Irish Viewpoint: Where now for Pro-Life?

Many of those who believe in the right to life of all human beings, including the right to life of the unborn, are reeling from the results of the recent referendum In Ireland. Their dismay is not lessened by the cheers of the crowd in Dublin Castle, celebrating that the state will soon arrogate to itself the power to end the life of the unborn on demand, and how that is being trumpeted in a public discourse increasingly indifferent, if not hostile, to the Christian vision of the sacredness of the life of every human being.

"Our defence of the innocent unborn needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection." [Pope Francis, 'On the Call to Holiness in Today's World', 19 March, 2018, 101].

To be pro-life is more than being merely pro-birth. At its heart, repudiation of the naturalization of a pro-abortion narrative in a pro-abortion politics, is an assertion of and a commitment to a non-violent lifestyle and a non-violent society. There are two aspects to this. One is the 'clear, firm and passionate' commitment to the rights of the unborn child. The second is an equally 'clear, firm and passionate' commitment to the right to life of all whose lives are deemed dispensable in the neo-liberal, throwaway society for which huge swathes of the information industry are so busily and profitably generating consensus. These include the homeless, trafficked women and children, refugees facing starvation, civilian victims of mass-murder in what the military-industrial complex euphemizes as 'collateral damage' just as the abortion lobby euphemizes the killing of healthy unborn children as 'terminations.' The first is courageously evident in the pro-life movement. The second, arguably less so.

To be pro-life is to be pro-life across the board. The late Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago spoke of the defence of life as a 'seamless garment'; to oppose abortion, demands opposing the death penalty, opposing the use of weapons of mass destruction [and opposing the use of our airports for those employing them], and opposing the possession and proliferation of nuclear weapons. It is disconcerting to find right-wing ideologues dismissing such profoundly spiritual, gospel-based projects as 'ideological counterfeits that replace the church's wise guidance with the shrill pursuit of utopia... an unachievable, incoherent leftist wish-list'. Such reactionary polemic does however point us towards an important consideration.

It is this: pro-life campaigners are perceived as right-wing, pro-establishment, conservative law-and-order types. This may be partly true, partly a result of how society operated in a previous age, and partly as a result of the manner in which the information industry has chosen to present them. It may also be partly false. But it is the way in which a compliant media has chosen to construct them and thereby facilely to dismiss them. There is now however, a new establishment and abortion fits its agenda. Pro-life advocates must revision themselves not as defenders of a previous establishment but as the defenders of the weak and voiceless in a throw-away consumerist society and its advocates in the new establishment.

So: 'What is to be done'? A great deal! There are three important considerations. Firstly pro-life people must build bridges to work to decrease the number of abortions. If as some studies indicate, lack of affordable support structures in the rearing of children is, especially for low income families, a factor in poor women considering abortion, then we must work for adequately funded, support systems. Social welfare recipients should not be considered a burden, rather their children should be considered a treasure deserving of support. Bridge-building is difficult but not impossible. Not all pro-choice people are pro-unrestricted abortion. Some, if not all, genuinely wish that abortion would be rare.

Secondly, the pro-life movement will be more credible if it locates itself at the heart of a comprehensive movement for the right to life and the right to a dignified life for all people. After his election, the present Taoiseach declared that this was a republic without prejudice; but there is massive prejudice against travellers, the homeless, the unemployed, social welfare recipients who have little to get up early for, as there is against elderly nuns and unborn children. The pro-life movement which has campaigned so courageously for the right to life of the unborn child, must be seen just as unswervingly on the side of all those whose lives are under threat.

Thirdly, we live in a world where 1% of the population owns 66% of the world's wealth. By and large, governments, financial institutions and the media operate in the interests of this 1% whose financial clout would control much of our lives and dictate our thinking. This 1% values only what produces and consumes more wealth and ensures more power for itself. It does so by promoting an economic model which impoverishes the majority of humanity, degrades the environment to the extent of casting doubt as to its sustainability and legitimates itself by depoliticizing populations. Far from liberating many women, it further degrades them.

Everything else including the weak, the dependent, the unborn and increasingly, the aged and infirm are considered burdensome, expendable: to be ignored, discarded, even terminated. In this world, greed is good and philosophy is bunkum. Ethics is reduced to what can be established by legal precedent argued by expensive lawyers.

Far from being a right-wing conservative movement, pro-life campaigners will be a left-wing, counter-cultural, dynamic minority in such a society, offering a more human vision of a just and sustainable future. To remain consistent, faithful and effective in such an enterprise, demands rooting ourselves ever more solidly in the sacred and subversive memory of Jesus whose life was violently terminated, and who was resurrected so that all might have life and have it in abundance.

Fr John O'Brien is an Irish Spiritan missionary.