It’s been going around all the blogs and comboxes, not to mention actual conversations in everyday life.
What do we do now?
During the campaign, some Catholics who were calling themselves pro-life were saying that it’s time to give up the legal fight to reverse Roe v. Wade. “Abortion is legal and it’s here to stay,” they say. “Let’s commit ourselves to limiting the number of abortions through social programs to help women.” Which to them, of course, meant voting for Obama, in spite of the fact that he was the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to run for President.
Some pro-choicers, both before and after mocking us so-called “social conservatives,” saying “why not give up? You are never going to win. Stay down on your red-state farms where you belong, and don’t try to bring religious issues into the political sphere. Abortion is legal, and it’s here to stay.”
What I say to all of these people is: you just don’t understand.
It’s true that changing the law is not as immediately vital as saving lives of babies through individual social actions, including sidewalk counseling, crisis pregnancy centers, pro-life education and other kinds of community action. And government social programs to help women are vitally important too. But statements like the above ignore the fundamental meaning of the law and why we should all be interested in what it says.
Why do we have laws against certain behavior? Not because we think outlawing something will completely stop it. If that were the case, we would have given up on our laws against murder and drunk driving, years ago, because in spite of all the laws, people still commit thousands of murders a year, and thousands of people drive drunk, killing still more innocent people.
No, we have laws because they signal what it is is what we believe in, what we strive to uphold, what we stand for and against as a society. They are statements that attempt to put up a wall between civilization and barbarity. Laws of course, give us the ability to punish offenders who want to destroy this civilization. Even more important, what is enshrined in law is enshrined in people’s hearts. It’s also enshrined in public policy. And what we have enshrined in our public policy now is horrendous. And it’s only going to become more so.
Declaring abortion legal in the United States in 1973 meant declaring that a certain class of human beings in our society are not really human, have no rights and are not protected under law. This is a fundamental evil that destroys human rights and dignity because it breaks the bonds of the human family and the social compact that binds us as a people. It is the same evil that is behind racism, genocide and the Holocaust.
Enshrining this evil in our hearts as a people is leading now and will lead in the future to more intolerable evils in public policy and in American life. As far back as the 70’s, doctors, ethicists and others who wanted to shape public policy began to advocate the right to kill defective children after birth, voluntary and even compulsory euthanasia, all based on the principle asserted in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that the human right to life is not absolute. This is bearing poisonous fruit today in the assisted suicide movement, and a movement, still muted, but steadily growing, for compulsory euthanasia in some cases. The idea that other lives are not worthy of protection is now being enshrined in law.
This has to be stopped.
Look at Nazi Germany in the late 20’s and early 30’s before Hitler came to power, and you will see that the same things: euthanasia, and compulsory killing of the handicapped and the mentally ill were being advocated then. And look what happened. All it will take for us to follow suit in the U.S. is the right demagogue. (Let’s hope Obama is not the one).
This is why the fundamental right to life of all human beings must be solidly established in law.
As a historian, I don’t put much stock in the “abortion is here to stay” argument. The entire human mindset has been changed more than once in history. When Christianity came into the world in the Roman empire, abortion was very common and infanticide (in the form of the exposure of unwanted babies) was an established part of the Roman law and family structure. Christians were the only people to combat this evil through their assertion that all human beings are valuable because created by God. They created a revolution in society in favor of the protection of all human life, an understanding that over the course of centuries, became enshrined in law, which even if it wavered here and there in different ages, remained basically solid.
Now another revolution in mindset seems to have been taking place over the last 30-40 years, one that wants to enshrine human convenience and utilitarian ethics as the foundation of law and public policy, and is seeking to destroy the fundamental principles that protect human life and dignity. But the majority of the American people still seem to think otherwise, if the polls indicating that the majority of Americans still want restrictions on abortion. (Over 80% are opposed to partial-birth abortions). Only a small minority of pro-abortion people are at the controls in government now. Only time can tell whether this will be a fundamental mindset change or is just a mere glitch in our nation’s consciousness. From the viewpoint of centuries, a 30-40 year trend looks a little less awesome. I believe it can be stopped and reversed.
For the sake of our whole society, it must be reversed.
You can help out by fighting the Freedom of Choice Act, something that the pro-abortion crowd has been trying to get passed in Congress for twenty years. President Obama has promised to immediately sign it into law if it passes. With large Democratic majorities in House and Senate, it just may pass. This bill would enshrine abortion in law as a woman’s “fundamental right” and would remove all legal protection from the unborn. It would overturn the Partial-Birth Abortion ban. It would mandate tax-funded abortions, remove conscience clauses, forcing Catholic physicians and nurses to perform abortions, and more.
You can read an excellent article about FOCA here. And you can sign a petition and donate to the cause here.
Do it for unborn babies, for also for all of us and our future as a nation.
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I work at home, so I got to go to vote at a non-busy time, right after lunch, around 1 p.m. The polling place, a school, was only 3 blocks from my apartment.
I live in the Bronx, and my electoral district went 92% for Gore in 2000. Still, on my way, as I was passing the grocery store, I saw a little black kid running around with some flyers (or maybe sample ballots?) calling “Vote Obama, vote Obama!” The Obama campaign was definitely not taking any chances!
