On Saturday, the Catholic Pro-Life Committee of the Diocese of Dallas will host The Bishop's 21st Annual Catholic Pro-Life Dinner. It is one of my favorite charity fundraising events. Attendance grows each year with wonderful speakers and incredible witness. In 2013, the CPLC saved a record of over 900 babies! Praise God! The message of love, compassion, and healing is clearly being heard loud and clear. There's something so positive about being pro-life.....
The pro-life movement is an invigorating, empowering, and compassionate mission supported by God himself. Our Lord loves all of his children no matter what the circumstances.
Before I converted to Catholicism, I was very pro-choice. In fact, it took me a couple of years as a newbie Catholic to finally understand the realities behind the abortion business. I erroneously thought Planned Parenthood as a harmless medical alternative for poor women who couldn't afford annual pap smears and mammograms. For years, I donated money to the Susan G. Komen Foundation not realizing donations go to PP and the "side business" of abortions. I was shocked to learn the abortion and breast cancer connection. Moreover, since I never knew of anyone personally who had an abortion I had a hard time empathizing with the suffering and pain post-abortive women experience. I couldn't relate. All of the media propaganda drilled into my head that abortion was safe with no lingering after-effects. Boy was I ignorantly misinformed!
Sadly, especially in my college years, I used to believe women had the right (almost a "God given right") to choose. No government, religious group, and certainly no man, should dictate what a woman should do with her body...
How barbaric! How sexist! How degrading of women not to have a right! I certainly wouldn't want to go around barefoot and preggo all of the time cooking and cleaning for some man! Women's lib is here to stay! Women shouldn't be subjected to abortion in some dark backdoor alley with no proper medical care. Legalized abortion protects women. Abortion is for rare cases only.
(A long time ago I fell for the lies......)
It made me sick to think some woman would ruin their lives forever taking care of some illegitimate child with no spousal support, no chance at finishing school or moving up the career ladder. At times, I even considered the abortion option if I ever was stupid enough to get myself pregnant. (I contracepted for years.) I selfishly didn't think about the fetus in the womb and how maybe he or she would rather choose to live than die! So many people are unable to have children yet I felt I had the "right" to kill my own unborn child? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense especially when so many people are available to help a woman in a crisis pregnancy.
A woman no longer has to hide in shame.... A woman no longer has to give into pressure to abort.... A woman no longer has to become financially incapacitated if she chooses to keep her baby... A woman no longer has to wear the stigma of being an unwed mother... .A woman can continue to live a good life with her child! Help is available!
So, why am I pro-life? What made me change my position? As I've grown closer to Christ, I've developed a love for everyone no matter if she or he is a microscopic human newly implanted in the womb, suffers from mental retardation, or is elderly and bedridden in a nursing home.
I cannot simply choose who should live or who should die. It's up to Our Lord to make that decision! He created us in his image and likeness so he chooses if and when we will die.
I think about the future doctors who'd make incredible advances in medicine today if their mothers didn't turn to abortion. I think of geniuses who'd invent even more amazing things technology-wise if their mothers had allowed their babies to live. I think of political figures, gifted musicians, artists, writers, etc. etc. who'd all make amazing contributions to society if their mothers had only chosen life instead of death.
Let us continue to pray for the pro-life movement! Join a pro-life group at your parish. Attend a fundraising event for a local crisis pregnancy center. Sidewalk counsel in front of an abortion center. Pray for the unborn. Show love and compassion for pregnant women who may be confused and don't know what to do!
Before I formed you
in the womb I knew you..."
(Jeremiah 1:5)
-J.
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