Abortion Crucial Featured Religious Right

Not Pro-LIFE: They Betray Life by What They Ignore and What They Insist On

They’re not pro-LIFE – you can tell what they want by what they do, much more than by what they so emotionally say.

In Practice Not Pro-Life, But Pro-Political PowerI call them “not pro-life” not from multi-million dollar surveys – but from years of observation. Here’s a list of what they might be doing if their deep motivation was to change the patterns of behavior in this culture, to actually reduce abortion:

Ways Pro-Life Christians can fight abortion rates:

I don’t know the source of this list.  But it is pretty good. These activities could ALL justly be expected to reduce abortions.

  1. Fight for access to affordable, available birth control options.
  2. Support science-based, thorough sex ed.
  3. Adopt.
  4. Foster.
  5. Treat these mothers and post-abortion women with the same love you have or their babies.
  6. De-stigmatize being an unwed mother. You can’t create a culture where these women are judged and shamed and then expect them not to look for a way out.
  7. Hold men accountable.
  8. Fight for a livable wage.
  9. Fight for affordable housing.
  10. Fight for a better foster care system.
  11. Fight for decent parental leave.
  12. Fight for available, affordable healthcare.
  13. Don’t just target laws and legislation on Facebook.
  14. Women have been having abortions long before it was legal.  Target the source.
  15. And also, maintain your credibility by caring for the life beyond the womb (refuges, immigrants, orphans, addicts, poor, minorities, LGBTQ+, etc)

Sadly, many of those who are proud that they “vote pro-life” do not care about many, often not any, of these things.  In fact they are usually offended at the very idea. So they in practice do not want to DO things that would in fact reduce abortions.

  1. They instead want political power.
  2. AND they want you to admit that they are morally superior BECAUSE they want political power</U, because they are certain that creating a one-party state (Republican) will advance life issues.

But that’s highly unlikely; it doesn’t cut it.

The best possible way to diminish the tragedy of abortion

Here is another very legitimate observation – of which I do know the source.  I added the outline of the author’s points.

Do not feel guilty or berate yourself if you cannot subscribe to the Republican “Pro-Life” agitations. Do not feel obligated to join their demonstrations or put their bumper-stickers on your car.
“The best possible way to diminish the tragedy of abortion is to provide unfettered access

  • to sex education,
  • birth control,
  • and affordable healthcare and childcare for all women–

the very things that ‘pro-life’ patriarchy seeks to inhibit.”  [source, at Patheos]

That’s the truth.

Not Pro-life: the label “Pro-Life” is just blatantly false,

and even dangerous.  How can I think that way?

FALSE

  • They are actually PRO-Republican, which is not the same thing.  Regardless of what anti-life things that party or its leaders do, they have the support of the “pro-life” voters.  That is a broad and very visible truth.
  • They depend on one single strategy – taking full governmental power – which tells you a lot – but that tends to not help with life issues, as we have seen now for decades.  It has, however, helped them get pretty close to complete domination of the governments, federal and state.  (It seems, though, that such successes may blow up on them pretty badly because of the vile real agendas driving so many top-level Republicans.)
  • They are anti-cooperation, which in human society is anti-life. They are unwilling to actually work with their fellow-citizens, or even treat them courteously.  Sad to say, many of them are anti- everyone but themselves!  The bullying spirit of many “pro-life” partisans, and their deep contempt for those of us who think there are better strategies than a totalitarian Republican government – is it not arrogant, evil, and destructive? There certainly are better strategies – but they won’t consider that.

DANGEROUS

  • They damage civil conversation. Lying about all the rest of us, and treating us with contempt, is not how you build or practice democracy – nor is it how you practice church life – nor does it demonstrate the teaching of or the Spirit of Christ.  A few years ago I performed a wedding.  When they got in serious relationship trouble they were no longer willing to come to me for input, “because he’s a Democrat” (actually I’m not), and Democrats are “for killing babies”.  What vile slander!  That kind of ignorant self-righteousness, which so often appears on “the Right,” makes my skin crawl. No wonder the US is in trouble!  Those attitudes and behaviors put our whole nation in danger.
  • Their work leads to one-party rule, that is, dictatorship.  And they don’t show much savvy regarding picking potential dictators.  Of course, maybe the whole batch of their potential leaders is rotten.
  • They do indeed ignore all kinds of other life issues in our society.  Seriously. If you want the Republican pro-life movement to care at all about you, you’d better be pregnant or pre-born. And even being pregnant will not cut it because they are not into things like health care for pregnant mothers.
  • I suppose, judging from abundant evidence, they might care about you (cater to you) if you are a wealthy supporter of Republicans.
Do not feel guilty or berate yourself if you cannot subscribe to Republican “Pro-Life” agitations. They are what they DO, which for many of them just doesn't seem to be much beyond political talk.Click To Tweet

So they ACT like they’re not pro-life.  It’s not so cut-and-dried, is it?

Do not feel guilty or berate yourself if you cannot subscribe to the Republican “Pro-Life” agitations.  Do not feel obligated to join their demonstrations or put their bumper-stickers on your car.  There are better, and more honest and decent, alternatives.

  • They are what they DO, which for a few is real attempts to be helpful,
  • but for many of them it just doesn’t seem to be much beyond
    • talk and
    • a strong sense of moral superiority.

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