For Catholics, pro-life is more than just saying 'no' to abortion

Friday, Oct. 03, 2014

If the Catholic Church’s teachings on the sanctity of life were fully implemented, we would seek not just to outlaw abortion, but to render it utterly unnecessary.

Making abortion obsolete requires that we first recognize that conception, pregnancy and birth are truly awesome gifts.  Speaking from experience, I admit that the swollen belly, swollen feet, aching joints, nausea, and inability to sit down, stand up or sleep normally for months during pregnancy are not pleasant.  And I won’t even bother reminding other women of the searing pain of childbirth.  But ultimately, the ability to carry a human being in your body, and the responsibility that comes with being the only person who can offer any protection to that human being for nine months, is a remarkable blessing.   

In the era of sound bite debate, the Church’s full teaching about life has been reduced to little more than “No to abortion.”  As we mark Oct. 5 as Respect Life Sunday, there is much, much more that Catholics can say on the topic. For example, if we truly want to preach our pro-life views, we would say that abortion is proof we are failing, as a nation, to protect the dignity of women.  

In Utah, most women who seek an abortion already have children; children they struggle to feed, clothe and keep housed.  Sixty-nine percent of abortions are performed on women living in poverty. This is a travesty. No woman, regardless of her pay grade, should feel she has to choose between feeding her born children or giving birth.  That any woman believes these are her only options should be abhorrent to Catholics, who by the very tenets of our faith are pro-life. Our Church requires us to protect both the sanctity AND the dignity of life. Giving birth is one part of the equation, ensuring the family is able to provide basic necessities is another.

Thus, Catholics must do more to protect life. We should be praying for the women who feel they have to make the decision to have an abortion.  We should also be advocating: urging lawmakers to protect food stamp programs from the draconian cuts proposed in Congress, improve child care options and subsidies, expand low-income housing, and promote living wages, among other legislative efforts to help women who are raising children.  

We also must also be advocates for the rights of women to a life of dignity around the globe. For example,   last year I visited a maquiladora (a United States manufacturing firm in a free trade zone in Mexico).  The women working in the factory were thrilled that they had recently won a concession from the U.S. firm allowing pregnant women to sit for 10 minutes during their eight-hour work day.  A U.S. firm knows failing to grant such a concession would violate workers’ rights here in this country – rights founded on principles of basic human decency. Catholics should consider whether they are living out their faith if they patronize U.S. businesses that provided such meager support for pregnant women in another country.

Locally, the Utah Legislature consistently defines itself as pro-life, but its actions have been contrary to that self-image.  Legislators have failed for years to enact a state Earned Income Tax Credit to help low-income families; they seek to make childcare less readily available, and refuse to expand health care coverage to thousands of low-income individuals, including single parents. They also will pursue a resolution in support of a federal balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that would force massive cuts to social programs that protect the dignity of life for women and children. 

Catholics who profess to be pro-life must pay attention not only to what is happening at abortion clinics but also in the halls of Congress, at the Utah Legislature, and around the globe.  Protecting the sanctity and the dignity of life requires nothing less.