This month I attended a Pro-Life service at our church. There was great music well-performed, readings, and reports from members of our parish’s Pro-Life Ministry. Their practice of praying outside of abortion clinics had changed the minds of women who were on the verge of getting abortions. The numbers were small, but significant, especially considering that they translate to human lives saved.
As I reflected on this strategy of prayer, I concluded that it is not enough. We need to do more to change the abortion landscape in our country. I think of St. Theresa of Calcutta. Who prayed more than she? Yet she was daily hands-on working to solve the problem she was called to address. The same could be said of any of the great saints who addressed major societal problems—Mother Cabrini, St. Elizabeth Seton, Sister Catherine Drexel. In each case, their model was prayer backed by action. Or, if you prefer, action backed by prayer. And so, whilst encouraging all of our Pro-Life prayer troops, I propose herein a couple of concrete steps that we can take as a society to make it more possible for women to choose life.
What Are the Abortion Market Drivers?
When doing research on business and industry, scholars are constantly looking to identify “market drivers,” i.e. those needs, wants and attitudes that are behind the demand for a product or service. If we take this approach to studying the demand for abortion we might get ideas on how to change the marketplace.
There is data on why women choose abortion. The reasons given are usually financial, social or for birth control. But these statistics are based on short answers to questionnaires. I believe if women with unexpected pregnancies were interviewed in depth about their situation, we would find they are concerned about finances and the disruption of their lives (certainly) but are also worried or even scared of the physical aspects, and feeling isolated and alone. And so, I propose the following concrete steps to mitigate these abortion market drivers.
Universal Health Care
In the United States, lack of access to health care is the hidden influencer in every economic decision. A woman facing an unplanned pregnancy must, first of all, consider how she will take care of herself, the child in the womb and the child once born. This market driver could be immediately neutralized if we had government-sponsored health care for all as is the case in all other advanced countries. Once this worry is taken away, the decision for life becomes more possible. I know government-sponsored health care is a political issue fraught with controversy. There are many in our society who resent having to pay for other people’s health care. I refer these to the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).
A New Ministry–“Mentor Mothers” to Counteract Fear and Isolation
Imagine this: A young woman facing unplanned pregnancy alone is paired up with an experienced mother to mentor her through her pregnancy and childbirth. This older woman would be a wise friend, companion, and source of information and encouragement. In some cases, the expectant mother could even be taken into the mentor mother’s home until the child is born. A program like this would require training and possibly certification. It could even become a new Apostolate. My instinct tells me that there are many of our mature Catholic mothers who would welcome this role. And I know that there are many in my wife’s and my age group with nests that are empty enough to share with a woman and a baby who need a little help.
Support Those on the Front Lines
Support a shelter for women in crisis pregnancy. And here is a simple way to do it. I am sure that many readers use online banking. It is a simple thing to set up a regular monthly payment to the shelter of your choice. I do this with Birth Haven in Newton, New Jersey. The money is automatically mailed on the same day every month. I don’t have to write a check or even pay postage! And the amount can be small. A lot of successful Catholic fund-raising is based on getting a little money from a lot of people. If someone sent five dollars every month, that would be a good thing. If they persuaded everyone in their Pro-Life ministry to send five dollars a month that starts to add up to some real money for these mothers.
Make the Fathers Be Fathers
Have you heard the expression, “It takes two to tango”? Why is it that a crisis pregnancy is solely the woman’s problem? Some men want to be involved and we applaud them. But many others apparently get off scot-free while she is left agonizing over an abortion decision. I say we play a little hardball here. In our day we have two unassailable identifiers: The Social Security number and DNA. Once a child’s father is undisputedly identified through DNA, child support payments will be deducted from the man’s paychecks until the child finishes college. This relieves some of the mother’s financial stress (see above) and is a powerful incentive for men to control themselves.
Change the Premise of the Question
We Pro-Lifers need to realize that arguments based on an objective morality rooted in religious belief fail to persuade a secular humanist, moral relativist society. Eschewing moral arguments, we must instead speak bluntly and factually.
