April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
EDITORIAL

Prosecutor and pro-lifer

In the long arc of his pro-life career, Jack Garry moved from prosecuting doctors who did abortions to helping pregnant women keep their children.

Now 86, he's happy about the lives he's saved and worried about funding the Birthright chapter he has worked with for 30 years.

There are many ways to be pro-life. Catholics promote a Gospel of Life that targets abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty as particular threats. The wider consistent ethic of life opposes embryonic stem cell research, cloning and contraception and promotes peace, justice, suicide prevention and help for the disabled and vulnerable.

The U.S. bishops have pledged "to affirm the intrinsic value of human life and the dignity of every human being in a way that transforms the culture."

The most visible and vocal struggle, often, concerns abortion. This makes sense: without life, first among all values, there is nothing.

For Mr. Garry, as Albany County District Attorney in the 1950s and '60s, that cause involved prosecuting several abortionists. Though the cases were dismissed under a statute that allowed termination up to four months, he said, "We put them out of business - that business, anyway."

He did not prosecute the women, whom he called "innocent victims." His concern extends through the pro-life movement. At the same time, fathers, he said, "have to accept the consequences."

To many, helping pregnant women carry to term is the key to fighting abortion.

Birthright is an international, non-denominational group with 500 offices in the United States and Canada and others elsewhere that helps women distressed by a pregnancy. It provides pregnancy tests, counseling and material help.

Mr. Garry works with the Albany office; there are others nearby in Schenectady, Amsterdam and Ballston Spa (see www.birthright.org).

"The women are seeking help; they want the child[ren] to live and become healthy young men and women," Mr. Garry said. "We don't get involved in the morality of it; we get involved in the practicality of helping the child to live."

Annually, the Albany office sees 500-600 women and saves, he estimates, 400 lives. It depends on volunteers and donations, both in critical shortage.

Mr. Garry remains hopeful.

"More people are accepting that life begins at conception," he said. "I don't know how they can convince themselves otherwise."

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