The Left’s Extreme Positions on Abortion | Bethany Janzen | EP 279

Full Episode Transcript:

Rebecca Weber: Hello, everyone. I’m Rebecca Weber. You’re watching Better for America, presented by AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens. Now, here at AMAC, we believe that the God given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of a pre born baby are just as legitimate And sacred as any other human.

And that’s why I’m thrilled to have with me today, Bethany Jansen. She is the co founder and president of pro life global. And this is an episode folks that you don’t want to miss. So don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back.

Bethany. I want to thank you so much for joining me today. Just a thrill and a joy to have you with me.

Bethany Janzen: Thank you so much for having me on Rebecca.

Rebecca Weber: You know, Bethany, I first, I want to talk about the numbers, uh, roughly 76 percent of all Americans support significant restrictions on abortion and 70 percent are in favor of restricting after the first trimester.

Uh, when I read that just a few days ago, uh, that really, Was uplifting to me, but it’s very clear that the left holds extreme views demanding unrestricted abortion at any time, even up until the delivery date. Uh, Joe Biden is really hoping to win the election on the abortion issue. Uh, tell us how the left uses language really to hide their extreme views and really what all Americans need to know about what we’re up against in order to protect life in the womb.

Bethany Janzen: The left tries to use ideological language that says my body, my choice, and they try to put these very extreme situations of women who are maybe in a pregnancy that’s very difficult pregnancy, or maybe they have a baby who is diagnosed with down syndrome and they will say, okay, this is the circumstance when we need abortion.

And sometimes they will use as these extreme abortions in situations to be able to say, we need late term abortion available now. through all nine months for whatever reason. The reality is though, we’d never need actually a late term abortion, even to save the life of the mother. Why is this the case?

The reason is because we have something called C sections in the United States and in the world, right? That’s a procedure that can be done very, very quickly. I’ve studied the procedures and looked at the demographics or diagrams from late term abortionists and how they do a procedure. takes actually two to three days.

The reason for this is because they have to first kill the child in the womb. Then once that child dies, they induce labor and they will either give birth to a full baby that was, you know, preterm delivered, but the baby’s dead because they were able to kill the baby in the womb first. Or sometimes they will tear the baby apart in that process of labor.

If you do a C section, especially if a woman has very high blood pressure. or some kind of situation where they need to get the baby separated from the mother, that’s able to be done in a couple of hours. And that helps the baby to be able to live and the mother as well. So I think that’s what we really have to understand here is that We can actually have medicine that supports both the life of the mother and the child.

Rebecca Weber: And speaking of medicine, Bethany, the federal government is allowing the use of dangerous chemical abortion drugs. And I also read that this results in up to 1 out of every 22 women who take them ending up in the ER. I mean, if we’re really about protecting women, shouldn’t women be under medical supervision when taking these drugs versus, you know, sending them a chemical abortion?

Kit by mail and then leaving women to fend for themselves with a do it yourself abortion. Why isn’t the Joe Biden administration fighting to protect women as he says he’s, he is, uh, well then protect women and girls health. And look out for their safety, shouldn’t there be a minimum, uh, at a minimum, at least to ensure that these chemical abortion drugs meet the FDA, uh, safety requirements, uh, and, uh, you know, instead of, you know, giving them this watered down standard, uh, to appease the abortion industry.

Bethany Janzen: Absolutely. And that’s what the Supreme Court right now is considering. And the really the question we have, it didn’t used to be that you could just order abortion pills. Right. And get them in the mail, you had to go to a doctor, you had to actually have well, some places are required an ultrasound. I think ultrasound is extremely essential because if you have a tubal pregnancy on those early stages, or maybe you’ve already miscarried and you don’t know it yet.

You need to have a different procedure, especially tubal pregnancy can be very risky if you just take the abortion pills. And it is extremely dangerous, as you said, to have the women be essentially going into labor on their own toilet. Some women have said it’s the most intense pain of their life, but the challenge we face is the Joe Biden administration hasn’t shown that he actually cares about women.

What he cares about is he cares about this ideological concept that Women outside the womb can somehow to have control over their bodies to do what they want to their body. The problem is it doesn’t actually help women and really no woman. Whenever I talk to people, I was at the UN a few weeks ago at the commission, the status of women, and I was having conversations with women who are advocating for abortion internationally to reduce the world population.

And one thing that I brought up is that no woman ever grows up dreaming of getting an abortion. The only reason she ends up in that situation is because she feels like it’s no other option that she has. Maybe it’s financial struggle. Maybe it’s a relationship that’s abusive. Maybe it’s her parents pressuring her.

