Tens of thousands of pro-life supporters marched once again marched through the streets of Washington D.C. in the 43rd annual March for Life. An impending blizzard kept the numbers down from the usual hundreds of thousands, but it was still an impressive force. Some may look with dismay at the fact that the March for Life is still needed after nearly half a century and wonder if the pro-life movement is a lost cause. I am not disheartened. I look with hope at the fact that, 43 years after abortion advocates declared the abortion issue was settled law, a growing segment of America, especially our youth, is embracing a culture of life.
The Mercy-less Beginnings
I am old enough to remember the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. I must admit that I did not recognize its significance at the time. It would be years before I appreciated both the injustice and the immorality embodied in this civil law. Just as my understanding of the abortion issue grew, so did the pro-life movement grow and evolve. There is much to be learned from this movement as we approach many other hot-button cultural issues where legality and morality diverge.
In the beginning, there was a great deal of anger. This is not surprising. The Supreme Court had declared some human beings, specifically unborn human beings, were disposable. But as I look back at that time, I think much of the anger stemmed from something deeper. By 1973, America was overwhelmed by the sexual revolution, openly rejecting the traditional Christian view of sexuality. Those who were fighting to preserve moral standards felt betrayed by the Supreme Court who with the legalization of abortion offered a seemingly easy solution to one of the more worrisome consequences of sexual promiscuity, namely pregnancy. Unfortunately, a great deal of this anger was directed at women who had abortions. They were called harlots, baby-killers, and brutally condemned.
The nascent organized pro-life movement also focused almost exclusively on the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The activism was political and divisive. There was not a lot of discussion about alternatives to abortion. There was a lot of talk about the fact that if these women had not been fornicating they would not need an abortion. It is not hard to see why some interpreted the opposition to abortion as punitive.
Stepping in to rescue these women from the “heartless” abortion opponents were the militant feminists and organizations like Planned Parenthood. They embraced the women with unplanned pregnancies and convinced them that it was empowering to abort their child. Of course, they never really told them it was a child. I suspect most of the early feminists truly believed that the pregnancy really was just a blob of tissue. I remember hearing women say that having an abortion was no different than having a wart removed. The right to an abortion was inextricably tied to the social liberation of women and the feminist movement. Those who opposed abortion were vilified as oppressors of women and supporters of a patriarchy.
How Things Have Changed
Over the last 43 years, the pro-life movement has matured. There is far less anger and far more love. Efforts like 40 Days for Life have replaced bitter, screeching abortion protests with a loving, prayerful outreach. Programs like Rachel’s Vineyard and the Silent No More campaign recognize the suffering of women who have had abortions. They reach out with compassion to the women who are experiencing the physical, psychological and spiritual traumas of abortion. Crisis pregnancy centers now offer material and emotional support to women who are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. There are outreach programs like Mary’s Shelter that walk with women through the pregnancy as well as through the first few years after birth. This helps women recognize motherhood is a gift and an opportunity, not a punishment.
The pro-life movement has also grown to include far more than abortion. Abortion is really just a symptom of a culture that does not understand the intrinsic dignity of the human person. Once unborn human beings were considered disposable, it was easy to declare the disabled, the sick, and the elderly as equally disposable and we saw the growth of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Children were turned in to commodities by artificial reproductive technologies. Embryos are now manufactured for profit and scientific research while women are exploited by fertility clinics that want to rent their wombs and harvest their ova. The pro-life movement is now the voice for all the vulnerable. The issue is not just abortion. The real issue is the sanctity and dignity of all human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.
A Pattern for Other Struggles
The evolution of the pro-life movement should guide other cultural struggles. For example, the recent acceptance of same-sex marriage by the Supreme Court in the Obergefell decision has been compared to Roe v. Wade. The effort to defend marriage as a unique union of one man and one woman would do well to remember this must be a mission to both effect legal change and to convert hearts and minds. Just as the abortion issue is just one aspect of a right and virtuous understanding of the dignity of the human person, opposition to same-sex marriage is just one aspect of the right and virtuous understanding of the inseparable unitive and procreative nature of marriage. The attacks on marriage began long before same-sex marriage was an issue. The defense of marriage must address all of these assaults with both truth and charity.
I believe this is why Pope Francis has called on us to celebrate a Year of Mercy. Changing the culture requires us to engage the Spiritual Works of Mercy like admonishing the sinner and instructing the ignorant not as acts of political conquest but as acts of love. We must humbly seek to share the path to true human flourishing as commanded by Christ and preserved in the teachings of His Church. The strength of the pro-life movement is not its righteous anger or political influence. Rather, the pro-life movement has grown through love and mercy changing one heart at a time. All efforts to evangelize the culture in other matters should seek to do the same.
