April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
RESPECT LIFE MONTH
Being pro-life not just "anti-abortion"
Being pro-life not just "anti-abortion"
I wasn't always pro-life. Until 2000, I had been a 'cafeteria Catholic' with mixed feelings about abortion. In ninth grade, I wrote a pro-choice opinion paper for English class, depicting a coat-hanger abortion. I saw Cosmopolitan magazine headlines and decided that strong women were pro-choice.
In college, I went to a National Organization of Women (NOW) meeting, but felt that the women around me didn't like men. In my 20s, I was a caseworker who brought women to the Alpha Center, a crisis pregnancy service. Through their parenting classes and free baby supplies, I felt the atmosphere of love.
But I was transformed by the fetal models. I did not know that a fetus' heart starts to beat at 22 days or that brain waves are detectable by six weeks.
One day, a client asked me to bring her to have an abortion. My supervisor said that I shouldn't try to influence her either way. I decided not to bring her. It was as if God had drawn a line in the sand that I couldn't cross.
My faith radically deepened during two years of missionary service with the Salesians in Bolivia. I learned to put Jesus and Mary at the center of my life and to look to the Church's teaching authority, since Peter was given this authority by Christ.
In Bolivia, I talked to my students about the issues they faced in their country. Upon returning to the States, I knew I had to face the biggest issue in my own country: saving the unborn.
I began praying in front of Planned Parenthood clinics with a devoted group of people led by a priest, Rev. Francis McCloskey. I learned that there are 1.3 million abortions each year and that more than 40 million babies have been killed since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
I learned that the birth control pill can act as an abortifacient, not only preventing pregnancy but also killing a fetus if conception takes place. I learned that in-vitro fertilization is contrary to Church teaching because it separates lovemaking from procreation, and that there are thousands of embryos in freezers.
Recently, a woman was implanted with the wrong embryo. Grandparents are fighting court battles to use their dead sons' sperm to create grandchildren.
The Church's teaching on the immorality of in-vitro fertilization was tested in my own life. Before my husband had his prostate removed because of cancer, we were advised to use a sperm bank. We told both doctors and nurses that we were practicing Catholics and believed in the Church's teaching. It was difficult, but our love and trust in God sustained us.
Like Ms. Schaeffer-Duffy, I see the inconsistencies of some people in the pro-life movement. Those who support unjust wars and the death penalty are actually rejecting Church teachings.
However, to dismiss the whole pro-life movement as simply 'anti-abortion' is mislabeling at best. Many caring individuals witness to women and men with crisis pregnancies, pray publicly in rain and snow and raise consciousness of the sacredness of human life.
Inspired by the words of Christ in Matthew 5:15, may we shine our light to preserve the dignity of each human person.
(Maeve Smith lives in Rotterdam and attends Holy Family parish in Albany.)
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