The Truth about Abortion: Exposing Health Risks & The Hidden Impact on Motherhood | S6 E3

Gaby Alessi [00:00:00]:

Welcome back to the family business podcast with the Alessis. We are about to get into part two of this hot topic conversations with my sisters and I alongside of our long family friend. But if you have not heard part one of this topic and this conversation, then hit pause right now on this episode and go back to part one. You want to make sure you're hearing the conversation from beginning to end. So hit pause, go back to part one. If you have heard part one, get ready. This is part two of the conversations with my sisters and I and a long family friend. I hope you enjoy

Gaby Alessi [00:00:35]:

Incredible. And you're seeing just this rise of it. And I would even say with my position, even here at the church, I'm seeing young girls. And it's not that they're playing into the evil because they just don't know it, but it's the easy way out and they're falling into it. And we've had young girls have arguments in their connect groups about one girl said, no, that's wrong, and abortion is wrong. And the other girl says, well, think about all the women. And that's just what's a crazy thing is a narrative today. And I'd like for you to speak to the narrative and be real about it because, yes, there's women out there that if it happens in a very traumatic way, that they get pregnant and the baby is with somebody that they do not want to see another day in their life.

Gaby Alessi [00:01:30]:

So we use that kind of whole thing of, well, if it's rape, what happens? If she's raped and what happens? And that's kind of like the easy way out to kind of win the argument. But let's talk about that. You're still ending a life. How does that play out? If you're talking to a girl that's wanting and has all this traumatic or that's wanting to do this, or someone that's arguing about abortion and it's right, how would you explain that to them? How would you put that in perspective?

Cristina Squiers [00:01:53]:

Yeah, I think there's a few things to keep in mind. A lot of people want to argue the fringe argument. So people go straight to the rape and incest. They go straight to the fetal abnormalities where the baby has zero chance of survival. And those represent such a tiny fraction of abortions. I think the rape and incest is like 1%. It might even be under 1%. Very small number of abortions that are done in this country due to rape and incest.

Cristina Squiers [00:02:16]:

The vast majority, 90 plus percent, are completely elective because the woman does not want to be a mother at that time for whatever reason. And so I think just knowing that helps a lot because we can have debates all day long about where to draw the lines, what to do with rape and incest, what to do with fetal abnormalities. But what we're talking about, roughly a million abortions a year. 950,000 of those are just simply elective abortions for none of those reasons we talked about. So I think that's really important. The bulk of the conversation has to be around that framework and the reason that those women are getting abortions, not the rape and incest, not the fetal abnormalities. And then a lot of women have miscarriages. Those are not abortions.

Cristina Squiers [00:02:59]:

A lot of women have ectopic pregnancies. Those are not abortions. That baby has zero chance of survival. It's not growing in a uterus. And so I think people like to bringing up even those arguments to say, well, if we deny access to abortion, it's a health risk for women. But we have to take out of that category all of these things that are not actually abortion, because people can get confused about what actually is an abortion. And when we use that term here, I think when most people use it, they mean you choosing to end the life of your baby on purpose and.

Stephanie Muiña [00:03:28]:

Talk about how easy it is to get that abortion pill that it's actually become so accessible to anybody without any requirements.

Cristina Squiers [00:03:37]:

Yeah, so this is really wild to me, but I said roughly a little over half of the abortions today are now medication abortions. And that's a function of people just being able to find out so much earlier that they're pregnant and to be able to intervene to make that choice. And the abortion pills were approved in about 2000, so they've been on the market for 23 years. And over the course of the last 23 years, the FDA has continually relaxed the requirements to obtain those drugs, despite the fact that they end life. And that's the other thing, I think, when we talk about abortion from a health care perspective, because a lot of people want to say, well, it's health care, and they want to analogize it to other types of health care. I don't know of any other type of health care that purposely ends life. No, every other health care that we engage in, unless we're talking about palliative care, when people are dying, which is a separate category, when they're dying a natural death, every other type of health care is intended to heal. It's intended to make something that's wrong, right.

