The annual March for Life and the upcoming Dobbs vs Jackson court case puts abortion front and center on many folks radar. It certainly is on mine.
I have been active in pro-life for many years at marches, prayer vigils (such as the 40 Days for Life), supporting pro-life political candidates, and helping out at various Church run pregnancy centers. I have written several essays dealing with the issue here at Catholic Stand.
Needless to say, there have been countless conversations, comments and confrontations since Roe v. Wade. There are a multitude of topics from when life begins to women’s rights, rape etc. But, in discussions with pro-abortion Catholics, (which I consider an oxymoron), I tend to get two common responses.
The first response I often hear is “Once you convince a women to not abort you are not willing to help take care of the baby or the mother.” The second is “You are just a one issue guy and don’t care about other pro-life issues such as caring for the poor, the immigrant etc.”
I believe it is critical to respond to those perceptions. But the response must be done in a manner that helps people to reconsider their abortion views.
Crisis pregnancy support
The notion that the pro-life movement does not care and is not responsive to the needs of mothers considering abortion is one of the most bogus lies that the abortion movement professes. That lie provides one of Planned Parenthood’s arguments for abortion – that there is no alternative for those mothers seeking abortions, especially poor mothers.
I don’t think that statistics quoting gets much traction. However, I will provide numbers for one state that I am familiar with that dispels that lie. In Texas alone in 2021 there were 218 crisis pregnancy centers serving thousands of mothers. They provided an array of services from free ultrasounds, free quality pregnancy tests, confidential counseling services, abortion recovery services, baby clothing and furniture. Many go further and provide food, temporary housing and job assistance.
I know of several organizations such as Gabriel Angels in Dallas, TX that personally assists mothers through their entire pregnancy and beyond. Volunteers serve as “birth partners” who accompany a pregnant mother from pregnancy to the birthing and aftercare process.
There are similar services all across the country. The obligation to assist a mother and baby is one that is taken very seriously by those in the pro-life movement.
Not a single issue but the priority issue
The gospel of life is about the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death. I agree it is a continuum of concern and support. It only starts with protecting the unborn. It continues with being advocates for the provision of ongoing health services, and for education and immigration reform. But it also includes support of public safety, support for the poor, worker rights, and on and on. Practicing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy defines many of those actions.
I agree we should be attentive to the variety of human needs. However, the lynchpin and priority issue must be the protection of the unborn. As the Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The “core” right and need is the protection of life. Not protecting the unborn eventually undercuts the defense of life at any other stage. As the motto of the US Army states, “This we will defend.” This can also be the motto for the protection of the unborn. It all starts here and represents a needed line in the sand. If a person is not given life in the first place all the other concerns for human dignity (education, poverty etc.) are moot. There is no person to care for!
Saint Mother Teresa
I have written in previous posts of the ultimate consequences of not protecting the most basic right to be born. There’s no need to repeat those words. However, I recently had the occasion to re-read Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s full speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in February of 1994. Her words expand on the consequences much more eloquently than I can.
But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?
By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
Her message relates to the much broader and universal impact of abortion on the entire world order. Mother Teresa’s comments remind us of Jesus’ parable on judgement in Matthew 25:40: “. . . whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” I would contend that the unborn are the least of His brothers.
6 thoughts on “Confronting Two Common Pro-Abortion Perceptions”
“the provision of ongoing health services, and for education and immigration reform. But it also includes support of public safety, support for the poor, worker rights, and on and on.”
Unfortunately most pro lifers oppose these. They will call it “socialism”, or whatever excuse they can cook up.
Nice illustration of the preposterous yet persistent myth the author is talking about. I have never met a pro-lifer who opposes any of these, and I doubt I ever will.
I think it’s important to address the reality that the support services available to woman and unplanned children now are woefully inadequate. If you look at the support provided on a per capita basis, it’s virtually nothing. Creating sustainable support structures such as universal access to affordable health care – not just during pregnancy but continuing throughout a mother and child’s life — childcare, education, training and flexible work schedules would allow women to make truly free choices. If abortion becomes more restrictive without genuine pro-life and family reforms to follow, those restrictions will not last for long.
I completely agree with you, but don’t look for any help from the writers of this blog, or anyone in the Catholic church. Providing services pregnant women could use as a matter of right would destroy the ability of Hierarchs to remind those women what horrible, worthless sluts they are. The entire purpose of this movement is to reduce women to chattel status so that worthless men can get their egos stroked.
Your movement thinks that women are inferior to men and only good for having babies and scrubbing floors. Yes, you provide baby clothes, but what you never, ever do is advocate for women to have careers and achieve economic and political power. Your church teaches every day that women are inferior to men, both in its insistence that wives submit to husbands and by stating, in the form of the exclusively male priesthood, that women have less of the image of God than men do, especially the part of God that images authority and power. So long as you think women are inferior to men, you make the lives of all women significantly worse.
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