The polling place wasn’t crowded at all, and everyone was very friendly. My neighborhood is about 70-80% black and Hispanic, so at that time, I seemed to be the only white face around. I showed my ID, signed my name in the book, and sat at the school cafeteria table to wait for the four people ahead of me to vote, then went in the booth and for the second time in 30 years, pulled the lever for a straight Republican ticket.
The first time was in 1976, the first election when I was of voting age. My Catholic family were all lifelong Democrats and I had always expected to be the same. Then in 1973, when I was sixteen, came the shocking and numbing announcement that the Supreme Court had decreed abortion on demand legal throughout the land. In 1976, Jimmy Carter was announcing his wishy-washy stand and shutting vocal pro-lifers out of the Democratic convention. I voted for Ford in protest. I still recall how reluctantly I did so.
I have voted for Democratic presidential candidates since then — just not any that were actually running. Twice I gave my write-in vote to Gov. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, a brave pro-life Democrat. The rest of the time I have simply not voted, also out of protest and aversion to Republican policies. This time, I wanted at all costs to defeat Obama, but I knew that in my district my vote was basically useless. But mostly I wanted to vote for a real live Feminist for Life for Vice-President. Who knows when I’ll be able to do that again?
For over 30 years I have gone through an internal struggle, longing to vote Democratic but unable to do so in good conscience. Those who are saying “it’s OK, we’ve got a proportionate reason!” all sound terribly glib to me. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe they’ve gone through as great an inner struggle as I have and are now throwing in the towel. or maybe they are just waking up to the whole question for the first time. I’d really like to know how they can do it. All I can think of is all the babies being slaughtered.
I started watching the election results at dinner. Now at 11 p.m. they’ve just called it: Obama has won. In the larger picture, a great historic moment — America’s first African-American President. I only wish I could feel happier about it. Why can’t I feel happy about it? Most of the things he stands for I agree with. If I could just stop thinking about his Messiah complex and his strange, unsavory radical associations, i could be happy. I should be happy — but I keep thinking about the slaughtered babies, and how Obama wants to remove all protection from them.
I’m now incredibly depressed. But at the same time, I’m determined to start the fight against FOCA as soon as possible. If not 30 years of pro-life work will be wasted. I will never give up! Prolifers must never give up!
And at all costs, we must pray for our country and our new President.
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The Archbishop of my diocese of New York, Edward Cardinal Egan, has just written this in his weekly column. It’s so hard-hitting I had to put it here.
Just Look
The picture on this page is an untouched photograph of a being that has been within its mother for 20 weeks. Please do me the favor of looking at it carefully.
20-week old baby in womb
Have you any doubt that it is a human being?
If you do not have any such doubt, have you any doubt that it is an innocent human being?
If you have no doubt about this either, have you any doubt that the authorities in a civilized society are duty-bound to protect this innocent human being if anyone were to wish to kill it?
If your answer to this last query is negative, that is, if you have no doubt that the authorities in a civilized society would be duty-bound to protect this innocent human being if someone were to wish to kill it, I would suggest—even insist—that there is not a lot more to be said about the issue of abortion in our society. It is wrong, and it cannot—must not—be tolerated.
Read the rest of what the Cardinal had to say here:
He is right, there’s not a lot more to be said about the issue at this point. The choice in this election seems pretty clear to me. We don’t have a choice, unfortunately, between an unequivocally pro-life and an unequivocably pro-abortion candidate. (McCain is not wholly against embryonic stem-cell research).
But we do have an unequivocably pro-death candidate (let’s call him by his right name), who would withdraw ALL protection from this baby and millions of others. I say he should be stopped.
I say this as a registered DEMOCRAT who longs to see a candidate with a “seamless garment” approach. I long to vote as a Democrat to ensure social justice and programs that would help the poor and the helpless on a variety of issues — but have been unable to do so for the past 30 years because the party supports the death of this baby and millions of others. And Obama has pledged to do away with all laws on the books supporting unborn children through the FOCA act.
My choice is clear. I hope you will think about yours.
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Here’s some news from the Feminists for Life website:
Feminists for Life supports the Coercive Abortion Prevention Act introduced Thursday, March 16, 2006, by Michigan women legislators. The five-bill package identifies very specific forms of coercion from financial threats to physical violence, which could result in jail time and/or fines. Abortion providers would be required to expressly screen women for coercion, inform coerced women of their rights, and refer them to domestic violence agencies.
“There is nothing pro-choice about having no choice,” said Feminists for Life President Serrin Foster. “Women deserve better than unwanted abortions.”
The legislation stands in stark contrast to a lawsuit—nicknamed “Roe v. Wade for Men”—filed on March 9 in U.S. District Court in Saginaw, Michigan. The suit, supported by the National Center for Men, contends that men should have the choice to “decline fatherhood,” including financial responsibility, in the event of pregnancy. State courts have ruled in the past that any inequity experienced by men is outweighed by society’s interest in ensuring that children get financial support from both parents.
“We have heard from too many women and girls who had unwanted abortions due to threats of withholding financial and emotional support,” said Foster. “Women and girls have repeatedly told us stories of being thrown out of their home by boyfriends, husbands and parents who said they would pay for an abortion, but if she has the child she’d be on her own; employers who found pregnancy and parenting incompatible with the job, educators who tell women they can’t possibly complete their education if they have a child.”
“The worst cases have been those involving not only verbal threats to withhold financial support and emotional support, but those where physical violence has been used against pregnant women,” said Foster.
Why don’t those who claim to be for “choice” ever support legislation like this?
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