When I received a letter from Dr. Wanda Franz telling me about the “Proudly Pro-Life Award,” I was, quite simply, overcome with emotion. There is no honor or award that could mean more to me than one from my fellow members of what my friend the late Richard John Neuhaus always called “the greatest grassroots movement of our times.” At the same time, I can’t help but be humbled at the thought of the great men and women to whom you have given this honor in the past.
And so I know you will understand when I say that I would like to accept this award not just for whatever I have been able to contribute to our common cause, but in memory of the many persons who have sustained me on what would otherwise have been at times a lonely journey.
Evenings like tonight evoke so many memories—of friends here and departed, of struggles won and lost. Evenings like this remind us that we are blessed to be surrounded by a “cloud of witnesses.”
After more than three decades of involvement in pro-life activities, I wish I could say that I thought the threats to respect for human life were diminishing. But one lesson we’ve learned is: Do not underestimate the power of the culture of death. We’ve learned that what was unimaginable one day can become reality the next. Today, pressures for euthanasia are building; developments in biomedicine are occurring with such speed that they have outpaced reflection on their moral implications; experiments on human embryos are fostering a mentality that treats the lives of the weak as means to the ends of the strong; and the freedoms of religion and conscience are coming under increasing threat.
Thirty years ago, who could have imagined such a thing as partial-birth abortion! When I ask myself why so many people have been slow to realize how easily today’s atrocity can become tomorrow’s routine, one answer I come up with is that it was due in part to a failure to realize something very important about choice, namely that choices last.
Each time we make policy on abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic experimentation, we are changing the moral ecology of our country. We are either helping to build the culture of life or cooperating with the culture of death. It hasn’t helped that the elite media, the powerful foundations, the sex industry, and the vast profit-making abortion industry have done their best to disguise the truth of what was happening.
But what makes the pro-life movement “the greatest grassroots movement of our times” is that it has steadily marched forward without support from the wealthy and powerful. It has moved ahead thanks to dedicated women and men—from all walks of life—who have never ceased to witness to the truth, day in and day out.
The recent Pew Foundation report that support for abortion is declining is one of many signs that our efforts are bearing fruit. We are winning the battle for hearts and minds—not as quickly as we would have wished—but we are winning. We will never give up, and we will prevail.
One of the main reasons for our slow but steady progress, I believe, is the success of the pro-life movement in demonstrating by word and deed that our position on protection of the unborn is inseparable from our dedication to compassion and assistance for women who are so often the second victims of abortion.
Unlike the movement that calls itself pro-choice, the prolife movement has thought deeply about choice. We know that choices last: We know that individual choices make us into a certain of person; and we know that collective choices make us into a certain kind of society.
Mary Ann Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University, delivered this address upon receiving the 2009 Proudly Pro-Life Award from the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund on October 6, 2009 in New York.
Comments:
Our choices change us societally...rippling or snowballing from a single choice all are changed. The choices we make change everything forever. There are multi-faceted consequences to every choice.
Research has shown that thoughts, words (spoken or read), attitudes, actions and those of others toward us, our interpersonal interactions, the dynamics of our relationships to each other (even those relationships before our birth, generations back) and in addition, the physical factors: food, medications we ingest, exposure to chemicals and sunlight, rest and exercise) all shape and change our brains and bodies, chemically, structurally and functionally, and these changes occur cumulatively and interactively over time.
As Christians, we know that our relationship to God, His word/law also change us, spiritually, emotionally and physically.
Surely, she could find employment at an institution that reflected her values and commitments?
A "partial birth abortion" is not a medical term, it is called "intact dilation and extraction". For you to oppose this medical procedure is disgusting, because it's obvious you know nothing about the women who need it.
IDX is only used in .17% of abortions in the US, by women who WANTED their pregnancies! Most of the time they find out late that the fetus or fetuses have horrible deformities or illnesses that will kill them or cause them a short life of horrible suffering - the parents want to save their potential child from that terrible fate!
One woman and her husband found out in her 8th month that her twins were conjoined - the ultrasound did not catch it before then - they thought the twins just 'cuddled' a lot. It turned out they were very weak, at best one would survive, and then live a life filled with painful surgeries and organ transplants - no guarantees either - they could both die as soon as they had the c-section. They were heartbroken - they decided to have terminate the pregnancies to spare them the pain and death that was imminent.
A quote from her husband: "We made an informed decision to go to Kansas. One can only imagine the pain borne by a woman who happily carries a child for 8 months only to find out near the end of term that the children were not to be and that she had to make the decision to terminate the pregnancy and go against everything she had been taught to believe was right. This was what my wife had to do."
An IDX procedure removes the fetus whole - this allows the parents to grieve their lost potential babies! They routinely purchase coffins, clothing, and toys to bury their babies with after an IDX - something you carelessly call a "partial birth abortion". The women who choose this wanted their children born - they simply spared them the suffering.
Some other reasons: Trisomy 13 & 18 (90% of babies die before age 1 who have this disorder), Potter's Syndrome (an absence or malformation of kidneys- vast majority of babies die at birth or shortly afterwards), Lethal Dwarfism (brain tissue is absent entirely or malformed), organs being formed outside the body (such as the brain and heart), ect. Carrying many of these high-risk babies also risks the mothers' health and life, as they can cause stroke, paralysis, future fertility and death.
These women wanted their babies - an intact extraction of the fetus allows them to grieve their baby. It is also safer for the mother. The 'partial-birth abortion' ban does nothing to stop late-term abortions like those; the doctor is simply forced to dismember the fetus inside the mothers' body before he extracts it. There is no hope to hug and cuddle the baby you wanted after that.
But as for elective abortion, an embryo is a human organism in development. It is not a baby, and it does not have more rights than the woman who is carrying it.
It is not a miracle to get pregnant - millions of women do it every year, and billions have done it in the past. Billions will continue to do so in the future. If a woman does not want to carry the pregnancy and give birth, she has every right to terminate it. Her uterus is under her control, and if she doesnt want to give birth, she does not have to. It is her body.
A born child is a miracle to its parents, and should be protected as a human being. But every child should be wanted, and to force a woman to give birth to a baby they don't want is cruel to both parties, and to society.
Instead of focusing on embryo rights, why not use your energy to better the lives of children who are already here, who are conscious, suffering, and needing your help?
I applaud your compassion, but it is misplaced. A clump of cells in someone's belly does not deserve your love; a child that is suffering in a Columbus foster home or abusive situation DOES.
I will pray that the holy spirit turns you from your well-intentioned, but misguided ways...
A layman's thank you for your work Ms. Glendon.