I think, each of us, needs to take a long look at this question. Letting go of previous conceptions and personal opinions of this word.
The definition of “Pro-Life” is:
“opposing abortion and euthanasia.”
By definition it is a stance of protecting the bookends of our lives. Not aborting a child before they are born, or ending the life of a person by euthanizing them.
But life itself is lived in the middle of those two times, it is lived after and before.
Life itself is held within every breath of the life that you are so valiantly protecting the beginning and end of.
To be truly pro-LIFE includes advocating, loving, and caring for the livelihood of those people.
In order to be advocating so strongly for lives to be kept, and lived, you need to care about what quality those lives will be lived in.
If you are going to be advocating against abortion, what are you doing to be there and advocate for the ones who are being born into families that cannot care for them or simply don’t want to care for them?
There are so many arguments for (and against) abortion and euthanasia, but I think for the sake of not sitting and dissecting each of them… because we’d both be here for weeks, I’d like to just focus on the topic of abortion.
“A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it. Moreover, the researchers found that abortion was safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely. Globally, abortion accounts for 13 percent of women’s deaths during pregnancy…”
This is from an article written in the NY times in 2007, by Elisabeth Rosenthal.
The argument shouldn’t be against the legalization of abortion, because looking at numbers, it won’t stop it from happening.
These women will still seek a way out of their pregnancy, for whatever reasoning they have.
Being Pro-life means being pro-woman seeking ways out of her situation just as much as being pro-child.
It means valuing that woman enough, your personal beliefs aside, to keep it legal. Understanding that making it illegal will put her in a position of either raising a child she cannot properly care for or seek out an unsafe abortion, putting her at risk.
You MUST care about that woman, and the child she will be bringing into whatever life circumstance she is in.
It isn't your place to be thinking "Should've just kept your legs closed" to a woman seeking out an abortion, or to tell her that when she's struggling to raise a child she wasn't ready for.
You do not know what she went through, or is currently going through.
It often goes far beyond negligence in responsibility or protection in sex. It could be lack of education or proper knowledge, rape, abusive relationship, or despite contraceptives being used she still got pregnant.
I find it ironic that the same people who will stand outside a planned parenthood and scream at women who enter the building will be holding signs about how we MUST protect the sanctity of life.
The same people who will cheer when a woman chooses life and keeps her child will call her a lazy ass for being on the welfare system because she can’t support her children.
All of this aside:
The Pro-Life stance should go far beyond a debate centered around abortion. Life itself is clearly so much more than just being born.
Pro-Life is so much more, it is to be so many more things:
To be pro refugee.
To be pro those with disabilities.
Pro minorities.
Pro women.
Pro men.
Pro impoverished.
Pro wealthy.
Pro gay.
Pro straight.
Pro religious.
Pro atheist.
Pro LIFE.
I think we are shorting ourselves when we limit ourselves to the Pro-Life stance ends once a child is born... We short others just as much, if not more.
We need to spread the urgency we have for the unborn to the destitute and hurting among us. The unseen and the needy both across the street and around the world.
If we have such zeal for a life to be born, we much have the same zeal for them to be cared for, seen, and love.
So, be equally as caring for the woman, the man, the immigrant, the homosexual, the Christian, the non-religious, the "different", people that will come into your life. Love them with the same love you have for the child that they once were, the child you advocated so strongly to be born.
There is no easy answer when it comes to questions on either side of this topic.
What it all comes down is simply:
"What am I doing to actively show people I care for their life, regardless of what I hold to be true. How am I loving, giving, and caring?"