Cristina Squiers [00:04:32]:

And so it's also, I think, deceiving to talk about this in the healthcare perspective generally. Anyway, with the FDA pill, they approved it in 2000. Over the last 23 years, they've been relaxing all the safety requirements on it, and every five years they would do one change after the other. But the big thing that happened about a few years ago was now you can get on a telehealth visit, you can tell the doctor you're pregnant, you want to have an abortion. You never see a doctor in person, or even if you do the initial visit, you never have a follow up, no ultrasound required. So there's no way to confirm the gestational age of the baby, which matters a lot because appeals are super dangerous after a certain time frame, because if the baby is too large to be expelled by a pill, it's very dangerous for your body. There's no way to confirm it's an ectopic pregnancy, which is a huge issue, because if you have an ectopic pregnancy, the pills do not work to end that pregnancy. And you start bleeding and thinking that you're having an abortion when actually your fallopian tube might burst or some other medical issue might be going on.

Cristina Squiers [00:05:32]:

There's been a huge spike of women going to the Er for that very issue that come in that start the abortion pills, and then something goes wrong. And because they don't have a relationship with a physician that wasn't required from the FDA, they show up at the Er, which causes all sorts of issues because that doctor doesn't know them, what was going on, has no history of them, they never had an ultrasound, has no idea how old the baby was. If there's an ectopic pregnancy, all of those issues going on. And then you have the issue of I just mentioned. Very few doctors actually want to participate in an abortion. So now you have these women showing up to an Er, and these doctors are forced to take care of them. And if you're a doctor, you're not going to deny a woman that care that comes into the Er bleeding. But now you are participating in this process, and the current Health and Human Services is trying to make sure that that happens.

Cristina Squiers [00:06:21]:

Even more and more, they're passing regulations about emergency care, specifically that hospitals will get in trouble if they turn away women, even if it's not kind of an emergency situation. So that's an issue. But anyway, back to the pill. So you can get on this telehealth visit, get the pill. They don't even know if you're on a telehealth visit, that you're not being sex trafficked, that there's not a guy off screen with a gun behind your back that is stockpiling the pills for women. They don't know if you're being abused domestically. And when you go into a doctor's office, at least the doctor can read your body language, they can assess the situation, you can get informed consent. Is this really what you want to do? Are you being coerced to do this? There's a huge issue of coercion in abortion.

Cristina Squiers [00:07:01]:

There's so many women who feel coerced by parents. I'm sure there's women in this church whose parents said, you have no other option. I will kick you out, whose boyfriend or husband said, you have no other option. I will leave you in financial distress. So there's no way for the doctor to get a read on any of that. You get these pills, there's no follow up visit required. So there's no way to know that they took the pills on time. There's no way to know if the women got the pills, and she panicked and said, I don't know if I actually want to do this.

Cristina Squiers [00:07:28]:

There's no follow up required. And so when people say things like, abortion is health care or this is necessary, I'm very skeptical of that, because the insistence that abortion access be the priority has compromised safety.

Stephanie Muiña [00:07:43]:

Yes.

Cristina Squiers [00:07:44]:

And so to be pro woman, to say, you should know what's going on with your body, you should be informed about the decisions you're making. It's very hard to reconcile that with the FDA's regulation of abortion pills, where you don't even have to see a doctor to basically induce a miscarriage at home and then be left by yourself to deal with the consequences.

Stephanie Muiña [00:08:02]:

That's such a good point, because their whole message is, you are in complete control. You have every decision over your own body. But if you want to terminate the pregnancy, don't ask questions. We're not going to show you what's actually going on inside. We're not going to show you the life. You're not going to hear the heartbeat. We'll handle it from here. Just take this pill, and it'll be minor bleeding.

Stephanie Muiña [00:08:20]:

And then they wind up in the Er in shambles because they went through a full on miscarriage alone at home and gosh. When I was giving birth to Gia, every visit to the hospital, it was they would give me that. Like, the person that brought you to the hospital, have they been abusing you?

Cristina Squiers [00:08:42]:

Are you safe?