It is true to point out that abortion stills a beating heart. It is more forceful to say that in an abortion a human being is killed. For, indeed, the child in the womb is a living human being. In a long-ago televised debate over abortion, uber-liberal commentator Nat Hentoff asked, if the child in the womb is not human, what species is it? If it is not living, it must be dead. Many say that we should not make such aggressive statements. After forty-four years of gentility, perhaps it is time for the gloves to come off. The “human being is killed” argument changes the question from a woman’s right to choose to when is it OK to kill?
It is also helpful to go back to the beginnings of the aggressive push for abortion. The choice lobby has insisted for years that the issue is a woman’s right to control her own body. People fail to remember that at the time Roe was being considered, the feminists were pushing an agenda that evolved directly from the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Their acknowledged goal was to make women equal with men in the sexual arena by making it possible for them to have sex without consequences—just like a man. Abortion was a key objective in this effort. They seem to have done pretty well with it but the net result has been to trivialize one of the most fundamental aspects of the human person.
Sex is Important
In all of the brouhaha over sexual conduct in our day, one fact I never hear mentioned is that sex is important. Talking about the Church’s teaching on sexual morality is a non-starter. Frankly, most people in our society care not for the Catechism’s guidance on sexual behavior. But the importance of sex is a fact that cannot be denied.
Our popular culture (movies, television, pop music, porn) depicts sex as a morally neutral recreational activity, on a plane with bowling or playing Yahtzee. But sex is important because ones sexual behavior affects other people. It has important consequences for both parties: STDs, STIs, unintended pregnancy, not to mention the emotional harm to young women from engaging in anonymous sex divorced from love. (See Bishop Barron on the hookup culture.)
The Supreme Court Is Not the Answer
Ever since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, Pro-Life activists have concentrated their efforts on getting this barbaric decision reversed. The past forty-four years have seen the most democracy-threatening struggle in our society as we try to get conservative justices appointed to the Supreme Court in hopes of reversing Roe. This effort has yielded Bush v. Gore, Citizens United, Heller v. D.C. and Obergefell. These decisions have severely damaged the country whilst yielding no movement on life issues. Roe established the practice of the Justices making up law without reference to the Constitution. It appears our efforts to appoint justices who will make law in our favor have worked against us for the most part.
As in so many things, Saint Thomas Aquinas is instructive here. In the “Treatise on Law” in his Summa Theologica, Thomas points out that we should legislate against that which attacks the fundamental order of society, but not do so if it would cause impossible problems. I think this is clearly the case with abortion. Would we really want every woman who has an abortion, and every doctor and health professional who abets one to go to the slammer? The prisons would explode with overcrowding. And suppose Roe v. Wade was reversed? All that would happen is that states would repeal their laws against abortion because, as Justice O’Connor once noted, Americans have come to rely on access to the procedure. The current approach to reasonable regulation, such as pain-capable child protections and parental notification, offer a way of mitigating the worst aspects of this horrible practice. But trying to outlaw abortion? You might as well try to outlaw sin. Good luck with that.
Getting to Yes to Life
The salespeople among our readers will be familiar with the concept of making it OK for the prospect to say yes. Those of us who care about human life should take a similar approach. A woman in a crisis pregnancy is going to be encouraged to solve the problem by making it go away. Those of us on the opposite side of the argument might be more persuasive if we could offer substantial material and emotional help to these women, tilting the balance toward yes.
America invented modern advertising and public relations. Thus it is that we absorb any message that makes us feel good and affirms anything we want to do for our personal happiness. Psychologists call this rationalization. (So does the Church, by the way.) The abortion movement has been sustained by a pack of lies since its inception, starting with the de-humanization of the fetus straight through to the women’s right to choose smokescreen. We now live in the “post-truth era.” By buying into these deceptions we have managed to convince ourselves that, under certain circumstances, killing isn’t such a bad thing. Greater philosophers than I (e.g. Spinoza) have pointed out that truth can never be contrary to the best interests of humanity.
Let Us Change Tactics
We must continue to hammer home the truth about abortion. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, pointed out that a lie, repeated often enough, becomes the truth. This seems to be a fundamental operating principle for many social movements in our society today. But if the idea works for social justice warriors pitching a culture of death, it should work equally well for purveyors of truth.
