FOCUS ON LIFE

January 23, 2009

January 22, 2009 marked the 36th anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down all protections of human life before birth. In Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the court ruled that abortions could be legally procured at any time during the nine months of pregnancy, and for any reason at all. Since that time, an estimated 50 million abortions have been surgically performed in the United States. There is no telling how many more have been carried out by abortifacient drugs, but that number is surely vast.

The Church, along with countless other persons of upright conscience, upholds the fundamental moral principle that any action which is evil in itself can never be justified for any reason. No set of circumstances, no hoped for benefits, regardless of how universal or wonderful, no claims of necessity, urgency, or proportionate cause, can ever justify it. Abortion, directly intended, is such an act; it is evil in itself.

It is always and everywhere wrong to intentionally take the life of an innocent, defenseless human being. That is not abortion’s only evil, however. It poses risks to the mother’s physical health, and it emotionally scars her for life. Simultaneously, it profoundly changes the lives of all who are involved as family or supporters. Every act of evil we commit is an act of violence against our own humanity and innocence. Minor evil wounds our humanity; grave evil has the potential to destroy it, leaving nothing but a shell, while the inner soul is deadened. Abortion also has the capacity to destroy the moral fabric of any society that permits it, by cheapening the value placed on all life.
In our democracy, the claim has been made that, regardless of what anyone thinks of abortion, the democratic principle of majority rule must be honored, and public servants, elected or appointed to office, are duty-bound to carry out “the will of the people”, understood as the majority.
What is the will of the American people today on abortion? Do they generally want our nation’s laws to protect human life in the womb, or do they want the law to permit the taking of that life through abortion? A great deal of effort has been expended since Roe v. Wade to portray the American people as staunchly in favor of abortion on demand.

Last December, though, my brother bishops and I commissioned a nationwide survey of U. S. adults on abortion. According to that survey, 82% of adult Americans – more than four out of five -- think abortion should be legally restricted; of these, 11% think it should be illegal in all circumstances; 38% said they want abortion limited to circumstances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother; an additional 33% said they want it limited to either the first three or first six months. Only 9% agreed with the current law, namely, that abortion be kept legal throughout pregnancy, and for any reason.

This is striking! Less than 1 in 10 Americans agrees with the permissiveness of abortion law as it has stood in our nation for the past 36 years.
The same survey showed that the enactment of new laws limiting or regulating abortion was supported by up to 95% of those polled. Even survey respondents who considered themselves pro-choice favored more restrictive laws than we have.
Specifically: 95% favored laws that would require that only licensed physicians could perform abortions; 88% favored informed consent laws, namely, laws that would require abortion providers to inform women of potential risks to their physical and psychological health, and about alternatives to abortion; 76% favored laws that would protect doctors and nurses from being forced to perform or refer for abortions against their conscience; 73% favored laws that would require that parents be given the chance to involve themselves in the abortion decision of a minor daughter; 68% favored laws against partial-birth abortion (i.e., aborting a child already partially delivered from the mother); and 63% favored laws that would prevent the use of taxpayer funds for abortions.  (More survey details are available at the U.S. bishops’ website, www.usccb.org.)

In spite of the opposition of the vast majority of Americans to the permissiveness of current abortion law, pro-abortion activist groups continue to pretend to represent the people’s will, and to seek to expand rather than restrict the provisions of the law. These groups sent a comprehensive 55-page agenda to the Obama administration, even before he took office, offering blueprints for enacting such legislation.

At the center of their abortion focus is FOCA-type legislation. (FOCA stands for Freedom of Choice Act.) Such legislation would, first, strike down all existing state laws that ban partial-birth abortion, require parental notification of an abortion involving a minor, and all laws requiring medical attention for an infant who survives a failed abortion. Second, it would require taxpayer funding of abortions, against the conscience of millions of Americans, and third, it would deny doctors, nurses, and medical staffs their rights of conscience to forego participation or cooperation. It might require all health insurance plans to include abortion services, and it might even force faith-based hospitals and health care facilities to choose between offering abortions or closing their doors.

Our response is to focus on life and its defense. This weekend, when Catholics attend Mass across the Valley, they will be asked to join in a national campaign to make our voices in defense of life heard loud and clear in Washington, by sending pro-life letters and postcards to our elected officials there. I ask every Catholic to participate, and I ask everyone of good will in the Valley to also communicate a message in defense of life to Washington. What we need now are new laws that protect innocent human life, just as the majority of Americans want, not ones that leave it even more defenseless than it has been for the past 36 years.

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 11-Jan-2010 8:22 sitemap