NEW YORK, NY (LifeSiteNews) — On Thursday, September 9, I listened as President Biden spoke to the nation about his new mandates. His bullying and condemning tone was clear as he informed us his patience was “wearing thin” and placed the blame for the virus on those who are unvaccinated against COVID-19.
Taking an entirely different approach, New York’s Mayor De Blasio tries to entice those not vaccinated by offering incentives, including $100 to anyone who would get the shot at a city-run site.
There is no doubt that there is a lot of coercion going on when it comes to the COVID vaccine. Although they are trying to say it is a “choice,” threats of loss of jobs, limits to where you can go, and the stripping of things you hold dear or need to survive make it anything but a “choice.”
Because of its association with aborted fetal cells, many have made the decision not to get the shot. I am one of them. No matter how long ago the cells were obtained or how remote they are, I in good conscience cannot receive the vaccine.
Having spent decades of my life suffering from a coerced saline abortion in my teens in which I saw my aborted son, it is unthinkable to me to have anything to do with the vaccines now available. No amount of coercion, whether in the form of reward or bullying, will ever change my mind. I am not judging anyone for their personal decision; all I know is I could never live with myself if I took the vaccines now available.
As the mandates unfold, I have been struck with the similarities of the coercion to take the shot and the coercion I experienced prior to having an abortion I did not want. I was kicked out of the house by my father as a teenager with no money, no job, and nowhere to live. Cut off from all I knew and loved I caved into the pressure to terminate the life of my unborn son knowing I was going against all I believed in. I was alienated, afraid, and could not see a way out of the situation. When it was over, society called it my “free choice,” but it was anything but.
This scenario happens to countless numbers of women everyday in our country, but unfortunately their voices are not only never heard, but blatantly denied by the those who would like to see any restrictions on abortion refused, even when the baby’s heart is beating as stated in the new Texas law.
As a result of my experience, I and many others who have experienced abortion and horrors it brought into their lives have refused the vaccine. Often pressured by others to abort and having walked the long and difficult road of healing, they have vowed to listen to their conscience and trust in themselves. They know all too well the repercussions of doing otherwise.
Sadly, this administration which is extremely pro-abortion, promoting it at any time for any reason and even forcing others to pay for it, are doing the same thing others have done to them in pressuring them to have abortions. For this administration, “my body my choice” (which we all know is not true – the baby has his or her own body) does not adhere to that philosophy when it comes to deciding to take the COVID vaccine. The denial of work which is needed to support families is an all too familiar manipulation to try to get people to do what they want. Coercion!
Sadly, even some churches are not offering protection, telling members even though the jab is unethical it is “morally acceptable,” and even promoting the vaccine as “for the good of all” despite its association with aborted fetal cells. It is hard for me to reconcile how something unethical is morally acceptable or for the good of all when it is associated with aborted babies. In our country over 62 million babies have been aborted since 1973, and aborted bodies are continually used in experiments.
It is hard to turn on the TV without seeing a commercial pushing the vaccine. I often wonder how much money we have spent in advertising, and frankly it stumps me that, instead of trying to bully, we have not used that money to fast track an ethically acceptable vaccine, if the goal is to get people vaccinated. Here we are a year and a half later, and still no ethical vaccines are in sight.
Have people really thought about how people who refuse these vaccines are willing to die rather than to take it? That many are willing to give up the ability to care for their families rather than to cave into the pressure? Do people think they want to suffer this way? Discord in families, loss of friends, jobs: imagine what it would take inside for people to subject themselves to this, and yet nothing is done to resolve the issue. There is only more coercion.
Over the years since my abortion, I have wished many times that I had been stronger as a teen and stood up to the pressures to abort my unborn baby. Sadly, at that time I was not strong enough and caved into the pressures. I am grateful to have, after many years, found healing, but many continue to live in the silence of shame alone in their hearts holding a secret they dare do not tell. Despite my healing, it is still something I will carry with me until the day I die. The difference between then and now with the vaccine is I will never give in. I know there will be suffering (there already is), and repercussions because of my decision, but I also know no matter what I may suffer, it will never be as bad as going against my personal conscience in doing something I know all too well is wrong for me or the agony my son experienced as they ended his life.
Theresa Bonopartis is the co-developer with the Sisters of Life of “Entering Canaan – a Sacramental Journey to an Inheritance of Mercy”, a post abortion ministry approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops . Having experienced abortion herself, Bonopartis’ journey of healing inspired “An Afternoon of Prayerful Remembrance and Intercession“, a prayer service she developed with the Family Life Office of New York, which has been televised by EWTN and conducted by many diocese across the country.
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