by Frankie Ann Smythe
Once upon a time there was a beautiful land. The people were smart. They were creative. They liked new things and new ideas. They were forward-thinking.
The good machine
They built a big, shiny machine in the center of their beautiful land. They cleaned and polished the outside of the machine every day. When the people walked by the machine, they marveled at the sparkling new machine. So smart. So creative. So forward-thinking. The lawmakers said yes to the machine, so the people knew that the machine was good for them. What a good machine.
The good words
The machine had a voice… a voice that spoke good words every day. And the people loved the words. The words made them feel good about themselves and about the machine. It was a good machine. A machine that spoke good words.
The machine spoke words like freedom, planned, women’s rights and health care. The machine’s favorite word was choice. The people loved the words. And they loved the machine.
The machine spoke all day every day. It spoke on the news shows the people watched. It spoke on the radio. It spoke on talk shows. It spoke in their newspapers and magazines. The people talked about the shiny machine and its good words as they walked through town, as they stood with their friends and as they sat down at home. They liked the machine’s words so much that they repeated the words. The machine was so smart. And the people were smart too.
The people were so proud of their new, shiny machine. The machine that spoke the good words. The machine that made them feel good. Life was better than ever. What a good, smart, shiny machine.
The food factories
The machine grew every day. The people built food factories all across the land to feed the machine. The smart people in the beautiful land drove past the food factories every day. And the people were silent.
The women walked into the food factories and they fed the machine. The good machine. The smart machine. The shiny machine. When they walked into the food factories, they were silent. When they walked out of the food factories, they were silent. And the machine grew. Every day the machine grew.
The lumps
The machine’s voice could be heard all day every day, speaking the good words: freedom, planned, women’s rights, health care and the best word of all—choice. The people loved that word. And the machine told the people that the food was just a lump. Lumps are bad. Lumps sound like cancer or something dangerous. Goodness. What smart person wouldn’t want to get rid of a lump. Besides, a lump might steal someone’s freedom. Like the machine said: The food is just a lump.
Not talking
No one wanted to talk about what was feeding the machine or who was feeding the machine. They just knew that the machine was good and smart. The people loved the machine.
A few of the people became afraid of what might be inside the machine—what might be feeding the machine. But they knew that everyone loved the machine, so they didn’t say anything. They didn’t want to make the machine mad. Or the people who loved the machine. The good, smart, shiny machine.
Question and answer
The teenagers asked their moms about the machine. They asked their moms about the new word—abortion. When I was a teenager, I asked my mom, “What do you think about abortion?” And she answered me with the good words—with the machine’s mantra: “I think it’s a woman’s right to choose.”
My mom went to church three times a week every week. So did I. The good people who went to church heard the machine’s good words and they spoke the machine’s good words. What a good, smart, shiny machine.
The machine kept talking and growing. The people were silent. And the church was silent.
Secrets
Lots of people walked into the food factories that were all across the land. Rich people. Poor people. Young people. Old people. Married people. Single people. The people who walked into the food factories had secrets. When they walked out of the food factories, they had the biggest secret of all. The secret that could never be spoken. Never.
The machine kept talking and growing. The people were silent. The church was silent. And the people who walked into the food factories were silent.
Punished
A few people with the name Christian spoke out against the machine. They knew what was feeding the machine. The first ones who spoke out were punished severely by the machine. They were called fanatics. They were called crazy. They were called radical. They were trying to steal the people’s freedom and choices! Who would dare to speak out against our good, smart, shiny machine. The smart people who loved the machine shook their heads at those stupid dissidents. How ridiculous could someone be.
The machine kept talking and growing. The people were silent. The church was silent. The people who walked into the food factories were silent. And the Christians were silent.
Special food factories
The food factories had good words on their signs out front. Words like clinic, planned and women’s center. Some food factories were big. Some were small. A handful of them were special. They allowed the children to come and feed the machine. The Daddies Who Did Bad Things would bring their nine- and 10-year-old daughters to the special food factories far away, across state lines. The Daddies Who Did Bad Things knew where the special food factories were—the food factories who welcomed children. Those little lumps inside those little girls were especially dangerous. Those little lumps were evidence of what those daddies had done, so those little lumps were fed to the machine. The little girls walked into the special food factories with their secrets and they walked out with the biggest secret of all. The secret that could never be spoken. Never.
The machine kept talking and growing. The people were silent. The church was silent. The people who walked into the food factories were silent. The Christians were silent. And the police departments were silent.
The interview
One of the doctors at one of the special food factories located in the hamlet called Dallas did an interview for a TV station in the village called Austin. He talked about the nine-year-old girls that he gave health care to so they could feed the machine. He talked about his part in feeding the machine and he called it killing. After the interview, he went back to his food factory and kept feeding the machine.
The machine kept talking and growing. The people were silent. The church was silent. The people who walked into the food factories were silent. The Christians were silent. The police departments were silent. And the news reporters were silent.
The drivers
Different people drove the women, the teenagers and the little girls to the food factories for the machine. Maybe it was the boyfriend’s mother. And after the boyfriend’s mother took the teenager to feed the machine, that 15-year-old never saw her boyfriend again. Sometimes a friend who loved the machine would drive her friend to the food factory. Sometimes a husband or boyfriend drove. Sometimes a mom drove her daughter. Sometimes a dad drove his daughter. (Sometimes he was the lump’s daddy too.)
