To paraphrase the title of a wonderful book by a similar name, this is what the prolife movement feels like to many of us who practice a seamless garment approach to life. Full transparency requires that I confess that for many years, I was on the wrong side of the issue because I respected a woman's right to privacy and believed that extended to the womb. I know that abortion is gravely wrong, and I know God doesn't make mistakes. Human beings, however, do make mistakes because it's part of our fallen nature. Women have been sold the lie by other women and by men who profit from abortion that terminating a pregnancy is reproductive freedom and healthcare. In no other country on earth does the polarity that pervades American politics exist and this is due in no small part to the insistence that abortion is healthcare and must be permitted at any stage of pregnancy. Also there is the hypocrisy of insisting that all life is sacred but doing little to nothing to protect it once the child emerges from the womb.
Now, I have come under fire personally from many who don't think I hold the left to the same level of accountability I expect from the right but there are a few reasons for this. One, while faith, religion and God are not exclusive to conservatism, the right more freely embraces and identifies with faith, especially Christianity. So I expect more from you when you wave the cross in my face and thump the Bible. I also believe that so long as you can't change a person's heart, you're unlikely to change their mind. The opportunity for dialogue is greater with the left, though not all of the time.
COVID has taught us nothing if not for this, and that is there are hypocrites everywhere in America. People refused to get vaccinated because of the extremely remote connection to a cell line taken from an aborted baby nearly half a century ago. Yet these same people will take other medications with the same connection, buy products from countries that encourage abortion and use technology made in pro-abortion countries. What they won't do is support measures that would make it easier for women to bring children into the world, like universal healthcare and subsidized childcare.
When I see men standing in front of abortion clinics, I want to ask them how many times they've stood up for women when it comes to deadbeat dads, lack of health insurance, and domestic violence. I know of a single priest who stood outside a strip joint to protest the exploitation of women. He's the rare exception to priests and other men who identify as prolife. I know of one priest who was willing to take part in Heeding God's Call, a grass-roots effort by multi-faith clergy and religious leaders calling for an end to the straw sale of guns in Philadelphia. One. One single priest.
I can't count the number who marched against abortion in Washington or stood outside Planned Parenthood confronting women and their escorts. I'd like to tell you that every single one of them also fought hard for support for mothers after childbirth, but unfortunately I can't. That's not to say such clergy don't exist. I just don't happen to know any, and I know a lot of clergy.
A few years back, Catholics were urged to see the movie version of Abby Johnson's book "unPlanned." I did not see the movie because Abby's act had worn thin on me by then. When she urged a boycott of a Christian radio station that wouldn't endorse the movie because of its R rating, it was the beginning of the end for me. The same person who was outraged by Cancel Culture was more than willing to practice it when it came to her own treasury. Also, a friend who is vehemently anti-abortion saw the film and told me it just didn't square right with her that Doug Johnson could have professed to be profoundly prolife yet was married to a director of a Planned Parenthood. When some of the former clergy involved in Operation Rescue came forward to corroborate Norma McCorvey's admission that she told them whatever they wanted to hear, I knew I was right to trust my instincts about the Johnsons and those like them. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
To my knowledge, Johnson has never fully denied the reports in Texas that she was going to be fired for performance issues from Planned Parenthood and that the version of her seeking refuge from the protesters who demonstrated outside her clinic was not quite accurate. There was also the exchange of texts between her and another PP employee that said nothing of her disgust with watching a fetus have its spine crushed by a suction wand. The real thing is horrible enough. Why was it necessary to fabricate?
Because Abby knows on which side her bread is buttered. When I once suggested to her that she might do a world more good by speaking to liberal Democrats than a right wing conservative PAC, she nearly took my head off. The fact is that liberal Democrats are not going to pay her to hear what they don't want to hear. Conservatives, however, as demonstrated by their captivity to Fox News, love to hear opinions with which they agree over and over and over again and are more than willing to fill Johnson's coffers. I still donated to fundraisers she did for individual moms but that stopped when she boasted of flying on a plane with no mask and insisted COVID was a hoax.
The more money they paid her, the more rabidly conservative she became, right down to showing up in Washington on January 6, 2021 and tagging one of the alleged organizers of the violence on Twitter.
But Johnson is not the only hypocrite. We have the celebrity priest who is incardinated to Rome and lives off the donations of his subscribers, spending his money on such things as guns and ammunition and trips to Italy. He was proud of the fact that he listened to Rush Limbaugh and to comment on his blog you have to register because just like his idol Rush, he would not tolerate challenge or a difference of opinion.
