Florida Catholic | Editorial

35 years, still fighting abortion

Published: 02.01.08

We work and pray, 35 years after Roe v. Wade, to continue to change hearts and minds about abortion. Little by little, gains are made, legislation is changed. Little by little, the battle can be won.

Thirty-five years. For three and a half decades, our nation has lived with, dealt with, debated and cried over the fateful Jan. 22, 1973, decision that legalized abortion. The Roe v. Wade ruling has had profound impact throughout our country as millions of lives snuffed out over the course of a generation and a half cause a ripple effect one can barely comprehend.

Tens of thousands turned out again last week for the annual March for Life in Washington and similar local events. These events, and scores of other educational efforts and demonstrations, seek to stem the tide of abortion. According to annual statistics, the cause has been moderately successful in recent years. Fewer teen pregnancies are reported, and fewer abortions. Many reasons can be cited for the decline, from the availability of birth control and abstinence education in prevention of pregnancy to the decline in number of obstetricians who will perform abortions and the introduction of the “morning-after” pill.

Whatever the reasons, the decline in the number of abortions is good news, but never good enough while abortion remains legal.

The sanctity of life is at the heart of Catholic Church teaching. Some people are firmly convinced that abortion is wrong in every instance. They believe killing the unborn child is wrong because life exists from the moment of conception. There are others just as firmly convinced women should have a right to choose, noting that the woman’s “reproductive rights” outweigh those of the “fetus.” Then, there is a huge segment of people in the middle, who see this as a difficult debate: They don’t like abortion for the sake of convenience, but waffle over the dilemma in the “hard cases” such as rape, incest or when the life of the mother is genuinely threatened. This vast middle ground favors restrictions on abortion, even if they would not outlaw it outright, to allow for rare exceptions.

We may be able to convince some of these people with facts and figures. We can point to statistics that show somewhere upward of 97 percent of abortions are performed for reasons other than the hard cases. We can illustrate that women use abortion as family planning, or because a young girl feels her parents would not understand, or because having a baby might crimp the woman’s or the couple’s style. All these convenience or lifestyle factors can be explained, but these are issues of the head. Abortion is an issue of the heart, and until we can change people’s hearts, we will not win this battle.

We can take solace in the face of the pro-life movement these days. Look around at the pictures of the faces at the March for Life and other events; you’ll see many youths and young adults. It is as though those of this generation understand this issue deep in their souls. They know — because their brothers and sisters, their cousins and classmates are the ones who have been lost to abortion.

We tire of hearing from the “pro-choice” side, really the pro-abortion side, that those in the anti-abortion movement care only for the unborn baby — not for the mother and not for the child after he or she is born. A myriad of programs, mostly faith-based, assist mothers-to-be throughout pregnancy and after the birth of the child. Every pregnant woman who finds herself in a difficult situation has options, and many in the pro-life movement will provide assistance to help her make and sustain the choice for life. Resources also exist to help those who have chosen abortion and are now profoundly affected by that choice. Project Rachel and other post-abortion counseling provide support for women, men and grandparents affected by children lost to abortion. What have members of the pro-abortion movement done for these women lately?

We work and pray, 35 years after Roe v. Wade, to continue to change hearts and minds about abortion. Little by little, gains are made, legislation is changed. Little by little, the battle can be won.

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35 years, still fighting abortion

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