64 percent of women who get abortions actually say that they were pressured or coerced into it in some way. 64 percent And how can it be actually supporting women’s rights? Women’s autonomy when the majority of women getting abortions didn’t actually had that choice in the first place. That’s why I think we need to create communities that come alongside women and help them in their difficult situation.

Whatever that is to solve the financial problems they’re facing, to get out of abusive relationship, to get to a place where they’re safe so they can feel supported. And then honestly, abortion’s not a It’s not going to be such a difficult question at that point. We don’t need to go about legalizing abortion, promoting unsafe abortion.

That’s not the solution. Abortion is never safe because every abortion ends the life of an innocent human being and sometimes tragically to people’s lives.

Rebecca Weber: You know, and they’re calling, the left is calling abortion reproductive freedom. And I think that this is a bad message for young girls, especially.

I mean, politically speaking, the left has been more effective, I think, at hijacking the abortion narrative. Uh, than the right has, but the reality is the, the left wing abortion policies that continue to trend toward less and less restrictions is very, very extreme. I mean, they’re so extreme, uh, despite this, so many are afraid to really talk about the topic, right?

Why do you think that politicians who are in the pro life camp Are afraid to speak out on this topic that, you know, we love women. We want to support women. We want to rally around women. We want to see abortions rare, uh, and the exception, not the rule. Why aren’t we seeing that kind of talk coming from people on both sides?

But why is the right running away from the whole topic altogether? In your view?

Bethany Janzen: You know, I think. Since the reversal of Roe versus Wade, right, in Joby Bolton, we saw, and this tends to happen every couple of years, there tends to be a shifting in the polls of whether people are pro life or pro choice. In the United States, for the last about 10 years, it’s ranged about 50%, either way, and then every couple of years it will go up or down slightly.

And we see after Doe versus Bolton was passed. The, the other side did a very, very good job of saying, Oh no, we’re having all rights for women taken away essentially. And that was their narrative, you know, bodily autonomy rights for women is being taken away. We need to stand up for our rights. And I think what happened is the right, didn’t have a good narrative to be able to say, Hey, we still have rights.

We’re actually protecting the rights of women by making sure that they’re safe. By making sure that babies in the womb, pre born women are safe. And we are standing up for the truth. We’re standing up for life, which is the most fundamental human right. And that’s what the right needs to be saying. But unfortunately, well, a big part of this also comes down to money.

Let’s admit it. We know that the other side has bigger problems. A lot, a lot of money and that they’ve been able to use these in states that have been having constitutional ballot measures to put abortion on the ballot or not. They have pumped a lot of money, which has then influenced people to vote. to put abortion in the constitution of their states.

We just saw that the Arizona Supreme Court yesterday passed a, or they didn’t pass it, they made a rule. They made a decision going back to a rule from the 1800s that essentially makes abortion illegal in almost all cases. So there’s good news in that score, but we also see this pushback happening in other places of the world.

Like tomorrow, there’s a vote that’s happening at the European Union. And this would say that abortion is a fundamental right if this goes through and then countries all across Europe will be pressured to have to have legal abortion. So we see that in the backlash of Roe versus Wade and Joby Bolton than other places in different parts of the world.

And in the U. S. have tried to say, okay, we need to keep this fundamental right. But again, we need to go back to the most fundamental right. The most fundamental right is life, to be able to live. It’s not to be able to kill someone. They’re saying that reproductive rights means that you have the right to kill someone.

There’s a difference between I have the right to not be raped, and I have the right to kill someone.

Rebecca Weber: I mean, here’s the thing. Most Americans agree that after 15 weeks, 16 weeks, that abortion should be limited. Most Americans agree. 70 upwards of 70 percent agree that abortion should be illegal in the third trimester, the day before birth.

As an example, most Americans, I mean, that’s, and what breaks my heart is that we have a president who, who is politicizing this issue so much so along with Kamala Harris. If you look at her Twitter feed, you’ll see almost every other day she’s going after Donald Trump and his extreme abortion views. It is the only topic that they have to speak on.

It is the only thing that they can fear people into not voting for Trump or voting for them. And they really are twisting the story and the narrative saying, you know, abortion will be illegal when in fact we know that abortion, the decision, uh, whether or not abortion is legal or illegal goes to the states and who makes the decision in those states, the people, the people vote.