Stephanie Muiña [00:08:43]:

Do you feel safe? Everything surrounding the birth of a baby was extremely careful, lots of supervision. And they gave me a lot of power to, like, well, actually, no. There was a lot of times that they wouldn't let you have power over how you wanted to deliver the baby or whatever, but I just couldn't believe how careful they were with the birth of the pregnancy. But the termination, there's just no, no, there's no help. Yeah, sorry.

Lauren Alessi [00:09:11]:

Go ahead.

Cristina Squiers [00:09:11]:

No, I was just going to add to some of the other safety things that I was remembering while you were talking about. So you can get access to these abortion pills as a minor, but they've never been studied on minors. So normally for the FDA to approve a drug that's for minor use, there has to be clinical studies on minors, because you have no idea, particularly with something like this and the way it works, how it's affecting fertility later on, how it's affecting anything with these young girls. Never been studied once and still fully approved by the FDA for under 18.

Gaby Alessi [00:09:38]:

And what you're actually finding and this happened to a young girl that we heard about. She slept with a guy, random guy, didn't know what she was doing. She was a teenager. I think she was 14 years old. So just to give everybody perspective of why we need to regulate this, this isn't just 25 or 30 year old women. No, this is 14 year old girls that sleep with the guy. Consciously they want to sleep with the guy. They are saying yes to the act.

Gaby Alessi [00:10:05]:

It's not rape. He's not trying to force her. She's saying yes to it. And the next day, we heard that the boy the girl was at the mall or the girl went to school excuse me, the boy that she had sex with text her and said, I left you the day after pill in this bush over here. He dropped it during whatever break she went over, got the pill, she took it just to make sure. And this is where I get frustrated because it's not even and I'm not trying to say it's better if but it's girls that don't even know if they're pregnant or not. They're taking something in their body that could have a massive effect on them. Not just having children on their heart, on their cells, on every organ in their body.

Gaby Alessi [00:10:47]:

We do not know what this stuff is doing to them. There are medications out there that are good for you to help you and help not cure, but help you through your life if you have a sickness. But there are still side effects to them. So they're good for you in one way, but they're terrible for you in the other. This one has no good in it. This one does not benefit your body at all. And girls are just taking them as a just in case I'm pregnant. And that's where to me, the question is this is this really pro women helping girls?

Lauren Alessi [00:11:17]:

I'm sorry, can I add something in there real quick? Before we move on to the pro women thing, a lot of people may hear about the coercion and the women being coerced into abortion and think like, oh, but maybe that's rare because most of it this is the narrative we're hearing. A woman's choice. It's a woman's choice. So rarely is she ever coerced. When I was working at the pregnancy center this was a couple of years back, the founder of the pregnancy center had told me she's like, watch for their body language because a lot of times their boyfriend is sending them. And this was a totally not for profit organization. It was all volunteer based. Nobody was paid.

Lauren Alessi [00:11:53]:

All the funds were given from churches and other organizations. And so she would say, we don't accept any pay and we don't perform abortions, but we don't let the people know, like the people coming in know until the last minute. So a girl came in, young girl, probably like 19 years old. So she sat down, and so we just start counseling her. I start talking to her and I just start noticing her body language was just off. She was uncomfortable, very dry. And she mentions her boyfriend has sent her there. And this is kind of like it's sad, but here's the humorous part of it.

Lauren Alessi [00:12:30]:

Her boyfriend had scheduled that appointment thinking it was an abortion center and was like, here's $200, get the abortion.

Gaby Alessi [00:12:38]:

$200?

Lauren Alessi [00:12:39]:

Yeah, she had $200 in her pocket ready to perform an abortion. And finally she admitted to it after about 45 minutes. And I just asked her, I was like, do you want to get an abortion? She was like, no, like, just dry. And I was like, Well, I'm here to tell you we're not an abortion center. Came to the right place. You came to the right place. And I was like, we can get you help. But for those listening that may think that's very rare, that doesn't happen.

