What is really Pro-Life?

[IsaiahSpirit]

thank you.
I will try; it is difficult with complex human realities questions to give a short answer.
Maybe instead of double spacing; shorter paragraphs, with double spacing between.
My words come by life’s learning and experience from Teachers in The Church;
The Saints and deep compassion for my fellows, including children in the womb; like a libation - for the salvation of souls. It is so difficult, with all compassion on those who are not aware; that the silence and reticence; and complacency aides and abets oppression not the oppressed. This certainly is not God’s Will.
Peace and heartfelt warm regards.

 

[brian_custer]

roger that

it is really not that difficult to “double space”

imho; doing so will “force” you into into giving more thoughtful posts that perhaps more posters can read with ease

concentrate, shipmate; don’t RANT

 

[RandomAlias]

it is really not that difficult to “double space”

A small problem with double-spacing is

that the line width depends on the device,

so lines posted as one line may wrap on
another device.

 

[Brendan]

Example: If you leave your gun unlocked and your 16 year old kid kills at their school, you should be held liable for those murders with at least manslaughter charges.

How about if a school teacher has a concealed carry permit, and the school board prevents her from having her firearm with her. If an attack occurs that she could have stopped; could we hold the school board criminally responsible as well?

 

[semper_catholicus]

Pro-Life means protecting children at schools from Gun violence. (What is being done to stop this NRA?)

Gun control isn’t going to stop gun violence.

Pro-Life means stopping the death penalty. Who are we to play God, especially if a person has been innocently convicted!

Not according to the traditional teaching of the Church and saints such as Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo.

Pro-Life means not enabling guns to be available to everybody. Guns ownership takes great responsibility, but many don’t lock them up safely, or there can be a mental breakdown, etc…

So then, how do we decide who does and who doesn’t get guns?

 

[Shakuhachi]

To be pro-life, in the strictest sense of the term, is to oppose abortion.

Not in the sense that the inti-abortion movement has appropriated the the “Life” for its one narrow use. I am with the OP “Life” is LIFE. But what specific policies and laws best support life is a political discussion. And that includes abortion. It is not simply a legal issue. It must also include support of motherhood.

 

[Augustinian]

But what specific policies and laws best support life is a political discussion.

it is definitely a political discussion, and one with a plurality of different opinions as to which policies are best in any specific jurisdiction. The problem with having the political discussion in the context of “pro-life” is that it tends to distract from the principal goal of pro life groups.

A united front of Planned Parenthood and other anti-life groups will find a pro-life movement engaged in arguments easy pickings if the pro-life people are entrenched in debating their differences.

 

[Shakuhachi]

You mean if pro-life people are debating among themselves about what “Pro-Life” means? You may be right. But If even those concerned with the wide range of Life issues can recognize legalized abortion as a specific issue for focus it would help, especially if those arguments were consistent with other life issues.

 

[Augustinian]

You mean if pro-life people are debating among themselves about what “Pro-Life” means?

Focusing on the issue at hand- abortion- is the way to accomplish it. The fact that some people who are opposed to abortion might not think gun control or increased minimum wage or whatever are good ideas, is no reason to alienate them by telling them they aren’t “truly pro life”.

A lot of people have doubts about President Trump’s commitment to pro-life, and with good cause. He was publicly in favor of abortion until just a few years ago. But he is now publicly pro-life, has appeared at the January March for Life, and to rebuff him for “lack of purity” on the issue or the thought that he just might be pushing for this for political reasons is short sighted.

 

[Shakuhachi]

You may be right. I think though that the real work that needs to be done is convincing people that life in the womb is real human life. The pro-choice crowd still see it as an organ of the mother. That must change!

 

[undead_rat]

Thanks for your “Pro-Life” list. I think that it makes a lot of sense. I would add this idea to your list:

Do away with child-support laws because these burdensome statutes motivate men to suggest and pay for abortions for their pregnant girlfriends. TY.

 

[undead_rat]

And also:

Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament. The USA’s possession of a massive arsenal of nuclear armed ICBMs and SLBMs threatens to destroy most, if not all, of humanity.

 

[Augustinian]

Do away with child-support laws because these burdensome statutes motivate men to suggest and pay for abortions for their pregnant girlfriends

If a pregnant gal can’t hope to get child support from her Baby’s Daddy, wouldn’t that make it more likely that she would seek an abortion? How will she pay for the baby’s pampers and formula, particularly when she take time off from work for child birth?

 

[bassmansteiny]

To me, or my definition there of, pro-life has to do with protecting the unborn, the elderly (no euthanasia) and doing away with the death penalty. It has nothing to do with gun control laws, blaming the NRA or welfare/aide programs. Those are all a different subject all togeather. If we make pro-life more than the basic life issues then we take the risk of tearing apart the movement by polarizing pro-lifers that are involved. Gun control and other issues can be a separate debate that we can argue with one another on but let’s keep “Pro-Life” on track.

Edit: and I mean no disrespect, we just have a different view on the term Pro-Life. However I guess that was why you posted the thread, you wanted others opinion/views on the issue

 

[bassmansteiny]

You think Jesus would want guns in every persons hands

Blockquote

I may be wrong but by this statement it sounds like you are more interested in gun control/ anti gun than anything else.

And if we were in London, would Jesus want knives in everyone’s hands?

Edit: and I mean no disrespect, we just have a different view on the term Pro-Life. However I guess that was why you posted the thread, you wanted others opinion/views on the issue

 

[EvangelistVictor]

I may be wrong but by this statement it sounds like you are more interested in gun control/ anti gun than anything else

I’m interested in seeing life protected from the very beginning life starts in the womb when the soul enters the body, till our last breath upon earth.

A gun can protect a life, and can take a life. It can be used for good and evil. Its the “evil” usage of guns that needs remedies and solutions.

Gun violence at schools are increasing and nothings being done to try to solve this problem.

As Catholics, how can we just sit back and do nothing, say nothing?

 

[DisorientingSneeze]

Ask yourself for each topic:
Does this support or contradict the dignity of human life? It doesn’t have to be innocent life. We can disagree on the how/best policy parts.

Finding a consistent life ethic in politics is frustrating. Seems better to throw ourselves into local cultural change by our actions than to hope the law will reflect our wishes.

 

[undead_rat]

If a pregnant gal can’t hope to get child support from her Baby’s Daddy, wouldn’t that make it more likely that she would seek an abortion? How will she pay for the baby’s pampers and formula, particularly when she take time off from work for child birth?

No. She will get support from state which will then, under our current laws, seek to recover some of that expenditure from the child’s father. Men are well aware of this situation, and will therefore advise, coerce, and pay for an abortion rather than be saddled with 18 years of support payments.

 

[Shakuhachi]

That seem most consistent to me.

 

[TheOldColonel]

I must ask. Where does the right to self-defense fit into this manifesto? Is one’s own life worth defending?