Sometimes the people who drove reminded the women, the teenagers and the little girls that they were doing the right thing. Who wouldn’t want to feed a machine that’s so good, smart and shiny? Who wouldn’t want to take care of their problems? Who wouldn’t want to be free? Who wouldn’t want to get rid of a lump?
One day my first husband drove me to the food factory. He really liked the word freedom. He was a regular at the food factories. He drove his first wife there twice. I was silent when I walked in and I was silent when I walked out. I walked in with my secrets and I walked out with the biggest secret of all. The secret that could never be spoken. Never.
The machine kept talking and growing. The people were silent. The church was silent. The people who walked into the food factories were silent. The Christians were silent. The police departments were silent. The news reporters were silent. And the drivers were silent.
Forced food
Sometimes when a woman tried to feed the machine, the food for the machine came out with a life of its own. Once in a while the new life was allowed to stay. The new life was given to somebody else. But most of the time the new life was smothered or left somewhere until it stopped moving. The food for the machine was not supposed to move or make any noise. Good grief. In Dr. Gosnell’s clinic in the town of Philadelphia, the food with a life of its own was snipped. They cut its spine with scissors and tossed the lump to the side.
The machine kept talking and growing. The people were silent. The church was silent. The people who walked into the food factories were silent. The Christians were silent. The police departments were silent. The news reporters were silent. The drivers were silent. And the workers were silent—the doctors, the nurses and the abortion workers. They were silent.
40 days
As time passed in the beautiful land with the smart people, more of the people were sad about the machine; about the women, the teenagers and the little girls who fed the machine; and most of all—about the lumps of food for the machine. When they heard words like freedom and choice, they knew the machine was lying. They prayed, they came together and they picked up signs. One of these groups called their project 40 Days for Life. They prayed and fasted. They wanted the machine to be torn down. They stood outside food factories and prayed for an end to the machine and its food factories. They were faithful and peaceful.
Some of the food factories shut down. But the machine kept talking and growing. The good, smart, shiny people kept feeding the good, smart, shiny machine. The people worshiped the machine. The people worshiped the good, smart, shiny machine.
Other food
Lumps weren’t the only food for the machine. Some of the women who went to the food factories died at the factories or after they went home. They were fed to the machine. Sometimes lawyers gave their families money to shut them up. Other women who went to the food factories killed themselves later. They were fed to the machine. Some of the women who went to the food factories killed themselves later with alcohol or drugs. Their bodies were fed to the machine too.
The machine kept talking and growing. The people were silent. The church was silent. The people who walked into the food factories were silent. The Christians were silent. The police departments were silent. The news reporters were silent. The drivers were silent. The abortion doctors, nurses and workers were silent. And sometimes the relatives of the dead women were silent. So were the lawyers for the food factories.
Important things
The smart people who lived in the beautiful land talked about things that were important. Things like birthday parties, sports, TV shows, their new shoes… things like that. You know—important things. They drove past the food factories every day while they were going somewhere important. You know—someplace like Sonic or Chick-fil-A. When they drove past the food factories, the smart people going to important places were silent.
The machine kept talking and growing. And the people were silent.
Factory #1
The biggest chain of food factories was very proud of its planning. I’ll call it Factory #1. Abby Johnson was a director of one of the Factory #1 locations. One year the Factory #1 Corporation picked Abby as their best employee for the whole land—the beautiful land filled with smart people.
One day while Abby was working at Factory #1, she was asked to help make a food harvesting movie. It was called a sonogram. She was horrified by the food harvesting movie. The food wasn’t a lump after all. The food was a baby. The food was a person. The food was alive and moving. The food was trying to get away from the food harvesting vacuum. And then the baby was dead. The baby was fed to the machine. The good, smart, shiny machine.
The new movement
Abby left her job at Factory #1. She talked to the Christians at 40 Days for Life. Her famous, successful Factory #1 location eventually shut down. The people at 40 Days for Life converted the once-thriving food factory into their international headquarters.
Abby decided to speak out against Factory #1 and the machine. She spoke at churches, she wrote books and she built websites. One of her websites encourages the food factory workers to leave their food factories and to stop feeding the machine. She speaks for the new movement. The movement is called pro-life.
One out of three women in the beautiful land fed the machine. The women who walked silently into the food factories and fed the machine needed healing. The secret enslaved them. They needed to tell their stories. They started Silent No More. Sometimes the women hold signs with the people at 40 Days for Life. The signs say, “I regret my abortion.”
Post-script
If you go to the Silent No More website, you can see a list. A long list of names. The names belong to the women in the beautiful land who died from their abortions. And on that list you’ll see a 13-year-old girl named Dawndalea from New York. Her mom called her Dawn. She’s dead. Dawn’s 13-year-old body fed the machine.
The good, smart, shiny machine.
More
Information
Interview on KVUE
Babies smothered, etc.
Dr. Gosnell
From food factory to 40 Days for Life headquarters
Abby Johnson websites
Main website
And Then There Were None
Abby Johnson books
Unplanned
The Walls are Talking
Women killed by abortion
Silent No More
Post-abortion healing
For my story about post-abortion healing, read The Trauma of Abortion.
Recommended weekend retreats and support groups
Someone Cares ~ Dallas/Ft. Worth area
Rachel’s Vineyard ~ nationwide
Deeper Still (Dallas/Ft. Worth area) ~ for women, men and couples
Deeper Still (nationwide) ~ for women, men and couples
Recommended books
Fatherhood Aborted ~ highly recommended for all adults
Her Choice to Heal
A recommended movie
To see this issue through many different eyes, watch October Baby.