This priest often spoke of the need for confession (a good thing) and forewarned about violence gripping America via dangerous political demagoguery that would mean our demise. Trouble is, he was so sure this was going to come from the left that he had little or nothing to say about the events of January 6, 2021. In fact, he soon concocted some story about "losing his mojo" and needing to regroup. Because you see, when you're a hypocrite, this is much easier than admitting you were dead wrong and that your own rhetoric might have helped fan the flames that cost people their lives.
I might add this same priest was aghast that any Catholic institution would have supported any aspect of the Affordable Care Act. His followers regularly insisted health insurance should work just like car insurance. When I pointed out to one of them that I had a child with lifelong cardiac issues and that capping insurance at 1,000,000 would be a death sentence for her, I was told that's too bad, that's how risk works, and good luck. What a way to win hearts and minds, eh?
Folks, these people have little interest in life after birth. They're far more interested in lining their pockets and controlling women than saving babies. It needs to be said, and I'm saying it. When rapists are given parental and even custody rights, they are silent. When babies come into the world at 26 weeks and their mothers need round the clock help to care for them and their siblings, they are silent. They are driven not by love of God, but by hatred of anyone they distrust or with whom they do not agree. They will begrudge a child a hot breakfast or lunch in school because of the fear that someone undeserving might get something for free. They are so fearful of who and what they do not understand or will not accept that they'll elect people like Gregg Abbott, on whose watch COVID thrived and people died of hypothermia in winter because of the Texas power grid. They adored Donald Trump, because he said the quiet parts out loud and made it acceptable for them to spew racism and propaganda.
When Tan Books began promoting Jesse Romero's book "A Catholic Vote for Trump", I knew I wouldn't be buying another thing from them. Romero is another one who found a way to use Jesus to line his own pockets. Romero described Trump as the most prolife and Catholic friendly president ever. Really?
Is it Catholic to separate infants from their migrant mothers at the border, with no plan or process in place for reunification? Is it Catholic to treat migrant children like parasites, giving them an aluminum sheet and a concrete slab for a bed, and allowing them to die of fever alone and unattended? Is it Catholic to choke a man to death because of the color of his skin? Is it Catholic to promote population control among migrants and people of color, as Stephen Miller does? Is it Catholic to try to wipe out protections for preexisting conditions because the architect of the law is a political rival and you're a jealous narcissist? Is it Catholic to cheat the laborer of his wages or refuse to pay the contractor for his work? Is it Catholic to decrease SNAP benefits while people are struggling to make ends meet (by bringing children into the world, I might add, and NOT aborting them) especially when you yourself have paid no federal income tax whatsoever? Is it Catholic to call a deadly virus a hoax and withhold support for states where you might lose an election out of spite? Is it Catholic to support a Russian dictator (Fatima anyone?) who kills journalists and political rivals? Is it Catholic to pepper spray a nonviolent crowd so you can hold a Bible sideways for a photo op, and is it Catholic to encourage military intervention to crush political dissent, a tenet of our government? Is it Catholic to incite a deadly insurrection because you don't like the legitimate outcome of an election?
To listen to Romero, it must be because Trump claims he's prolife. Never mind his bragging about the sexual assault of women and his denigration of females he does not find attractive. Let's forget about Melania's "Eff Christmas" because after all, she made the sign of the cross and put up a white Nativity in the White House. Did I mention her previous profession?
I didn't find my voice fully on this hypocrisy until I went to a silent Lenten retreat one weekend in 2020 in a very rural, pro-Trump part of the state. The retreat master wasn't having it that Catholics had to vote for Republicans because of abortion. "There's an awful lot of distance between a politician supporting abortion rights and doing something to help that child once it's born. You can't have one without the other."
When a woman argued that abortion is an intrinsic evil, Father pointed out that torture is too, but the same priests and bishops who stand outside abortion clinics were silent about the crimes that took place at Abu Ghraib prison. Father also stated he was not saying abortion was moral, just that as the right accuses the left of doing, it was picking and choosing what it would follow and what it would reject. He said there could be no defense whatsoever of putting weapons like AR-15s in the hands of civilians, all in the name of freedom.
The casualties in this polarization are women and children. The beneficiaries are too often men who have no resemblance to a merciful and loving Savior. More to come.
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