Lauren Alessi [00:13:07]:

It's very real. There are so many guys who drop off plan B pill and say, take this. There are so many guys too yes. And say, here's $200, go get an abortion.

Gaby Alessi [00:13:17]:

Anyway, let's move into the pro woman talk, because people say that this is us. Women got to stick together and we got to have control, and we need to make sure that because men aren't going to help us, because that's the thing is it is the reality. And then we all want to turn and blame men, but there are a lot of women that don't even tell their boyfriends. We were watching Married at First Sight, and the guy tells a story of how his girlfriend got his ex girlfriend got pregnant and he wanted the baby, and she said no. Meanwhile, that's his child.

Cristina Squiers [00:13:44]:

Too and that happens more often than you know, too. That happens exactly more often than people think.

Gaby Alessi [00:13:49]:

Is this a fight of defending women? Are we helping women? The question right here I have is, is this really healthy? And what you just said about the plan B pill or whatever pill you mentioned, it is not healthy for women. So is this pro women speak on that, even as a mother?

Cristina Squiers [00:14:04]:

Christina yeah, it's so interesting because as a mom, I'm about to have my fourth child. I'm a lawyer. I don't feel like I've had to choose right. And I think a lot of women, even if they aren't coerced in an abusive sense or in a sense that we were talking about, they're coerced by this narrative that if you do not have access to abortion, you cannot accomplish in your life what you set out to accomplish. And there's just so many problems with that. I mean, just starting with the fact, how can we call that empowering to say something that your body is uniquely designed to do, that men cannot do. The goal here is not to be like men. That's not a picture of success.

Cristina Squiers [00:14:44]:

That's a picture of denying the reality of who you are and who God made you to be. And so to say that you can't do anything with your life unless you have access to abortion, that is such a lie that so many people believe, so many young people think that if there's not access to this. There's no way I'll be able to accomplish what I want to accomplish. And I think the flip side of that too, is that we have a very perverted, for lack of a better word, view of motherhood. The way that the rhetoric that you hear around abortion is the fetus is a parasite. It's like an attacker on your body and it's going to kill all your hopes and dreams or back to the actress at the Academy Awards. I never would have been able to do this. I think even I've been very convicted since I've become a mom of being complicit in this narrative and not in that way of standing up and saying, you need an abortion, but in the way of, we're so quick to commiserate with each other, which I think is so important, but not to share the beauty of you're with your friends.

Cristina Squiers [00:15:43]:

And you're texting. I think even Danya sent a funny text this morning about her gum in her kid's hair and motherhood is so hard. And you walk into Target and you go to the shirt section, it's like Mama needs wine. And even that we laugh and we say it tongue in cheek. But the message that that communicates is motherhood is just this endless toil and sacrifice. And there is no benefit, there's no reward to it when the reality is anybody who's been a mom knows it's the exact opposite. But for some reason, there's not a space to talk about that. It's not our inclination.

Cristina Squiers [00:16:14]:

Even as Christian women who are pro family, we're so much more quick to go on Instagram and post your kid having a total meltdown and be like, here we go again.

Gaby Alessi [00:16:21]:

Instagram versus reality.

Cristina Squiers [00:16:23]:

Yeah. Rather than the blessings that come from motherhood.

Gaby Alessi [00:16:28]:

That is so good. And I think that is beautiful because it is so easy for us women, I think of all ages to just find the one thing that's hard for us and we complain about it. But then we want to stand up for children and we want to stand up for these unborn babies and we have to change our mindset a little bit. That is the greatest blessing. I was an oops baby. I was. And I was an oops baby in the most beautiful family. And it worked out.

Gaby Alessi [00:16:53]:

But my mom did not cry tears of joy when she found out that I was coming. She was very stressed. She thought, how am I going to do this? And that's the thing that another fraction or group of women that have a lot of children and they get pregnant again, they will get abortions, they are full moms. They know what the beauty of motherhood is like and they still do it. And that's something that leads us into the next thing is about motherhood. But sorry, speaking about my mom, she didn't know how she was going to handle it, but the option was never there. And I think that's something that I personally am really wanting to do in our generation, especially with the young girls in this youth group, is take away the option and the thought that should not be there, that should be taboo. That if you think about it, because what we're saying is that is murder.

