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Jane St. Croix Ireland: A larger view of this life

Jane St. Croix Ireland
Guest Commentary

What “Right to Lifers” fail to comprehend is that life is not limited to this dimension of reality that we’re currently inhabiting. Life is eternal. The universe is unlimited. If a soul is denied entrance into this plane through a particular woman, it will find its expression elsewhere.

I’ve never had an abortion and I’m not advocating it as a method of birth control. Ideally, both women and men would be conscientious enough to always take precautions. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. We all make mistakes.

However, forcing women to go through with unwanted pregnancies has consequences for all. My biological mother subscribes to an evangelical doctrine, so when she got pregnant out of wedlock, abortion was not an option. As an unwelcome child who was given up for adoption, I can tell you firsthand that separation from the mother I gestated in for nine months was devastating. It took tremendous effort to overcome what felt like rejection on an absolute cellular level. It had a profound impact on her, which she’s never come to terms with. Having a child and giving it up irrevocably alters both lives.



Being forced to have a child, provide for and raise it alters lives. I’ve seen many clients who have had their dreams derailed by unplanned children. These women end up loving their kids, yet many of them have gotten stuck in stifling jobs because of their obligations. How well does that really serve anyone? Some have been able to get back on a more fulfilling track, others have not. A child knows when it’s not really wanted, and the psychological damage can leave tremendous scars.

One client was certain that her boyfriend was not the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. She knew she didn’t want more children and that she was ready to leave. When she started moving out she discovered she was pregnant. She had contracted herpes, as well. Because of the outbreak, the abortion couldn’t be performed right away, and she would have to wait several weeks. In that time the pressure got to her and she was unable to remain true to herself. She talked herself into having the child and settled with marrying. It was hard to watch. I’ve lost contact with her, so I don’t know how it turned out.




I’ve seen numerous clients who have had abortions. It’s taken them monumental effort to work through the guilt and mourning and move on. Much of their suffering is influenced by the demonizing culture that makes a way bigger issue of abortion than there needs to be. This culture makes unfounded claims that not only are women who have abortions wicked, they’re more like to end up experiencing long-term mental health consequences and even physical ailments such as cancer.

According to Anna M. Peterson, a history professor at Luther College, “Prior to the late 19th century, aborting an early pregnancy was considered a private matter controlled by women and was not a crime. Most people did not believe human life was present until a woman felt the first fetal movements, a phenomenon referred to as quickening. Prior to quickening, they took herbal abortifacients. The practice was not considered abortion.

“In the late 19th century, doctors, social reformers, clergy members and politicians made abortion unto a social, political and religious issue. Women’s experiences of quickening were discredited as unscientific and medical doctors became the recognized experts on pregnancy and fetal development. Doctors lobbied state governments to change laws to reflect their new way of thinking. By 1900, Western European countries and the United States had outlawed abortion during all stages of pregnancy.

“During the last half of the 19th century, social scientists began to publish statistics comparing birth rates among nations. Statesmen feared that if women chose to have fewer children then this would decrease their nation’s ability to compete in modernized warfare. As Theodore Roosevelt put it in 1894, women of ‘good stock’ who refused to have children were ‘race criminals.’

Increased scrutiny of pregnancy and childbirth coincided with a push by medical doctors to increase their professional influence. In the United States, the newly created American Medical Association initiated an anti-abortion campaign in 1857 as part of its efforts to professionalize and to restrict competition from homeopaths and midwives. They lobbied for the criminalization of abortion, capitalizing on fears that not enough white, native-born women were having children.

“By 1900, abortion had been culturally and politically redefined as the taking of a human life — an immoral and illegal act. The shift in attitudes toward pregnancy and abortion that had been championed by doctors and church officials led politicians in most Western countries to enact anti-abortion legislation. What had once been considered a private matter minimally legislated by the state had become a public concern worthy of punishment. Women’s bodily experiences were viewed with distrust and their efforts to control their fertility often deemed criminal.”

Humanity is on its slow path of evolution. Eventually, everyone will recognize that they are eternal beings. Rather than buying into religious dogmas that place the divine outside of themselves, they’ll know it’s within them. They’ll have the ability to connect with it themselves. They’ll no longer need religious figures to intercede on their behalf, tell them what the rules are and try to impose limited beliefs on others. They’ll have respect for all of life.

When people are governed by consciousness, there will be greater mindfulness and less need for abortion. However, if the need does arise, they’ll approach it consciously. As Carolyn Myss has said, when a mother is able to communicate with the soul of the incoming child and let it know the time is not right, it may abort spontaneously. If an abortion is performed consciously, it doesn’t become as traumatic an event. Everything is in divine order, always. Eventually it will be obvious to everyone that each of us is responsible for own choices and that all women have the right to make theirs.

Jane St. Croix Ireland is an intuitive reader and teacher. For more than a decade, she’s helped hundreds across the county reach their full potential and live healthy, happy, successful, abundant, fulfilling lives. You may view her work and other writings at http://www.janestcroix.com.