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Those are the words of Mother Teresa of
Calcutta, spoken at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. in
1994. This was a time when defenders of abortion occupied the
highest levels of government in the United States, and the annual
abortion rate was soaring at 1.5 million abortions. In some
respects this was abortion's high moment.
Even today, abortion has a grip on our
culture. This year marks the 30th anniversary of
Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the U.S. Supreme Court cases making
abortion legal without restriction throughout the United States.
The startling reality is that one in every four pregnancies ends in
abortion. That means that abortion is not an occasional evil, or a
tragic occurrence at the margins of society. It is woven into the
very fabric of our culture today.
ABORTION'S
UNFULFILLED PROMISE
Abortion is an act of unthinkable violence
to the children whose lives it destroys before birth. But unborn
children are not its only victims. Abortion does violence to women
- the effect of killing on the human spirit is immense. And it
coarsens the conscience of any society that tolerates it. Today we
witness the suffering and confusion that follow when a culture's
conscience has been killed.
In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II's
1995 encyclical on the Gospel of Life, the pope says that the culture of
death rests upon a "freedom of 'the strong' against the weak who
have no choice but to submit." This "freedom," he
says, "negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to
the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its
essential link with the truth."
Legal abortion was said to promise freedom, but
it promised what it could not give. When women are asked why they
had their abortions, most say they did not think they could afford to
raise a child alone, or they did not feel ready, or they were having
problems in the relationship with the child's father. These
reasons point to a lack of support from the people in their lives.
Time and time again women will say that they felt they "had no
choice."
Abortion is not an act of freedom, but of
desperation. Women are driven to choose abortion by a lack of
financial, emotional and psychological support, or are pushed by parents
or boyfriends to solve a pregnancy problem with abortion. Women
deserve better than abortion, and in some respects, abortion is a
reflection that we as a society have not met the needs of women who are
struggling with an untimely pregnancy. "How do we persuade a
woman not to have an abortion?" asked Mother Teresa. "We
must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to
be willing to give until it hurts."
No compassionate person wants to see a woman
suffer through the personal tragedy of abortion. As Catholics, we
can take heart that the Church has long been the leader in assisting
women with untimely pregnancies. In the 30 years since abortion
has been legal throughout the United States, thousands of Catholic
social service ministries, prolife groups and pregnancy resource centers
have come to the aid of women facing difficult pregnancies. Women
have received clothing, medical expenses, and even a place to stay at no
charge, and at considerable personal sacrifice to those who help
them. According to the Knights of Columbus annual Survey of
Fraternal Activity for 2001, Knights Orderwide reported raising and
donating some $3.8 million to such programs. Pope John Paul calls
us to a "radical solidarity with the woman in need."
Nothing less will suffice.
WE
KNOW THE TRUTH
Legal abortion was said to promise a resolution to the crisis of an
unplanned pregnancy. But rather than bringing resolution and
peace, abortion begins a cycle of pain and despair. Women who have
had abortions often suffer prfound grief. Their suffering is real,
yet our society pushes them to defend their decision, to stay entrenched
in their grief. When sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers
are driven by their natural instincts to defend and protect their loved
one who is suffering, this too often takes the shape of defending her
abortion decision, or defending abortion itself. Even those who
understand the truth about abortion often refrain from speaking out for
fear of hurting women who have had abortions, and this is a
mistake. Women grieving over abortion can infer from this silence
that no one knows their pain, or worse, that no one cares.
As Catholics, we know the truth about the
violence of abortion and its damage to lives and souls. For two
decades the Church's post-abortion ministry, Project Rachel, has
provided hope and healing to women whose lives have been torn apart by
abortion. Many women have been able to overcome their grief and
hopelessness, and have found healing for their deep spiritual wounds.
Much has changed since Mother Teresa addressed
the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994. There is a pro-life
president in office, and the election of 2002 was very nearly a
referendum on abortion - two-thirds of the new members of the Senate and
House of Representatives hold pro-life views. And, there are fewer
abortions today.
Still, Roe v. Wade must be
reversed. We must work and pray for an end to legal abortion, so
that every member of the human family is protected. This year
marks the beginning of a new tradition in our Church on the anniversary
of Roe v. Wade. A new provision of the General Instruction
of the Roman Missal instructs that in all dioceses of the United States,
January 22 shall be "observed as a particular day of penance for
violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of
abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee
of the right to life."
Legal abortion has left a legacy of violence -
to the lives of unborn children, to the souls of their mothers, to
society at large. It is our great task, and our great privilege,
to be called to bear witness to this truth.
This article was written by Cathleen
A. Cleaver and published in the January 2003 edition of
"Columbia", the magazine of the Knights of
Columbus.
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