Gaby Alessi [00:17:43]:

You are getting rid of a life. And so how can we talk about the beauty of know? How do we honor motherhood? The question here is what should young women today, teenage girls, even super, super young girls, because it's just everywhere nowadays.

Stephanie Muiña [00:17:57]:

It's easy to it's been that way for a long time.

Gaby Alessi [00:18:00]:

It has.

Stephanie Muiña [00:18:00]:

Yeah, it has.

Gaby Alessi [00:18:01]:

And Instagram makes it more accessible to them. The more girls that when Roe v. Wade was overturned. I saw girls that were reposting stuff about why it shouldn't have been overturned, all due to rape. And it's like, we'll do your don't don't just listen to an Instagram post that is not fact checked. But how do young girls, how should young women today be processing abortion, even compared to what our mothers thought about it? Yeah.

Cristina Squiers [00:18:25]:

And going back to one point really quick, because I want to hear from Rochelle and steph on this, of what motherhood has meant to, you know, being in the new motherhood state. How has it surprised mean? We just talked about having a space to talk about the beauty of motherhood. So would you say something about the beauty of motherhood?

Richelle Alessi [00:18:41]:

I would say it is one of the things that only woman can do that gives you the most confidence.

Gaby Alessi [00:18:48]:

Wow.

Richelle Alessi [00:18:49]:

And you think that getting pregnant sometimes I'm going to have to put my career on pause, my dreams on pause. And you think that all these things is what you want to achieve because you want to get to a point where you're happy with yourself, with what you have accomplished. And giving birth to a baby, for me, has been the biggest accomplishment because not every day is going to be easy. You have the fears and a lot of decisions of this of abortion is based on fear of, I am not going to have the right support. I am too young, I am not going to have a husband. I don't have the family to bring a baby into, or I just don't feel ready for it. And the nine months, or however long you're pregnant, god designed it perfectly for you to prepare for that moment. And every day, every trimester comes with the growing experience that you need.

Richelle Alessi [00:19:51]:

So if there's any girl that thinks I'm too young or anything, those nine months will get you prepared. Your body was created for that. That's one of the main purposes of a woman. And you think that your career and your dreams are your biggest purpose and you're still not satisfied yet. You go through this birth experience, and I'm the most confident I've ever been because I'm operating in God's design for my life. And when there's that order in your life, you're just happy. I mean, seeing your baby, seeing what you were able to accomplish, because we want to feel like we've done something great. And when you say, I got through those nine months of throwing up every day, I got through the fears, the things of not, am I going to be a good mom? Or am I ready for this? Any of those things.

Richelle Alessi [00:20:45]:

Even women who are in a married relationship that have a beautiful family like I do, you still have fears. It's not a thing that only women who are not in a great family or ready for experience we all do experience some type of fear, but not letting that fear get in the way. And on the other side, the confidence that women are looking for, you really get that a lot from what you've accomplished in getting through those nine months and then just having your baby.

Gaby Alessi [00:21:15]:

Yeah.

Cristina Squiers [00:21:15]:

And I just want to say one thing to that. I think a lot of people hearing this, the more skeptical people will say, but what about women who don't have that social support structure? What about women who are single? What about women whose family has deserted them? An immigrant woman in this country who got taken advantage of and decides to have the baby, what about her? Shouldn't she have an abortion or the right to an abortion? And I would say all of those benefits of motherhood are true, no matter who you are, and especially if you're a Christian. God provides or he doesn't.

Lauren Alessi [00:21:45]:

Right.

Cristina Squiers [00:21:46]:

I don't mean to make it so black and white, because I know it can be very hard. And people can have no, but you're postpartum depression, they can have their families fall apart, very hard things. But that doesn't take away the reward of motherhood, and it doesn't make the answer abortion. I will talk all day long about making policies better for families in this country, supporting women more in the workplace, and down to the nitty gritty of giving them time to pump at work. There are so many things we can do that it's always been very confusing to me that people will say, well, that's not pragmatic, so we need to have an abortion. There are so many answers, and I don't care if it takes mountains to move those. If we have to move mountains to get to those answers, that's still better than terminating life.

