I don't know when or if there will be a "part 2," though I have a feeling there will be.
I just can't bring myself to say that I'm "pro-life." It's not that I in any way agree with abortion. I don't. In fact, I can't think of a single instance in which I could personally justify terminating the life of an unborn child unless the mother's life is in immediate danger, and even then I'm not okay with it, I just believe that it might be only slightly less of a tragedy if one of two deaths could be prevented.*
The problem lies not with the belief, nor the term itself. My problem is that "Are you pro-life or pro-choice?" trivializes an enormously complicated issue down to a single-sentence answer. For one thing, this question, regardless of who's asking it, is always a trick question, whether or not they intended it to be so. "Pro-life" has all sorts of nasty connotations attached to it: you're anti-woman, you're a religious zealot, or worse, you're not actually pro-life. Yes, I've heard the argument made that pro-lifers aren't actually pro-life; they're simply against abortion. And the sad fact is, there is a tiny but far-too-loud minority who truly is all of those things, and they create an ugly cultural association with those of us who believe that all life is sacred and worth protecting.
Which leads me to my second point.
Creating a "culture of life" goes far deeper than the pro-life/pro-choice argument. It goes deeper than legislation and bureaucracy. Criminalizing abortion is like damming a flood after it's already destroyed the town. We can't start with trying to convince a teenage girl to protect the new life holding court in her belly. We need to go further back than that, to teaching our young daughters that their bodies are worth more than the first cute guy who's willing to buy them a drink. We need to start setting the bar a little higher for moral standards for men and women. We need mothers and sisters to set an example of Godly femininity, and we need fathers and brothers to demonstrate how women should be treated. We don't need more grotesque pictures of aborted babies -- we need learned medical practitioners to tell the beautiful truth about what really happens during and after conception.
And what we really need (you'll notice I made this a separate point) is Christians willing to show Grace. We need to stop standing outside abortion clinics, screaming hateful obscenities and waving morbid signs. We need to stop labeling, stop browbeating, stop guilt-tripping, and especially stop condemning. However tempted we might be to look down on these women, they are still our sisters and we must still pray for their salvation.** Look at it this way: when was the last time you saw an abortion protester offering to adopt one of those unwanted babies? When was the last time any of us was willing to sit down with one of these women, hear their story, make them feel like they matter too? Convince them with proper Christian love and prayer that their baby was not a burden but hope for the future?
Just saying, I think we could stand to re-think our strategy here.
For the record, I think "pro-humanity" has a nice ring to it.
*This does not come close to describing how not-okay I am with abortion, even in this scenario. I don't know how common it is for pregnancy to threaten a woman's life, and I don't think I'm in a position to argue. And I most certainly do not want to get into a debate about whose life is more important when that is the choice to be made. That's a dangerous place to start making generalizations.
**I've said this before, I know. But I think it bears repeating. And repeating, and repeating, and repeating ad infinitum.
