abortions. Their book, they state, “honors” all those who get abortions, and their book is dedicated to women who have chosen to abort their children. This is unsurprising, considering how committed the authors are to mainstreaming feticide – Manes, after all, has been party to at least 2,000 abortions through her work.

Not surprisingly, the book is rife with disinformation from the get-go. They describe a miscarriage not as the loss of a child, but as a process where a “pregnancy” isn’t healthy enough to keep growing. This will be understandably confusing to children who know, instinctively, that it is a baby, not a pregnancy, that is growing. They use the same sleight of hand to describe killing a baby in the womb: “An abortion is when someone decides to stop growing their pregnancy.” 

They then explain that there are many ways of “removing the pregnancy” – with pills, through a doctor-administered surgical procedure – and state that abortion is “safe” because “millions of people” have them. They also indicate that women (“people”) have abortions for different reasons – some because “they like their family exactly as it is”; some because “they can’t take care of a new baby right now.” Of course, the rest of the book refers not to “babies” but to “pregnancies” to ensure that children aren’t too traumatized by what abortion actually is. 

The book – which you can watch the authors read here if you wish – was funded via Kickstarter, where Mar and Carly raised $23,492 to produce “a book for kids about abortion care [sic] that is gender inclusive, medically accurate, and age-appropriate.” Their hope is to get the book into public libraries so that abortion can be normalized for children who may be missing siblings or other family members because of abortion – but who just need a colorfully-illustrated piece of propaganda to persuade them that abortion “stops a pregnancy” rather than kills a baby.

In recent years, the children’s sections of public libraries have been swamped by books promoting transgenderism, alternative “family” arrangements, the LGBT agenda, and now, presumably, abortion. Pro-life parents should respond by reading books that promote the value and dignity of every human life to their children – Bethany Bomberger’s Pro-Life Kids! is one great resource, and there are others. The same abortion activists who are appalled that children attend the March for Life are happy to push abortion books for the children who survived their worldview. 

Life is beautiful. Abortion is murder. These truths should not be covered up.

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Jonathon Van Maren is a public speaker, writer, and pro-life activist. His commentary has been translated into more than eight languages and published widely online as well as print newspapers such as the Jewish Independent, the National Post, the Hamilton Spectator and others. He has received an award for combating anti-Semitism in print from the Jewish organization B’nai Brith. His commentary has been featured on CTV Primetime, Global News, EWTN, and the CBC as well as dozens of radio stations and news outlets in Canada and the United States.

He speaks on a wide variety of cultural topics across North America at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions. Some of these topics include abortion, pornography, the Sexual Revolution, and euthanasia. Jonathon holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in history from Simon Fraser University, and is the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

Jonathon’s first book, The Culture War, was released in 2016.