An Open Letter to My People: The Pro-Lifers
To everyone who reads this blog - I am super grateful for you and thanks for reading. However, this blog post is for pro-lifers. So, if that’s not you, maybe sit this one out, or realize it’s not directed at you. Thanks for sticking with me anyway. Maybe it’s weird that I’m a Christian, a pacifist, a feminist, pro-LGBTQ, “liberal”, and also pro-life. We can talk about that if you’d like. Please e-mail me. Or, you can read a little bit about it here. But I need to talk to my pro-lifers for a minute because we’re going through some things.
A few days ago a story broke about Jennie Linn McCormack of Idaho because she tried to obtain an illegal abortion. Please find the story here. The story came out because after Jennie self-aborted her pregnancy she understandably freaked out and called a neighbor for help. Her friend’s friend called the police on Jennie. She chose to seek an illegal, dangerous, home abortion because she had no other options that were readily available given her situation, living condition, and level of fear. Some people won’t agree with me on this statement. But again, please read the story and trust what Jennie says about her own life.
The thing that strikes me is that even considering this woman’s dire situation, the only part people want to respond to is her trying to have an abortion. Nothing about her desperate life situation and nothing about how she HAS other children, which probably makes the decision to abort heartbreaking for her in the first place. I don’t think that if a woman has an abortion or not is the biggest issue, even though we make it so – it’s the end of a long line of treatable situations. But we pro-lifers are end-gamers, cut-and-dry players. A fetus lives or it doesn’t. The end. I want to talk about this because we need recognize what we are ignoring.
There seems to be this idea in our camp that women who have abortions do so because they’re not ready for kids, they want to have a career, or they’re selfish, and that’s just not true. Its women who live well below the poverty line, like this woman, who seek them, and yet the pro-lifers with the loudest voices are coming from seemingly one perspective. For the most-part, we treat abortion like it is all about a fetus being a child to protect. Please correct me if I’m wrong. That argument doesn’t help this woman in her situation. We think we have things figured out so well and the thing is that sexism and class inequality run so deep in reproductive justice issues that we need to take a step back and look at the real fight. The fact that we have not provided for women and their children and so they desperately take medical procedures into their own hands and interrupt a natural process is blood on our hands as well.
Can you imagine how traumatizing it is for a mother to abort her child and then put it in a box on the porch (again, read the article)? And the only response someone had was to report her to the police? I think we can all agree that this is not a win, for anyone. In this case, her actions have become more important than her life, which is not a pro-life stance, in my opinion. All of the blocks or accesses to abortion could not have helped her; they’re a secondary discussion. I’m of the opinion that, in all cases, we should ask why someone acts and reacts in the ways they do, before we consider consequences for actions. Some people will call this weak, I call it being realistic.
After reading the above article, I stumbled upon another story. This one details what pro-lifers are pledging to give up until abortion is illegal.
I am embarrassed that while one woman isn’t able to bury her child, another one is possibly, indefinitely giving up coffee. This is not a life-affirming dynamic, it’s a self-righteous ploy. The disconnect here is horrifying to me. We have the opportunity to work for provisions for women and mothers that will trickle down to less physical violence (which I consider abortion to be) and more equality (a life free of the reasons women have abortions). Instead we’re so intent on arguing over whether or not abortion should be illegal, that we’ve whittled it down to giving up candy and fetal pain laws (The Daily Beast, pg. 3). I am borderline frantic over this.
I don’t know how much clearer I can make it: Women do not have abortions because it is legal they have abortions because they have not been adequately provided for. Women have abortions because reproduction is not the strength it’s supposed to be, it’s still a burden to some women. That is everyone’s fault. Let’s give that up. Let’s give up making reproduction a constant burden of choice. Giving up candy is not on the same level as Jennie being shunned by her family. Let’s extend the definition of “family.” I am furious that some of us are choosing to give up beer when poverty rates among children are on the rise. Do we understand how unconnected these facts are?Is this really pro-anything?
Poverty, not the existence of laws, makes for the drastic action of abortion - but instead we’re asking for unlimited band-aids to cover-up fixable wounds. Well I’m giving up looking for easy answers to messy questions. I’m giving up saying it’s ok to only fight for abortion access or no abortion access. I’m giving up doing things that secretly benefit my life or health while claiming they’re for the greater good. I’m giving up being half pro-life in the name of working toward real hope for real life and real freedom. And I ask you to consider doing the same.
