If it were truly a ‘March for Life,’ this is what you would see
Nellie Gray is credited with founding the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., which first took place on January 22, 1974, the year following the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. According to its Wikipedia page, it was originally supposed to be a one-time event, but quickly garnered attention and support, and officially organized the same year. Extreme weather has not stopped the event which has gone ahead in the midst of at least one major snow storm.
The event and its organizers have an explicit focus on the issue of abortion, as revealed in their stated mission to end the practice. When combing through archived photos of the event, the vast majority of signs carried by attendees focus on the life of a fetus, the labeling of abortion as murder, etc.
As a Christian, as a pastor, and as a father, I have found myself not fitting in with either polarized camp on the abortion issue.
The pro-life movement has become a massive racket that disregards the personal stories and situations of women in need, spreads scientific falsehoods about abortion and birth control, demonizes women’s clinics, and supports policies that have been shown to actually, counter-productively, increase abortion rates.
On the other hand, while I can get on board with the pro-choice movement in keeping abortion legal and their support of comprehensive sex education, I have always been uncomfortable with the way they dehumanize unborn children and file this very separate issue under the label “women’s health” or “reproductive health.” I am someone who cares deeply about vulnerable populations. An unborn child is the most vulnerable form of life there is, so for my ethic to be consistent, that side of the equation must at least get consideration in the discussion and not be treated as a mass of cells.
Our society, in general, lacks a comprehensive ethic of life. Most of our culturally accepted habits — from the way we eat, to the way we spend our time and money, to the way we view other people — amounts to self-destruction on a grand scale. As individuals and families, so many of us live an isolated, manufactured, processed existence that’s literally killing us. As a society, we fund and prioritize production, profits, and weapons, things that Martin Luther King Jr. said makes us “approach spiritual death.”
When I say that I have an ethic of life, I mean that, in any given situation, I seek the most life giving option for the greatest number of people, giving priority to those with the least power and resources. “Life giving” is a key term here. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). The Greek term translated here “to the full” (perissos) is derived from a common word meaning “around,” and connotes the idea of having left no stone unturned. Life in every aspect, every opportunity, everywhere. In lexicons it is defined with words like “excessive,” “abundant,” “vehement.” It is a call to relentlessly pursue that which gives life to the body, mind, soul in every aspect, at all times, for all people.
I find that vision to be far more inspiring than anything offered by the social and political movement that has co-opted the word “life” in their platform.
Though it is called the “March for Life,” if it actually had such a focus, it would look and sound very different. There is no truer political cartoon than one two-frame work by Nick Anderson. The first frame depicts a pregnant mother, encircled by a group of adults fawning over her bulging belly, pledging to do everything they can to protect the life inside. In the second frame the baby has been born, but this time the same crowd is screaming in her face about getting a job, mooching, etc. As Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister famously said in a 2004 interview with Bill Moyer:
“I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”
If the march were in fact “pro-life,” you would also see signs protesting the death penalty, because although some people have committed heinous crimes, killing someone for killing does not stem from an ethic of life (and roughly 1 in 10 are found to have been wrongly convicted).
If the march were in fact “pro-life,” you would also see signs against endless and unnecessary warfare; signs mourning the roughly 500,000 killed as a result of our “war on terror,” partially resulting from a war in Afghanistan recently exposed as having no clear strategy.
If the march were in fact “pro-life,” you would also see signs decrying the healthcare situation in America, in which tens of thousands of people die every year due to being under-insured or non-insured, for-profit insurance companies making record profits while medical bills bankrupt families, and medicines are price gouged resulting in things like insulin rationing.
If the march were in fact “pro-life,” you would see signs condemning the Trump administration’s policies on asylum seekers and refugees — people who are the world’s truly desperate — resulting in reports of mistreatment and death, the traumatic separation of children from their parents, and the U.S. admitting a record low number of refugees at a time when displacement is at record highs.
If the march were in fact “pro-life,” you would see signs mourning our country’s unique gun violence problem that results in tens of thousands dead every year and children traumatized by active shooter drills.
I was unable to find the quote, but one insightful commentator observed that a fetus is a very easy form of life for which to advocate. They haven’t made mistakes and bad decisions yet. They haven’t needed resources yet. They haven’t disappointed us yet.
The March for Life is not about a comprehensive ethic of life. It is the right of these citizens to voice their opposition to abortion, and I am not completely disconnected from some of their concerns, but I wish they would more accurately name their movement. It is anti-abortion. It is pro-birth. Their concerns seem to stop there. Mine do not.
For more, read “A New Pro-Life Movement” by Shane Claiborne
