Rivers of Blood: Understanding the Deeper Roots of the Rage and Hysteria of the Anti Kavanaugh Protestors

By Kevin Burke, LSW

In a New York Times op-ed Democratic Strategist Alexis Grenell writes:

“After a confirmation process where women all but slit their wrists, letting their stories of sexual trauma run like rivers of blood through the Capitol, the Senate still voted to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.”

Grenell tosses a feminist grenade at those women who, out of a concern for the men they love, supported Kavanaugh:

“These women are gender traitors…the people who scare me the most are the mothers, sisters and wives because my stupid uterus still holds out some insane hope of solidarity…”

On Saturday, as Judge Kavanaugh was taking his oath to serve on the Supreme Court, a largely female contingent of protesters broke through a police line to the Court’s chamber. They stood before the large chamber doors screaming, pounding and clawing at the doors trying to enter the chamber and disrupt the confirmation process.

Regardless of your political loyalties, we all know what this confirmation hearing was really about…abortion.

But it’s not just the normal political and ideological conflicts that rage about the issue of “reproductive rights.” We need to dig deeper.

Sexual abuse and abortion loss are two volatile experiences of trauma and complicated grief that are exploited by some liberal politicians and radical social movements.

Women and men with trauma in their history (physical/sexual abuse, divorce, abortion loss etc.), without an emotional and spiritual healing of their trauma, are vulnerable to directing their powerful feelings of anger and pain into radical social activism.

Complex Grief and Pro Abortion Activism

After an abortion some women turn to pro abortion activism as a way to validate their choice and re-direct the powerful emotional energy arising from this loss.

Some of the key pioneers of “reproductive rights,” such as Kate Michelman who served for many years as the director of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), and feminist Gloria Steinem, zealously promoted abortion rights after their personal abortions.

Abortion, regardless of the circumstances, is a complex experience of loss. Abortion severs a perfectly natural and intimate physiological and emotional relationship between a woman and her developing child.

The powerful emotions generated from the abortion event can be successfully repressed for many years as women and men focus on educational and career pursuits. [i]

Others divert any abortion related grief and pain, and validate their own abortion decision, by “empowering” other women to make the same “choice” as they did.

Sarah Weddington, the attorney representing the Jane Roe in the 1973 Roe V Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, travelled to Mexico to abort her unborn child in the fall of 1967.

Norma McCorvey, (the Jane Roe of Roe V Wade) shared in a radio interview about her lunch meeting with Sarah Weddington in 1970. Sarah was trying to convince Norma to be a plaintiff in the case. Norma already had 2 children and a failed marriage, with a family history of abuse and addiction. This meeting between Sarah Weddington and Norma McCorvey was held on the anniversary of Sarah’s abortion in Mexico.

Men can also find an outlet for their painful feelings arising from participating in the death of their unborn child, by promoting abortion rights.

Consider that a key strategist in the plan to legalize abortion in the U.S., Dr Bernard Nathanson, was himself the father of an aborted child, and experienced a painful relationship with his own father.

The late Dr Nathanson’ denial, and sick mastery of his own abortion related grief, led him to preside as medical director of an abortion center in over 60,000 abortions, including an abortion procedure he performed on his own unborn child. (You can read more about Dr Nathanson’s amazing life story in my article “The Sins of the Father.”)

Leslie Blackwell of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign shares about her pro-choice activism after an abortion:

“I discovered I was pregnant and I had just landed my dream job as a TV Talk Show Host. A roommate drove me to an abortion clinic in Greensboro, N.C. After graduation, I threw myself into the new job creating a façade of the perfect young career girl who had it all together … drinking, drugging and sleeping around … self destructing. Trying to validate my choices, I became a strong pro-abortion supporter and at times militant with anyone who didn’t agree with my opinion.” [My emphasis]

Tripping Over the Truth

When Democratic Strategist Alexis Grenell writes of rivers of blood running through the Capitol, her “stupid uterus,” and pro abortion radicals weaponize sexual abuse, they are unwittingly tripping over the truth.

The abortion procedure is often experienced by women with past sexual trauma as a type of re-enactment of that abuse. The abortion procedure and sexual abuse are an intimate and very painful violation of a woman’s body, mind and spirit. [ii]

It is shameful how the left exploits the trauma of sexual abuse victims and the repressed grief of women who experienced abortion loss. The political circus during the Kavanaugh hearings, and the rage and pain that fed this debacle provided a very volatile and useful cover for the real agenda, which is all about protecting legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

Rivers of Blood

Yes Alexis Grenell, there is a river of blood running through our nation’s Capitol and across our nation.

It’s the blood of close to 60 million unborn boys and girls aborted since 1973. This blood mingles with the tears of those that participated in the death of these innocent preborn children.

It is time to elect leaders that will not weaponize the intimate pain of women and men to advance agendas that breed more traumas, more rage and grief.

Let us turn away from the revolutionary violence and chaos being fomented by these wounded and misguided radicals.

Instead let us in humility acknowledge that we are a deeply wounded nation in need of repentance, healing and the peace that can only come from the Creator of life.

[i] There are still symptoms of this complicated grief present but usually not consciously connected to the abortion event; e.g., the abuse of substances, sex, or over involvement in work/school to self-medicate the pain.

[ii] PTSD or trauma symptoms after reproductive trauma: Seng and colleagues (2009) found that 20% of pregnant women from eight U.S. clinics had posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Women were asked to identify the single worst trauma they had ever experienced, considering five types of traumatic events. The two types of trauma most frequently identified as their “worst” were past abuse and reproductive trauma. Miscarriage and abortion were specifically identified as reproductive losses that for many women were their “worst” trauma ever. –From Recovery After Abortion, Martha Shuping, M.D., M.A., Ashford Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, Inc.