Lauren Alessi [00:22:28]:

Yeah.

Gaby Alessi [00:22:28]:

So good.

Lauren Alessi [00:22:29]:

Steph, what do you think about motherhood?

Stephanie Muiña [00:22:31]:

Oh, my gosh. I think that what first comes to mind is women. There's so many things to complain about in both fields. As a mother, you can find tons of things to complain about. You are exhausted all the time. You're disciplining a lot. It doesn't stop. But if you are not a mother and you're trying to be the CEO of a massive company, then now you're complaining about unequal pay, unequal treatment.

Stephanie Muiña [00:22:57]:

People look down on you as a woman. So when are we going to get to the place where we're proud of the work that we've accomplished, even with the obstacles in our way? And when are we going to throw out the complaining? Because that's the mindset I always want to challenge when it comes to a pro choice mindset, it's like, okay, well, then when does life and the value of life trump that? Or when does murder become more important or more valuable or useful than life? And that's where the mindset of motherhood has trumped any other mindset that's pro choice, because it's the most hardworking, but the most rewarding job I have in my life, where I don't even want to say the word stay at home mom as a setback. I don't want to be thinking that way where I could have done this, but instead I stayed home with my children. You should say that with. I wanted to work, but instead, for a couple of years, I stayed home a little bit, and then I got that work done, and then I got back into the workplace and still achieved it's all one and the same for mothers because of the fruit of it and the outcome of it. Because now you have children that, you know, you raised, you disciplined, you helped. And for me personally, it's exactly what Rochelle said. It brings so much reward to my life.

Stephanie Muiña [00:24:23]:

But I get to see through Gia, the reward I'm giving to her and the reward she now gets to live with, which is a present mother and a present father. And I know that that guarantees a healthy life for her. That guarantees that she's going to walk in the ways of the Lord, because I'm giving her a healthy version of myself, which is present, which is honest, which is there. And even for mothers that have to work, go to work, and they still have to raise their children, you can still provide the same thing with your child. And it's just by being a woman who values the life that you are raising and not wasting a minute of that, you know, when it comes to that Michelle William girl, that the actress that went on the stage and said, I wouldn't have had this if it wasn't for the women's right to choose. Really quick note she was also associated with Harvey Weinstein. Just want to throw that in there. So she would also not have been where she was if it wasn't for the stuff she did with Harvey Weinstein.

Gaby Alessi [00:25:22]:

She probably didn't want to have Harvey's baby.

Stephanie Muiña [00:25:24]:

Just want to throw that out there. That that's what those women in Hollywood that are sharing their opinions of abortion, that's what they're doing behind the scenes to get to where they are. So don't talk about your right to own your body.

Lauren Alessi [00:25:35]:

Was she like a victim of Harvey. Weinstein or she was, like, in a relationship with him? Both.

Stephanie Muiña [00:25:40]:

I think there was a consensual relationship between her and and you can't be.

Gaby Alessi [00:25:45]:

Pregnant if you're going to be in a movie next month.

Stephanie Muiña [00:25:47]:

Yeah, exactly.

Gaby Alessi [00:25:47]:

That's what they're thinking. They're not thinking, in a case of this is saving me, it's I have to be in a movie and I can't grow a big belly and I got to be in a scene, so.

Stephanie Muiña [00:25:55]:

Let me just which he was whatever. I'm not going to go down I know.

Lauren Alessi [00:26:01]:

On Harvey Weins, and I can talk about that for a long time.

Stephanie Muiña [00:26:05]:

No, but the truth is, she doesn't know. She can't really say that statement truthfully because you don't know. You could have actually done all of this with children, and you could have raised incredible children. You could have done it all. And I think us women, we need to see the value that motherhood is to us and the gift it is to us. There are incredible doctors that birth children every day, that do research on children every day, but if they're male, they won't be able to experience what that's like to have a child inside of them. And that, to me, trumps all of it. That's just the best.

