If you read that headline and thought these are not (necessarily) one big group. Then you’re right. These two things are together in one title because they came to a head in the same week and because they are not mutually exclusive. Some of you might belong in one camp and not the other.
I get it.
As likely as not, judging by the people who were in Washington on Jan 20th and Jan 26th, these views probably do overlap.
And the pro-birth movement is not doing itself (or anyone else, least of all the imagined babies) many favors.
The main issue the rest of us have with the idea of promoting life above a mother’s life, above medical advice, irrespective of the circumstances of conception (rape), is that the very people who place such value on the right to life, don’t seem to value it once the baby is born.
Life for that baby seems full of hope.
To be born but without health coverage. Hope you don’t get sick.
To be born to a parent making less than a man in the same role. Hope you can make it college.
To be alive with the very real chance that your precious life might end studying at school, watching a movie, or shopping in the mall. Hope you don’t get shot.
Hope you get lots of help from someone because the same people who did everything to make sure you were born – including increase the chance of you killing your mother – will be voting to take away programs that you’ll need.
These people will instead spend their time focusing on stories of outliers, the .1% of extreme methods used by mothers who are forced into last minute decisions due to one circumstance or another. They will post and repost graphic images of other babies and clamor that everyone has the right to live.
And when the government passes a law saying that refugee children fleeing some of the most horrific, prolonged wars cannot enter our country, so that those children can access the basic rights of life they hold so dear, well, let’s hope these people who value life so much appreciate nuance.
That they understand the irony of denying a living child the security of life but marching to protect the lives of the unborn.
That they are aware that a citizen from any of 7 countries on the banned list has never been involved in a terrorist attack.
That they can appreciate why people with legal documents should be allowed entry to the place they call home.
If you’re not pro-birth, but are anti-Muslim, it may stem from another tide of feeling which could also benefit from an appreciation of irony: true Christianity.
Jesus was not born to the Caucasian parents of a Cadillac dealership in Atlanta, Georgia. He was, as you may have heard last month, or even watched reenacted, born to a pregnant teenager in a horse stable.
He fled persecution and found refuge in Egypt.
He also said so many things about poor people – and promiscuous women – you probably want to go brush up on it. It’s kind of all summed up in these phrases, “love your enemies” and “he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
We are divided today in a way our modern generations can’t remember. How far back to do we have to go to the level of inequality and refusal to engage in logic around the issues?
The 60s? The Civil War?
Jesus wept.
