February 2008 Newsletter
Back to Main Newsletters Page"Twenty years ago, being pro-life was déclassé. Now it is a respectable point of view. How did this happen? Did the pro-choice movement fail? Or did those opposed to abortion simply respond more effectively to the changing science as well as the social shift from the rights rage of the '60s to the responsibility culture of the '90s?"
- Pro-abortion activists Kate Michelman & Frances Kissling
("Abortion’s battle of messages," Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2008)
Every year on the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, we see a flurry of media stories and editorials about the abortion issue. 2008 was no exception.
The Jan. 22 editorial by Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling in the Los Angeles Times was a remarkable confession of the anxiety that many pro-abortion activists feel, 35 years after Roe.
As you may know, Michelman was the long-time president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, now calling itself "NARAL Pro-Choice America." Kissling is the former president of a group with the equally euphemistic name, "Catholics for a Free Choice."
Michelman and Kissling seem to be caught up in a melancholy or "funk" that is afflicting the entire pro-abortion movement. They write with considerable insight about how the pro-life movement has succeeded in shifting the abortion debate in recent decades:
"Science facilitated the swing of the pendulum. Three-dimensional ultrasound images of babies in utero began to grace the family fridge. Fetuses underwent surgery. More premature babies survived and were healthier. They commanded our attention, and the question of what we owe them, if anything, could not be dismissed."
"These trends gave anti-abortionists an advantage, and they made the best of it. Now, we rarely hear them talk about murdering babies. Instead, they present a sophisticated philosophical and political challenge. Caring societies, they say, seek to expand inclusion into 'the human community.' Those once excluded, such as women and minorities, are now equal. Why not welcome the fetus (who, after all, is us) into our community?"
Michelman and Kissling are extraordinarily articulate in presenting the pro-life case. Yet on a personal level they are seemingly unmoved, perhaps because of the hardness of heart that comes after decades of pro-abortion advocacy.
Since they appear to have personal immunities to the arguments that open the hearts and minds of others, Michelman and Kissling don't have much insight on how to counter the pro-life message. Here's what they offer as strategic counsel:
"...when the choice movement seems to defend every individual abortion decision, rather than the right to make the decision, it too becomes suspect."
"If pro-choice values are to regain the moral high ground, genuine discussion about these challenges needs to take place within the movement. It is inadequate to try to message our way out of this problem. Our vigorous defense of the right to choose needs to be accompanied by greater openness regarding the real conflict between life and choice, between rights and responsibility. It is time for a serious reassessment of how to think about abortion in a world that is radically changed from 1973."
What fascinating advice! So, the pro-abortion movement should not appear to defend every abortion decision? They should admit that there's a "real conflict" between life and choice?
Without knowing it, Michelman and Kissling are opening a "Pandora's box" for pro-abortion activists. Once you admit that any individual abortion decision might be flawed, you're implicitly saying that abortion is an act with moral consequences. But wait - if the unborn child isn't a person to whom we "owe" anything, how can any individual abortion be a wrong choice?
We founded Healing the Culture precisely so we could train pro-life leaders to launch these "sophisticated philosophical challenges" that Michelman and Kissling lament in their editorial.
It is your financial support that allows us to provide services such as these:
- Sending professional speakers into high school and college classrooms to teach the true dignity of the human person - and demolish the bankrupt arguments underpinning the "culture of death."
- Developing new educational materials, such as a high school pro-life curriculum, that will train the future generation of pro-life leaders.
- Offering professional training, such as our November 2008 conference in Seattle, to school pro-life leaders on how to mount the best arguments against the abortion culture.
Our Board Chairman Fr. Robert Spitzer likes to say that the pro-abortion movement is in a "dogmatic slumber." While they're sleeping, let's use this time wisely to plant the seeds that will eventually lead to a culture where practices like abortion and euthanasia will be unthinkable.
Please consider making a donation of whatever amount you can afford. Thank you for your generous support!
Blessings,
Camille Pauley
President
| February 2008 | ||
| Feb. 7 | St. Louise Parish School Bellevue, WA |
8th grade Life Principles presentation (Lisa-Ann Oliver) |
| Feb. 19 | Pan Pacific Convention Center Vancouver, BC Canada |
Catholic Educator's Conference (Camille Pauley) |
| Feb. 20 | Vancouver, BC Canada |
Catholic Schools high school presentations (Camille Pauley) |
| Feb. 29 - March 2 |
Anaheim Convention Center Los Angeles, CA |
Archdiocese of Los Angeles Religious Education Congress (Fr. Robert Spitzer) |
May 2008 |
| May 2 | Tukwila, WA | Seattle Catholic Family Spring 2008 Conference (Camille Pauley) |
September 2008 |
| Sept. 18 | Sacramento, CA | Women's Leadership Institute Contact Rita Perstak, 813-854-1518 (Camille Pauley) |
| Sept. 19 | Sacramento, CA | Women of Grace Retreat Contact Rita Perstak, 813-854-1518 (Camille Pauley) |
November 2008 |
| Nov. 6-8 | Bellevue Hilton Bellevue, WA |
Healing the Culture 2008 Conference Contact Lisa-Ann, (425) 481-6563 Fr. Robert Spitzer, Camille Pauley, and many other great speakers! |
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