Unconditional Love and Abortion

*First published in the Catholic Free Press on September 30, 2010.  This is a repost.

The group so-called ”Catholics for Choice” states that many Catholics say they are pro-choice.  Perhaps to some the term seems more accepting toward women in crisis because they view the term “pro-life” as a negative and condemning association.  I’ve had entire conversations derailed because I identified with the pro-life label, and so I’ve learned to articulate my position better.  “Pro-life” is a political label really and there are many who associate with it who do not realize the destructive effects of birth control, IVF or embryonic stem cell research, or the healing power of love.  Whenever asked, I identify with the real label.  I am Catholic.

Being Catholic and pro-choice doesn’t make any sense either.  The Catechism specifically states that direct abortion is a “moral evil” and that children are “gifts,” not rights, objects or possessions.  Strong families are the core of society and they are rooted in love.  Children deserve unconditional love because they can’t earn it.  To accept abortion as a choice that a mother can make of her own free will is contrary to the idea of unconditional love.  I could not believe that it was acceptable for one mother to kill her child and also really feel unconditional love for my own children.  To accept that love can be denied to any child compromises the purity of that unconditional standard because a condition has been introduced – being wanted.  That’s not how God loves us, and we first and foremost are all God’s children.

The women who do suffer in crisis because they’ve been lost or made bad choices are also, never forget, someone’s child.  Maybe sometimes they don’t know how to give because they have never felt loved themselves.  So rather than promoting a moral evil, why not promote love and truth?  People sometimes fear the truth because they fear the demands it will make on them.  This is at the heart of abortion, and it’s probably why so many people prefer to call themselves pro-choice.  They really know that abortion is wrong, but they don’t want to appear unloving.  To that I say, then don’t be unloving.  Love is born of sacrifice, not of rejection or manipulation to the easy way out of hard situations.  Love is not born of killing.  Reject anything less than pure love and pray that all children, of all ages, open their hearts to the truth of unconditional love and unconditional acceptance of God’s gifts.

Category: Catholic Free Press