Uh, so, you know, this whole idea, uh, that, uh, you know, abortion is outlawed is completely false. It is wrong. And it’s an attack against women in my view. Uh, it also seems U. S. law is not in line, in alignment with, with the rest of the world. 47 out of 50 European countries limit elective abortion to 15 weeks or earlier.

Absolutely. I mean, people need to realize that and hear that, that if you go to Europe, You’re not getting an abortion after 15 weeks in most European countries.

Bethany Janzen: You’re not. I lived in Europe. I lived in Europe for three years and I traveled all across and it’s very true. There’s only a few countries that actually allow abortion after about 15 weeks.

And honestly, people agree with that. As you just mentioned, Americans agree with that. When you look at the studies, when you look at even how big a baby is, a baby in the womb at 12 weeks is this big. So about 10 centimeters, two and a half inches long, all of their organs are developed. Their brainwaves are there, their eyes are there, even their fingernails.

And at that moment, that’s, you just kept growing when you were 12 weeks old in the womb. And I think we need to remember it is extreme to have late term abortion. Absolutely extreme.

Rebecca Weber: And that’s what we’re up against.

Bethany Janzen: Yes!

Rebecca Weber: We’re up against, we’re up against people who currently have a lot of control and power over the laws and decision making in our country who hold such extreme views.

People need to understand that. We’re not talking about a president who’s saying, you know, I’m leave it up to women. You know, I believe in pro choice, it should be rare. As we’ve heard other, other presidents say throughout the decades, we heard from Joe Biden. Uh, 20 years ago that abortion should be rare, we heard, you know, he’s, he’s changed his stance on so many issues, uh, but both Democrat and Republicans, uh, over the years have never really celebrated abortion in the third trimester.

And while I’m entirely pro life, I believe in life from the moment of conception. I find it shocking that there are people who are fighting and trying to convince women that we need to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris so that babies can be, uh, terminated in the womb, uh, when a woman is seven, eight, nine months pregnant.

This is the truth. This is what we’re talking about. And I just wish that, um, there was some common sense among leadership that, that abortion should be rare, they should be limited, and we need to find some common ground. Kamala Harris. She is fear mongering women. She is spreading false lies. She recently tweeted that, quote, If Trump has his way, he’ll gut abortion care in every state across the country.

And then she goes on to say that Joe Biden and I will do everything in our power to restore women’s reproductive freedom. How dangerous are these lies, Bethany?

Bethany Janzen: I got to go to my nephew’s birth about six months ago. I was in the hospital room when he came out of the womb. And when you look at a baby that’s born, You know, they start to cry and you all of a sudden, everybody values that baby.

The reality is that we have States that are at that same exact moment saying that’s okay for that baby. Who’s just come out of the womb. If it’s born alive for an attempted abortion, it’s okay to not help that baby just to set them on a cold, a cold shelf and let him die. That’s the reality that Kamala Harris is advocating for is infanticide.

Yes. And. We know, and I saw my nephew, it wasn’t that a moment before he came out of the womb when all I could see was the head of his, you know, scalp, that he was a blob of tissue that didn’t have value. Everybody recognizes that. And it’s just a question.

Rebecca Weber: That’s a great point. You know, I, I just want to stop you there for a quick moment because, uh, I understand 20 years ago, we didn’t have 30, 50 years ago.

We did not have the, um, the science wasn’t there. We weren’t able to look and see where that baby was at. And a lot of women, 20 years ago, uh, perhaps 30, 40 years ago, really didn’t understand, uh, you know, and, and thought of it more as, you know, it’s not quite a baby yet. And I, I can understand that today.

Uh, with the technology that we have and the science, I think every young child in fifth grade is part of their sexual education should, uh, or perhaps in, in junior high school should see what an abortion really is and how it does take, you know, destroys the life of the baby so that young women, young girls are not setting themselves up.

For, uh, buying into that lie. And then, you know, thinking that abortion is there as a form of birth control. I love women. I love babies and we love life. How do we help these people understand the truth? I know it’s so much of what you do and, and what motivated you, uh, to really commit your life to saving, saving, saving babies and protecting women.

Bethany Janzen: I realized when I was in college that we have to fight for what’s right. That there’s only certain things that the true heroes, so I was very involved in high school in the fighting human trafficking movement, and I still believe that human trafficking is one of the worst evils out there in the world.

That said, I realized that at least to a certain extent, human trafficking is something that is culturally accepted as wrong. We have another evil that affects about one out of three human beings globally. One out of three people is terminated before birth, according to the World Health Organization.

