Thank you to all who read my first long post. Here is yet another.
To use another analogy, shooting yourself in the foot seems like a really stupid, painful, unattractive thing to do. The kind of thing you’d have to be crazy to even consider. Yet if you were in the trenches in the First World War, facing constant bombardment, the threat of a suicidal advance over the top, and living in wretched cold damp conditions for months on end, you might well consider it as the more attractive option.
For some reason, you talking about the First World War made me think of the birth of my son, *and *Tolkien, who himself survived the Battle of the Somme. There is a passage in *The Fellowship of the Ring *which has always haunted me, and I feel it is “applicable” to this situation (and I’m sure this is the first time Tolkien has ever been cited this way). It comes from the chapter “The Ring Goes South” as the Fellowship is about to leave Rivendell:
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,” said Gimli.
“Maybe,” said Elrond, “but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.”
“Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart,” said Gimli.
“Or break it,” said Elrond.
I am often hesitant to contribute to abortion debates, having moderated many myself in writing classes, and also because the debate is often futile. The “sentient” issue is a red herring, clearly.
My wife and I have a two year old son that we both *desperately *wanted to have. He was my first born. I spent nine months trying to care for my wife, whom suffers from depression and anxiety, and for whom the pregnancy was very taxing, often debilitating. I often think of all she suffered. When her water broke, it was evening, and we sat in the hospital listening to, one by one, the screams of other women as each in turn went into labor. I imagined that it was like sitting in a fox hole, listening to bombs exploding all around you, *knowing *that your position *would be hit *eventually. By 4am my wife was sleeping a medicated sleep, and I dozed off in a chair, only to be woke up an hour later as my wife was quickly whisked out of the room as I groggily tried to stand. I was told she was having an emergency C-section. I know now that my son could have died or have become developmentally disabled. Thank God he was born alive and suffered no lasting trauma.
And I’ve been thinking of all of this together, the Tolkien passage, my wife’s suffering (and mine which was minor compared to hers), and the fact that we *wanted *our son. Now I’m not setting up an argument for abortion, but the idea of making it illegal across the board without discernment. The Catholic Church is Pro Choice (owing to the Doctrine of Free Will) but we staunchly advocate the choice for LIFE. Social change must come first before a legal one. I think of poor communities where I have taught, and seen first hand the way women are dehumanized and beleive all that they have to offer the world is their sexuality. Abortion, in that sense, is only the very tip of the fire, the base being the lack of human diginity and sexual dignity. Many good people are already engaged in that fight to raise awareness and offer consolation, but as one man I knew working in ministry in poor communities said “It’s a black hole of need.”
This is why fallacious analogies of “murder is murder” don’t match up point for point. The suffering of a woman *who wants her child *is bad enough–the suffering of a woman who doesn’t want a child I cannot imagine. The spirit of a young woman in that sense could be crushed, which is only further complicated by how her spirit will be crushed the day she realizes what she has done. But the resources need to be there, as those providing them
are overwhelmed, and we’re not supposed to think this, but
we cannot save them all. Again I don’t mean this as an argument for abortion, but I think we need to get away from what I’ve heard called “slogan ultimatums” which in our laziness we rely upon rather than getting off our Assissi. I know many of you are involved in ministry, and I’m preaching to the choir, but those of you who are not, or have never been to a poor community need to go to one, and fast. The change to a “law” against abortion must be slow. So many of these young women walk alone in darkness, and without fellowship how can we expect that they will not be broken?
