The #savethechildren hashtag was started by social media influencer Helen Owen. Her mission was to bring awareness to the issue of child sex trafficking and she succeeded. People started reposting information with the hashtag, supporting organizations dedicated to stop child sex trafficking, and brought awareness to their own social media followings. Preventing innocent children being victimized is something everyone should support. Yet, the hashtag and newly revived movement is receiving backlash by some.

The adverse response to #savethechildren claims it includes inflated statistics on the amount of children being victimized. It also claims that the sex trafficking issue is being hijacked by conspiracy theories like Pizzagate or QAnon based theories. This resulted in a temporary ban on the hashtag by Facebook. Another claim is that the movement which has been an ongoing issue for decades is being used to take away from the COVID pandemic. When in fact, the increase in crimes against children has been directly affected from the COVID pandemic.

What are the real facts?

Every 30 seconds a child is stolen for trafficking (sex, organ, or slave work).

https://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58005.html

Child-related distress calls have decreased due to the lack of mandated reporters (mostly teachers) seeing children on a regular basis. This has resulted in more severe cases of child abuse and even deaths.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/13/hospitals-seeing-more-severe-child-abuse-injuries-during-coronavirus/3116395001/

The demand for child pornography has increased since the COVID pandemic started.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdky/pr/ky-federal-state-law-enforcement-combatting-growing-threat-child-exploitation-during

Any child that is trafficked, abused, or harmed is one child too many. The response to lessen the value of this movement is disturbing. It is not a political issue or an issue that should be disregarded as just another problem. It is a human rights issue that is attacking our most vulnerable and innocent people. It’s also not an issue that’s getting better, it’s getting much worse.

With technology becoming more accessible and advanced, child pornography has shifted in recent decades. It’s easier to access, it’s becoming more aggressively horrifying, and the occurrence of younger victims is more common. The abuse is more torturous and brutal. It is not only emotionally devastating to these innocent victims but also physically harming. There are victims that are so young, their umbilical cords are still attached. This information alone should be enough to outrage anyone. Whether Pizzagate or other theories are true or not, ask yourself why does that even matter?

It shouldn’t matter. The fact is our children, our innocent children are being horrifically abused. They are treated as disposable things that do not need to be protected. This should not be acceptable or okay to anyone.

The negligence by many to not stand up for innocent children or to call on others is withholding their natural instinct to protect them. As a mother, I ensure the safety of my own children but I started to ask myself what else can I do?

That’s when I realized the crimes against children must be stopped at the most vulnerable time and that is in the womb. #Savethechildren means saving all the children. When we, as a society, start to normalize abortion it becomes the foundation for lowering the value of life through all aspects of life.

When the truth of abortion is exposed it is horrifying no matter what stage of pregnancy it occurs in. Early first trimester abortions are considered complete once the child has been starved of vital nutrients and has died. Second trimester abortions are successful once the child’s heart has stopped beating and the child’s body is dismembered then removed from the mother’s uterus. Late abortions are completed after poison is injected into the growing baby resulting in the baby’s death then the mother is induced to deliver her dead child.

It doesn’t matter where you stand politically or religiously. Protecting innocent children should be on everyone’s agenda and it starts in the womb. Our society is failing to protect our most vulnerable children. Abortion is regarded as a right to many. We’re treating children as a disposable inconvenience and this attitude is beginning to fester throughout all stages of life. Our children must be protected at all costs, inside the womb and outside of it.