The Unborn -- The Good, the Sad, and the Terrifying

Since this past week was the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision and pro-life week, my RSS feed was filled with articles relating to abortion, contraception, and reproductive rights discussion. Since many of my feeds are from the Catholic News Agency, Create Minority Report, the Blaze, etc., many of the articles focused on the pro-life movement such as the marches in Washington D.C. and in San Francisco. But I did also come across articles and news reports from “the other side” arguing the pro-choice viewpoint. What I read was both sad and terrifying and really drove home our need to pray for our wayward brothers and sisters who cling to these radical abortion ideas.

My first journey down the rabbit hole lead me to Salon.com and an article titled “So what if abortion ends life?” I knew I should have stopped reading the article right after “so what,” but I soldiered on. The author, Mary Elizabeth Williams, says that the pro-choice side should just admit that a fetus is a human life but women should still have a right to an abortion anyway. She argues (and not very well mind you) that referring to the fetus as a human life is some sort of scare tactic by the pro-life side. She says:

We’re so intimidated by the wingnuts, we get spooked out of having these conversations. We let the archconservatives browbeat us with the concept of “life,” using their scare tactics on women and pushing for indefensible violations like forced ultrasounds. Why? Because when they wave the not-even-accurate notion that “abortion stops a beating heart” they think they’re going to trick us into some damning admission. They believe that if we call a fetus a life they can go down the road of making abortion murder. And I think that’s what concerns the hell out of those of us who support unrestricted reproductive freedom.

Yeah, I know. She used the “terror of ultrasounds” card. If you have the stomach for it, read the entire article. It would almost make for great satire until you realize the author is being dead serious in her assertions. I think the pro-life side can take comfort that the pro-abortion crowd is reduced to the grade school “so what?” defence since the ethical, philosophical medical, and scientific arguments all lean towards the pro-life movement. But it’s also sad that the pro-choice lobby can put up such a weak defence and yet the pro-life movement has to work so hard to change any laws to protect the most innocent amongst us. But no one ever said the government creates laws based on logical and well-reasoned arguments.

Here’s a little bit of good news. According to an article in Time magazine titled “What Choice?“, fewer people are even listening to the Mary Elizabeth Williams of the world. The pro-choice movement is dying. Just take a look at the numbers — 500,000 marched for life in Washington D.C. and close to 50,000 marched in San Francisco last week. Only 300 people attended a city-sponsored Roe vs. Wade celebration in San Francisco. I guess celebrating 40 years of murdering the unborn with Sandra Fluke wasn’t a great reason to break out the party hats. Also, the pro-life movement is filled with new life as the younger generation chooses to embrace the fact that the unborn are human lives with meaning and deserve protection. The pro-choice crowd just has “so what?”

What RosaryMeds Do I Need?

A shrinking, yet still vocal segment of society has a chronic case of sowhatitis. Symptoms include ignoring all scientific, medical, and philosophical evidence that prevents them from getting their way. People with sowhatitis are seen in small groups and usually stay away from large crowds made up of younger generations. I prescribe a healthy dose of meditating on the Third Sorrowful Mystery of the rosary — The Crowning of Thorns. Remember, the Roman soldiers who mocked Jesus by crowning Him with thorns did not know what they were doing. If their hearts were open, even the slightest, to Jesus’ message they wouldn’t have mocked Him so. The pro-choice crowd finds themselves in a similar situation. Many of them have such hardened hearts they are not aware of the mockery they make of their own humanity by advocating for the murder of the unborn. The Roman soldiers did not see the greatness of Jesus and His message of love and compassion, but only saw a weak and beaten man who was an easy target for mockery. Likewise, the pro-choice crowd does not see the inherit value of all human life but only see the unborn as a burden and abortion as a seemingly easy solution to eliminate that burden. We pray the rosary for the conversion of their hearts and that we find the power and strength to continue fighting for what is right.