Stephanie Muiña [00:26:39]:

And I think us women with our experiences in Motherhood, no matter who we are, whether we're somebody who graduated from Princeton, went to law school or had four children, or you're a woman who went to Miami Dade College.

Gaby Alessi [00:26:55]:

But we.

Stephanie Muiña [00:26:59]:

What your experience is. Every woman. And if you haven't had a child too, if you're not able to conceive but you've taken young girls under your wing and mothered them, every single woman. If they value what motherhood is, they can bring even more value to life. And that's how you honor motherhood. That's how you show hope to other girls that are contemplating, what the heck do I do that? They can do it because of your experience as a mother and because of the value that you brought, and that's how you honor motherhood. It's something to be honored. It's something to be revered.

Stephanie Muiña [00:27:32]:

It's something to be aspired for, because that is the only gift. Well, there's a lot of gifts, but that's probably the best gift. US women get to carry a child for nine months and to go through all the hell that's attached with it, but then to hold that baby saying, look at what I did. And then to nurse that child and to take care of that child and to have them on you for months, even if it's or years, even if it's so hard when they are 18 years old and they are doing great things, you get to say, look at what I did. And that's a gift for us women. It's a real gift.

Gaby Alessi [00:28:07]:

Christina, you want to add anything to that and finish it up?

Cristina Squiers [00:28:09]:

Yeah, I was just going to say, going back to the question that started this. How should young women think about this today, particularly compared to our mothers? And I would just say, on an ending note, be informed. I think it's so easy in an age where there is too much access to information and so much disinformation to shut down and take the easy road out. Back to that. I think you mentioned that, Gabby taking the easy road out with birth control, with the abortion debate. It's an easy out option. Don't take the easy road. There is nothing rewarding in life that comes easy.

Cristina Squiers [00:28:40]:

We all know this. Whether it's your career sacrifices, your sacrifices as a parent, when you have to sacrifice for something and do hard work, there is a tremendous reward at the end and nothing good comes easy. And so I would say be informed. There's so many resources out there to know, not just about abortion specifically, but about how your body works, about fertility. Don't put your head in the sand and not know how a baby is made. A lot of girls don't even know that. Or what's happening in your body, or how you can get pregnant, or when you can get pregnant. Be informed.

Cristina Squiers [00:29:12]:

That is what's empowering to women. Be informed about your body. Be informed about what abortion is and how the safety costs of it and the risk that you're putting with your body. Be informed.

Gaby Alessi [00:29:22]:

That's so good.

Lauren Alessi [00:29:23]:

Lauren, is it like closing statements? Is that closing arguments?

Chris Alessi [00:29:29]:

Lauren.

Lauren Alessi [00:29:29]:

Leslie, please can oh, my gosh, there's so much to say. I completely agree with Christina. I would say if you're a young girl listening to this, because I know how this works. Moms listen to this. And they go listen to this podcast. They show it to their daughters, literally. Look up the terms progesterone estrogen. Look up those terms, sit with your daughters and teach them how a baby is made.

Gaby Alessi [00:29:50]:

And how about the fallopian tube? But it's a beautiful process.

Lauren Alessi [00:29:54]:

And also, if you're like seeing it with Stephanie and how Gia was born and seeing it with Marino and Rochelle, god made birth control almost naturally with breastfeeding and with other ways of God takes over the way God intended your body. You were saying it behind the scenes that we've kind of taken over God's position in our own body with abortion, with birth control and stuff like that. When you see it firsthand, I'm telling you, God has created it completely naturally for Him to be able to do that work in us. So do your research, not just in the news, not just on social media, but in anatomy and biologically, because God has done all that for you. But also to your point about making motherhood look fun and beautiful. I'll just say this, and I know this is harsh, but this is just me. I'm just a very black and white person. This is how I view things.