Culturally, it’s accepted. The real heroes, we look at an MLK, we look at all the different heroes throughout history. They’re ones who stood up for what was right, even though it was not culturally accepted. And that’s what I realized. We have to stand up for those one out of three people whose lives matter.

Who have no voice for them. And that’s what a true hero is.

Rebecca Weber: You’re giving a voice to the voiceless. And I think that that is just beautiful. Uh, Bethany, I’d love for you to tell us a little bit more about your pro life global, uh, this is an incredible organization, you know, incredible mission, uh, and how you have really managed to save so many lives and tell people how they can learn more about what you’re doing.

Bethany Janzen: Pro life Global focuses on education support for women in pregnancy crisis. We launch life teams around the world. We’re in 13 countries at the moment. Our teams are in countries from Southeast Asia to Africa, where there’s very, very little support, very little financial or social economic support for girls.

But what we do is we empower Christian leaders. So in churches and schools, we’ve helped these young people to actually start a team in their own high school or their own university. And then they go on the streets. We train them how to have conversations. They go on the streets and have conversations and ask basic questions.

Like, when do you think life begins? What do you think about abortion and use simple tools? For example, pointing out that there’s common ground. Hey, we all agree that in the case of it’s horrible and we should never encourage that, right? We need to help the rape victim. If someone has experienced rape and she goes through with her pregnancy and at the moment of birth, she realizes that her child is a rapist child and not her husband’s baby.

Is it okay for her to end that child’s life? Everyone we’re speaking with would agree that that’s not okay, even though it’s obviously a very traumatic situation for her. That the woman instead needs help, right? She needs, the baby needs help. The woman needs help, you know? So then we can ask the question of what is that difference?

Between that baby outside the womb and the baby in the womb, who is conceived under the same circumstances. And how do we create a society where we’re coming alongside and solving whatever problem that woman faces? And that’s what each life team does that we launch a pro life global comes alongside that woman, whatever her difficult circumstances to help her through that circumstance.

If it’s finding a place to live, finding a job, finding counseling, whatever that is, even if it’s just to support a community, right? That loves her and accepts her for whatever happened. As we launched these life teams, we’ve seen over 233 lives that have been saved in the past three years. And we have loads more because we work replicatively training volunteers around the world.

ProLifeGlobal. org is where you can find out more information. We’d love to get in touch.

Rebecca Weber: Well, you know, Bethany, I’m so proud of you. You started over 20 pro life clubs while working for Students for Life of America. You’ve trained 1, 200 students. Tell us a little bit about what you saw on the college campuses, because many view the college campus as the left wing indoctrination camp.

What has been your experience there?

Bethany Janzen: I would agree. It’s oftentimes difficult to have conversations on colleges, but I find that people are open minded oftentimes. So there’s a certain percentage of people, probably about a third of the population, who really don’t have their mind made up on the issue of abortion.

And those are people that are really open to having conversations. There are people, oftentimes, sadly enough, who have experienced abortion, and they are the ones who get the most intense and reactionary when we are on campus. And what I always like to do in that kind of circumstance, whenever I’m on a program like this, I like to be able to say, Hey, if you know someone who experienced abortion, or if you yourself did know that you can find healing, I want to always ask people what happened and talk through that situation with them.

And then say, Hey, we’re not here to judge you or condemn you. If you are a Christian, you know, that God is a God of mercy. And that’s what Jesus came to die so that we could have forgiveness. And I think that’s really important because we have no one out of every. Four, one out of every three women over age 45 in the United States has experienced abortion.

And that means there’s, there’s probably listeners here who either their best friend did, or they themselves did. And if that’s you, there’s many organizations support after abortion. com is one of them. Save one is another one where you can actually find healing. And to work through that situation so you can actually be a help to others who are in pregnancy crisis to have the support that you wish you might have had that one time.

Rebecca Weber: Very well said. Bethany Jansen. I’m so grateful that you’re here today. And what a great message. Certainly, we don’t want to condemn women. We want to support, put our arms around, help them heal, uh, and encourage them to reach across the aisle to other people, to other women, uh, and men, and just remind them of how beautiful life is and that there is support.

There are so many great organizations. Yours is one of them. Thank you again, Bethany Jansen. God bless you.

Bethany Janzen: Thank you, Rebecca.

Rebecca Weber: And to all of you out there listening, be sure to join or renew with amac. We need your voice so that when we go to Washington and we say we have over 2 million Americans that stand in support of AMAC and our priorities, we bring your voice to Washington and we need more.

More members, there is strength in members. Thank you all so much for tuning in today. I’m Rebecca Weber. Have a blessed day. We’ll see you next time.