March 8, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Today is International Women’s Day, a day when we celebrate the existence of women and the excellence of their accomplishments. Today, we celebrate our mothers and sisters, aunts and grandmothers, friends and family members, role models and heroines. Today, we pay our respects to those courageous women who have gone before us and laid the very foundation upon which we stand. And today, we repay this kindness that has been shown to us by recommitting to leave a legacy of justice, truth, and equality for the next generation.
But I approach today with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Because I know that, no matter how important this day may be to me as a young pro-life woman, there are those who would seek to serve their own corrupt interests and use this vitally important day to exploit and manipulate women.
Over the past three years, I have taken many feminism courses. I have sat in on dozens of lectures about the supposed joys and so-called accomplishments of radical feminist theorists and activists. I have been required to listen to presentations about how to use sex toys, about how human trafficking is a nonexistent phenomenon, and about how prostitution could secretly be my calling in life. But the most upsetting thing of all is that I paid for an education and received this indoctrination.
The one benefit of my extremist program is that it has presented me with key questions that I have used to strengthen my own beliefs about social justice issues and human rights. One such question is this:
What does it mean to be an empowered woman?
If radical pro-abortion feminists are to be believed, an empowered woman is one who will grow up with easy access to prostitution, pornography, and abortion.
If radical pro-abortion feminists are to be believed, an empowered woman is one who is willing to sacrifice motherhood in order to avoid being fired, being kicked out of her home, or being unable to finish her education.
If radical pro-abortion feminists are to be believed, an empowered woman is one who is able to freely access reproductive services — and by “services,” they mean exclusively abortion-on-demand, of course. Why? Because no empowered woman would expect a so-called “women’s healthcare” organization like Planned Parenthood to offer mammograms or prenatal care. Please. While Planned Parenthood has consistently promised that it offers these services, they really don’t. And an empowered woman would know this. Because an empowered woman does not need prenatal care. All she needs is abortion.
This is the radical pro-abortion feminist caricature of the empowered woman, a series of falsehoods that are sold to me over and over, whether in my feminist classrooms or in mainstream media.
But, thankfully, I know better than to believe their rhetoric. Because, thankfully, I am an empowered woman, not a radical pro-abortion feminist.
So let us examine this question from the perspective of a young pro-life woman:
What does it mean to be an empowered woman?
I believe that an empowered woman is one who is able to recognize both the privileges that she holds and the responsibilities that she must uphold as a member of society.
I believe that an empowered woman is one who is able to pursue her dreams — whether it be starting up a new business or finishing law school — without being asked, expected, or required to sacrifice her motherhood and allow someone to end the life of her child.
I believe that an empowered woman is one who is able to make a true choice when it comes to key issues, whether it be prostitution or abortion.
I believe that an empowered woman is one who is able to access all manner of reproductive services, including mammograms and prenatal care.
I believe that an empowered woman is one who is able to respect the differences between reproductive rights and human rights.
I believe that an empowered woman is one who is able to see that women deserve better than abortion.
I believe that an empowered woman is one who is able to choose life or choose adoption.
Because I believe that an empowered woman is one who is able to demand her rights as a woman without requiring that the rights of others be sacrificed for her sake.
This is my definition, at least when it comes to key social justice issues related to sex and reproduction. It is not a complete definition, and it is constantly expanding as more women push against the constraints that have been placed on them by radical feminists and challenge those ridiculous feminist assumptions about what is best for women. But as imperfect or incomplete as this definition may be, it is the one that I am working with.
So today, on International Women’s Day, these are the empowered women that I want to honor.
I want to honor the birth mothers who made immense personal sacrifices so that their children could live.
I want to honor the women who face crisis pregnancies and choose life in spite of the overwhelming pressure to abort.
I want to honor women like my mother who have overcome the trauma of an abortion experience and now resist the feminist rhetoric that says abortion is the only option.
And I want to honor the original feminists, those empowered pro-life women who fought for authentic equality and true choice.
I am proud to be a woman, and I love my fellow women.
So today, I join them in celebrating International Women’s Day. Not in order to perpetuate myths about abortion as being a cure-all solution to women’s problems; rather, in order to advance a pro-life message of truth, justice, and equality that gives women the opportunity to live as empowered mothers, to live as empowered women who give the gift of life and, in doing so, change the world.
Lia Mills first stepped onto the stage of activism at the age of 12, and she has continued being a voice for the voiceless. Her most recent video addresses the question: Is it possible to be pro-woman, pro-choice, and pro-life?