Lauren Alessi [00:30:46]:

Abortion has been going on for many years. But motherhood has been around for literally beginning the beginning of time. And only in recent generations has there been so much complaining about motherhood. And I just think that narrative just needs to stop. Like, look, if you don't want to have 4567 kids, it's fine. Have however many kids you want. Like, nobody's pressuring you. But just the constant complaining about having kids, it's affecting our younger generation.

Lauren Alessi [00:31:13]:

And you are definitely not the only one who has had children. And I can say this because I'm not a mother. And I know some people are going to say, well, you can't say that because you're not a mother. Well, guess what? I hear it all the time from other mothers. Stop complaining about having kids. So it's just motherhood has been around since the beginning of time. You're not the only one who's done it. The first woman who was created by God, eve was alone, had no community, had no society, and she had two sons.

Lauren Alessi [00:31:41]:

Think about that. And they were not the greatest sons.

Stephanie Muiña [00:31:43]:

But she did it.

Lauren Alessi [00:31:44]:

So anyways, that's my closing statements.

Gaby Alessi [00:31:47]:

Steph, Rochelle, you guys want to do closing statements? 30 seconds.

Stephanie Muiña [00:31:50]:

I said a lot. Good. Me too.

Gaby Alessi [00:31:53]:

That is beautiful. I think we end it with this. And this is quoted by our mother god makes babies, we don't. And we cannot take away the gift that the Lord has given us as women. And it's the most beautiful achievement. You've all said it. And it's the one thing that we can do. No man can do it.

Gaby Alessi [00:32:10]:

It's our role to bring in children and to provide that legacy. Because what's beautiful is when you do have a child, you can look at that child, however many you have, and say, a part of me is in that child and will live within that child. And when you have an abortion, you don't create a legacy. It stops with you. It ends with you. And for me, I want my legacy. I want the memory of me to continue. And that's why you have children and you have people to take care of you when you get older.

Gaby Alessi [00:32:34]:

That is it. We do want to address something, but to finish here, where do we get help? If young girls are watching this? We don't know who's watching. It could be somebody that just learned they're pregnant and they're freaking out and they don't know how to do this. A couple of places here in Miami that you can even check out, grace Women's Care Center. It's a beautiful place that we're in connection with, we're in relationship, we sow towards Grace Women's Care Center and Heartbeat of Miami. These are just two of so many other places. Christina, you let us know one.

Lauren Alessi [00:33:01]:

Yeah.

Cristina Squiers [00:33:02]:

And if you're just curious more from the medical scientific perspective, what is abortion? How does it work? What are the things we know and don't know about the safety of abortion? There's a phenomenal institute called the Charlotte Lozier. That's L-O-Z-I-E-R. They're based out of D C, and they have all the top leading obgens statisticians economists who do this type of work. And they have great graphics and reports that you can look at to be informed about what's going on.

Gaby Alessi [00:33:27]:

That is so good. And what we're going to ask all the audience is to share this podcast. Share it with every woman that you know, every young man that you know. It affects more people today than we even know. So this information needs to get to their ears, to their heart, to their homes, to their phones, so that they can be informed and then continue to inform. But that is it for the family business podcast with the Alessi's and ESquiers. We thank you for joining us today, and, yeah, enjoy this episode. Hope you enjoyed it.

Chris Alessi [00:33:55]:

You've just enjoyed another episode of The Family Business podcast with The Alessis, and we can't thank you enough for being a part of our audience today. Now that you've learned more about us, here's how you can join in in The Family Business. First, make sure you're following our podcast right now and download this episode so you can hear it at any time. Second, think of someone you know that might need or enjoy this episode and share it with them. You'll be helping them and helping us to spread the word about The Family Business. Third, go to Alessifamilybusiness.com and tap the Ask the Alessi's button. This is really cool. You could use it to record a voicemail comment or question, and we can add your voice to our conversation stations.

Chris Alessi [00:34:35]:

Finally, while you're on our page, tap the Reviews tab and you'll see a link to leave a review on Apple podcasts. We love reading your reviews, and we might even share them on the show. Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time at The Family Business with The Alessis, because family is everybody's business.