There will always be women who are perfectly happy to “shout their abortions.” After all, it is a relatively easy way out of bad situation. However, our Pro-Life prayer ministries have demonstrated that there are women in crisis pregnancies who are ambivalent and amenable to persuasion. They have said yes to life even as they were entering the abortion clinic. So there is our opportunity. We can substantially change the statistics for the better and even alter societal attitudes toward abortion by giving material and emotional support to women in crisis pregnancies and by making the fathers man up. This is hard and costly—much more so than prayer chains and marches on Washington. But the problem is also hard and costly. So we must meet like with like–make it materially OK for women to say yes to life. Action backed by prayer.
9 thoughts on “How to Stop Abortion? Make the Other Choice Possible”
I would refer us to a web site out of Michigan by a group called:”Prayer Focus”
” 8 THINGS THAT DEFILE AND BRING CURSES TO THE LAND.”
#2 : THE SHEDDING OF INNOCENT BLOOD.
So we might be wise to choose as a society to decree in prayer and our laws :
“THOU SHALT NOT KILL!” We can hide what we are doing in lies but let us pray for
full exposure of THE TRUTH. God is not mocked. What ever we sow that will
we reap. Lord release Your Spirit of a Healthy Fear of the Lord which is the
beginning of Wisdom in the U.S.A. Also Your SPIRIT OF UNDERSTANDING,which is
to depart from evil. Amen
Mat Hentoff? The last I heard was he was an atheist, but pro-life.
Universal healthcare – not likely. Most clients I’ve counseled who even have Obamacare know zip about the maternity or abortive aspects of it. Unmarried women without insurance, working or going to school, with trivial family support are most likely going to have an unwanted pregnancy. Their risk increases with alcohol and substance abuse, if they are young and already have toddlers or older kids and have not mastered speaking in English. Their likelihood increases still more if they are unemployed, were abused as a child or spouse, if their parents had abortions, and if they had a previous abortion. At the CPC ( crisis pregnancy center ) we only see a trickle of the numbers who go to abortion clinics. For some, their poor communications skills were a big part of how we were able to meet them – they goofed. The opportunity to discuss alternative parenting is rare. The evils of society are historic and while I’d love to eradicate them, it is historically a losing proposition. At the CPC, we actually have a bad reputation among pro-choicers for doing something we do well, and that is successfully converting the conscience of the few abortion-minded couples that stop by, by providing them information of good quality. Society is materialistic. This makes materialistic solutions more interesting than good information. Abortion is a product that parents pay for. Pregnancy counselling is pretty difficult to regard as a product – especially when it’s free. Only the very hardened abortion-minded insist that they want to kill their baby, the rest are actually looking for a way out of what they think will be a problem that bringing their child into the family creates. Better informed parents make better families and better families choose parenting and plan their pregnancies.
Always good to encourage and explore ways to help foster and cherish life , esp. at its most vulnerable stage and glad the author makes good effort in same .
Yet , the sentence that ‘after all, it is relatively easy way out of a bad situation ‘ – might be indicative of how our culture has skewed the attitude of even those who desire to be prolife ,
about life and the price for its destruction for all involved ,even indirectly .
Would the above attitude be compared to how, because sunlight seems to temporarily cause some discomfort , esp. in one whose eyes might be inflamed and the relief suggested is to remove the eyes – after all , God tell us , we are like the apple of His eyes .
Such an attitude and its related lack of real support ,in the one relationship that is thought by the woman to be so important might be what lead many to go for the so called ‘ easy way .’
Books like the ‘ Forbidden Grief ; by Theresa Burke that outlines the long standing effects of decisions based on such fears – good for all to get to know , to see how the only Way is what The Lord has shown us , to be grateful for the gift of life , in trusting hope for His delight and dreams
for every life .
