Overturning Roe doesn’t mean truly caring for children or the dignity of their lives
Leaked opinions from the Supreme Court regarding Roe vs. Wade have made conversations very volatile; strong feelings are expressed regardless which side of the issue you support. Strong opinions are good. Rhetoric that disrespects, demeans and devalues another’s life is not.
Pro-lifers will claim that overturning Roe vs. Wade is essential to protect vulnerable life.
It is true: a baby in the womb is vulnerable. My cousin Zach’s life is also vulnerable as he lives with Down Syndrome; a doctor’s advice before Zach was born suggested abortion, thank God that advice was not taken.
My dear Shawn’s life is vulnerable, too, and a broken healthcare system puts him behind the 8-ball constantly, leaves him without options and as it does to too many others; how does our health care system demonstrate respect for the lives of our most vulnerable who need care?
A worker – a valuable one, a nine-year excellent worker - who is paid unjustly and survives or not at the whim of decisions made by a greedy or plain uncaring employer is vulnerable. Payday loans only make matters worse and further demeans the dignity of a life.
The elderly whose neglect and substandard care is astonishingly inhumane are vulnerable.
Our homeless are vulnerable, as are those who roam our streets with mental health issues; too often we simply pretend not to see them. Or maybe too many of us just don’t want to.
The addict and the recovering addict are vulnerable as are the LGBTQ+ persons I regularly minister to and with.
Faith communities, especially, need to take stock of what respecting life or being pro- life vs. pro birth really means and entails. In my ministry I encounter LGBTQ+ persons, and especially youth, who are often viewed as “lesser than” and tossed out of “religious” families and churches. If a child is born gay or trans and then leads a hellish existence courtesy of a faith tradition that does not respect their lives, how can they claim to be pro-life?
I could go on and on.
Overturning Roe vs. Wade may provide pro-birth advocates with a victory, but until all people are afforded the total unconditional dignity that is rightly theirs and the care of a nation that prides itself on claiming to vote to respect life, securing a life for a child is meaningless. That’s right; until we provide structures that respect and care for that child, that life, until their dying breath with unconditional love, educational opportunity, healthcare, a living wage and worker justice, and are concerned about the vulnerable among us, we cannot say we’re pro-life. The fact is we’re pro birth.
How easy it is to respond to the silent cries of the child in the womb, but when the deafening pleas and tears of those who are alive ask us to be pro-life and to respect their lives, we fail miserably. We are too often deaf, I fear.
Overturning hard hearts is essential. Overturning a culture that is slowly demonstrating a lack of respect for anyone’s life must occur with or without written opinions and votes. There needs to be, for sure, a communal uprooting of a misinformed mindset that sees birth as a stand-alone issue; there must be a communal metanoia — a total conversion of hearts — before we can truly claim the victory of being pro-life.
Stan “JR” Zerkowski is director of the Catholic LGBTQ+ Ministry in Lexington.