Do Pro-Lifers Exist: A Question of Belief

2.   A Question of Belief

In yesterday’s blog I said that there are no pro-lifers because life is hard and everyone must compromise. Show me a pro-lifer, and I will show you somebody willing to make exceptions. This is blatantly obvious for those against abortion, but for guns and war; but it applies even to a ‘seamless garment’ nun, against abortion, guns, war, poverty and all injustice. After all, the sister depends upon the church for her livelihood; and the church, historically, has often taken life; so unless she renounces her vows, the sister is complicit.

For the Catholic church to claim to be pro-life is deeply ironic, given not only its violent history, but also its anti-earthly ideology. For the saints and the martyrs and Christianity’s founder, the saving of life was not at the top of the list. The church is perhaps a pro-soul organization, but it never was, and cannot ever be, pro-life.

Consider the infamous Brazilian child-rape-followed-by-excommunication-for-abortion case. Many have expressed outrage at the Catholic church’s position; my own view is that the church’s position is impossible. In this case, a pro-life policy is not only untenable, it’s absent. With a 9-year-old pregnant rape victim, there is simply no way to avoid the loss of innocent life. Either the embryo dies, or both embryo and girl dies; therefore a pro-life option does not exist.

Now consider Dr. Tiller’s assassination by a domestic terrorist. The stark hypocrisy of calling the murderer ‘pro-life’ should be obvious to all but the idiotic and/or ideological. It reveals that the real dispute in this nation is not ‘pro-life’ versus ‘pro-choice’, but guns versus abortion. The actual issue under discussion is; shall killing be permitted prenatally or postnatally? It is a debate over a detail of timing.

Better contraception, adoption, etc., can reduce the number of abortions; but you cannot eliminate abortion. Dr. Tiller was involved in the hard cases, where the child would have died, or not long survived, or the mother would have died. 3% of all pregnancies must end that way. In those cases, abortion is a least-bad outcome, tragic but necessary.

Life has many such necessary tragedies. There is no such thing as a pro-lifer because there is no such thing as a free lunch; for in the absence of infinite wealth, people must choose whom to favor and whom to deny, sometimes even in matters of life and death.

Of course this burden falls on those least able to bear it; the weak and vulnerable; so social justice is part of the issue. But not all of it; many pregnancies miscarry spontaneously. These are called ‘acts of God’; which, if true, makes God the biggest abortionist of all.

If God exists, then God could hardly be called pro-life, at least not in this universe. Therefore it is folly for mortals to call themselves pro-life; for that would be claiming moral superiority over God and Nature.