Tensions within the pro-life movement
The rightwing of the pro-life movement demands abolition of abortion without compromise. The leftwing demands a “consistent ethic of life” which considers abortion the moral equivalent of other social justice issues, including immigration, welfare, capital punishment, and war. Pulse Life Advocates and allies in the Iowa pro-life movement pursue a middle ground.
As you might guess, all of this leads to tensions within the pro-life movement.
Although united in a desire to stamp out all abortion, we oppose the ‘Abolitionists’ demand that women who seek abortions be prosecuted. We view women as the victims of a political movement and profiteers that promote unregulated abortion that harms women as well as their baby. Pulse rejects their all-or-nothing approach, and accepts incremental progress as a realistic component of a democratic system.
By the same token, we disagree with the leftwing that insists that abortion and capital punishment, for example, are the same thing ethically. They’re not, leading to tensions within the pro-life movement.
Why abortion is a pre-eminent issue
Writing for Word On Fire, Dr. Christopher Kaczor goes into some detail on why the Catholic bishops make abortion a pre-eminent issue in their introductory note to Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship:
“The threat of abortion remains our pre-eminent priority because it directly attacks our most vulnerable and voiceless brothers and sisters and destroys more than a million lives per year in our country alone.”
Dr. Kaczor is the Honorary Professor for the Renewal of Catholic Intellectual Life at the Word on Fire Institute and Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University. He writes that the bishops identify other grave threats to human dignity, including euthanasia, death penalty, and human trafficking to name a few, but delves into why they clearly recognize abortion as foundational.
He quotes the bishops from Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics:
“Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care. . . . If we understand the human person as the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’—the living house of God—then these issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation.”
Dr. Kaczor shares many other reasons why consistent ethic of life arguments don’t hold up. Two stand out: Unlike other harms, abortion is irreversible. And the victims of abortion are society’s most vulnerable members.
You can read his piece in its entirety at Word On Fire.
