Pursuing a Consistent Ethic — With Room for Growth
At the end of last month’s Diaper Drive, I asked a few of our members for feedback on the event- how I could make it better, more efficient, more successful- and one response particularly encouraged- and humbled- me: “I mean, I just wish we could do them more often, like every week. I would come!!”
This eagerness to serve, this willingness to give- and the authentic joy with which she expressed it- is absolutely essential to the future of the pro-life movement. We must continue to fight for life and do so at its every stage, not only seeking to provide women with resources that can help them face pregnancy (an incredibly challenging, daunting responsibility whether planned or not) but also in advocating against the death penalty, against euthanasia, and working to support the vulnerable — including but not limited to immigrants and refugees, individuals with disabilities, the homeless, and the poor.
RTL doesn’t deny that other individuals and groups take different approaches to the pro-life movement. But ours is an organization founded on respect, love, and compassion as actuated through service events and awareness campaigns (for instance, Pregnancy Resource Forums, discussions between students & administrators about existing resources for student mothers). RTL does not tolerate and will never support any kind of violence against other individuals: all women- all humans- are individuals with innate dignity and as such deserve love and compassion, given freely and authentically– even if they have made or are considering decisions we are opposed to.
But love does not mean turning a blind eye to injustice, which is how we view the induced termination of a pregnancy: the termination of a human life, irrespective of its state of dependence (if anything, the more vulnerable and dependent the person, the more we must speak up– this is not a new idea). In our eyes, abortion eliminates a human life rather than eliminating the systematic, underlying issues that lead a woman to consider abortion in the first place — issues that necessitate action irrespective of whether or not a woman is pregnant.
I believe that RTL is fundamentally pro-woman because we are committed to providing women with non-violent options and resources in facing what is unequivocally a tremendous challenge: bringing a child into the world and caring for that child. No woman- no person at all- should have to face a pregnancy (unexpected or not) unprepared and unsupported. Our work does not and should never end in the Delivery Room.
The pro-life movement has a long way to go in terms of non-abortion-related advocacy and service, and I’m the first to admit that. If we champion human dignity at every stage of life, why aren’t we doing more for the poor, the homeless, the disabled, minority groups, death row inmates ? — the list goes on. To this I would respond that I, too, am frustrated by our insufficient degree of action here. But this is why I accepted the position of Service Chair: so that I can play a role- maybe a very small one but still a role- in promoting and substantiating a more consistent ethic of life.
I want to affirm that I sincerely mean it when I say that I deeply desire to do more to consistently honor the dignity of life at every stage. I am very much open to ideas for service events (or collaboration!) from people inside and outside of the pro-life movement, as I’m the first to acknowledge that we have room to grow and I very much want to help RTL do so.