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I agree with your suggestions to mentor women in unplanned pregnancies and provide shelter and security to those who need help. I think there is ample evidence that women who have that type of support available to them are better able to choose life. Fathers must be held accountable. However, I disagree that universal health care is the solution. The abortion rates in countries such as the UK, Netherlands, and so on are still very high despite their government-sponsored systems. Also, there is the great risk, as we are seeing now with physician-assisted suicide, that solutions which end life (and are cheaper) are encouraged over the more expensive (but life-sustaining) alternatives. Polls show that US taxpayers, even those who are pro-choice, don’t want tax dollars going for abortion. But, as long as abortion is considered to be part of “reproductive health” services, the government-sponsored health insurance would end up funding them. Conscience protection would be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain. We see that with the ACA right now.
With regard to the Supreme Court, it is extremely important to keep fighting to overturn Roe. As long as abortion is considered to be a constitutional right, it severely compromises a state’s ability to regulate it or even prohibit it all together. I agree that the goal is not to “send every woman who has an abortion, and every doctor and health professional to the slammer.” And maybe it will be hard to outlaw because we “rely on the procedure.” But, you rightly point out that we need to change the language to state clearly that a human being is being killed. That’s why it is essential for Court to declare unequivocally, as was done for the African-Americans at the end of the Civil War, that the unborn are human beings with all the Constitutional rights that go along with that-especially the right to life.
I feel that the father accountability thing is generational. Many fathers among the last 3 to 5 generations of fathers lack affirmation from their fathers – many have no relationship with their father to speak of. Without affirmation, a boy is lost and gains no sense of accountability.
I agree with most of your points, but the evidence from Europe, Australia, NZ, Japan and other countries which for decades have had taxpayer-funded universal health care and universal taxpayer-funded pensions for solo mothers, is that these have no effect on the overall abortion rates.
Even in the USA, it’s not as if mothers are being forced to give birth on the streets. I believe even the USA provides a hospital bed for every birth, regardless of the patient’s income. If financial concerns were the real driver of abortions, we would see a huge rate of babies offered up for adoption because their mothers couldn’t afford to raise them. Instead the numbers of such babies is minuscule.
Recently , rather reliable article about the involvement of the so called military industrial complex, , in the assassination of Pres, Kennedy , on Nov 22 , 1963 , on Feast Day of St.Ceceila – as though to hint how they were listening to the wrong music .
http://blog.spiritdaily.com/news/unspeakable-the-evidence-of-a-jfk-cia-plot
10 years , 2 mos later , on Jan 22 1973 – on a Feast Day that celebrates 6 saints named after St.Vincent , we have the Roe versus Wade decision , deceptively marketed as an act of charity towards women , possibly from same minded sources as above who listen to similar music from the enemy , as to how to ‘steal , kill and destroy ‘ and be in its service .
The reality and roots of every such assassination , directed against the child and indirectly against the mother which in the end turns upon the perpetrators themselves as well , in the form of loss of trusting , caring relationships , to be substituted by enemy offered counterfeits and its idolatry of self will etc , which are all well documented results of such choices .
We are a country that providentially has the Patronage of The Immaculate Conception , to help invoke generational healings and deliverance from the enemy offered wares of such deep roots which is often what manifest in families too , thus the need to focus on the whole family, while dealing with
complex situations , even as they might seem to be not so and just a ‘ women’s ‘ issue .
The book ‘ Forbidden Grief ‘ by Theresa Burke mentions how any woman who chooses abortion is like an animal with its paw caught in a trap , that feels the only choice is to chew it away ,and often from fear of being abandoned by those with deceptive lust for power and control who have to be pleased .
A word of support might be all it takes ,from one who seems to hold the threatening power , who yet often instead chooses to look the other way ,may be inexplicably being under
‘ the mystery of evil ‘ , from even generational evils , often lured by similar powers as to what led to the greed of the military industrial complex ( MIC) .
Thank God that just as the Kennedy saga is coming to light , there is also lot more out there
about the destructive nature of opening doors and inviting in the enemy into family lines
and the ways to counter same – including ministries such as the Marians of The Immaculate Conception ( an MIC , of the right kind ) that invites persons to cultivate trust in The Lord , in His blessings of life itself being a great gift of His mercy ,
to be lived in gratitude for same , in fidelity to what He expects of us .