Today, the March for Life 2020 kicked off in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tomorrow morning, Concord, NH will join at least five other cities (Chicago, IL; Casa Grande, AZ; Elkhart, IN; and Columbia, SC) in hosting local marches standing up for life.
What is the March for Life? Should I care?
Everyone should have an educated view about matters of life and death. The March for Life is quite literally about matters of life and death: who our society determines has a right to live, and who doesn’t.
Morbid, and important.
Have you evaluated the evidence and formed an opinion yet? I clearly have one, and I encourage you to independently research the data so you find whatever facts you need to reach a decision. Over the past decade or so, I formed an opinion, researched the topic, begrudgingly moved to the fence, researched further, and finally found myself standing firmly in the camp opposite where I started. Learn! The more you know, the more sound your decision will be!
What Topics Does the Pro-Life Movement Cover?
The pro-life movement is a counter to the culture of death; if something aims to take, restrict, or limit life, the pro-life movement runs counter to it. The March for Life stands for all issues of life. There are four main topics of the pro-life movement.
Abortion
The focus is often on the abortion segment of the mission: saving pre-born babies. Saving these babies is critical: there are zero rights prior to that of existence. Notably, women are denied all rights at a higher rate than men, even when still in the womb: girls are more likely to be aborted than boys across all cultural boundaries. Let’s not forget about the role of race, either: a black woman is more than twice as likely (about 2.7x as likely) to abort a child than a white woman.
“The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety.” How can the “Dream” survive if we murder the children? Every aborted baby is like a slave in the womb of his or her mother.
– Dr. Alveda C. King,
(the first part quoting her uncle Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
This is a hot topic, but it isn’t the only topic.
Elder Abuse
Just as horrific – if not more so because it is less controversial – is the murdering of the elderly by nursing homes. Intentional neglect in nursing homes leads to the premature deaths of thousands every year. Some people believe that people who are unable to care for themselves have a duty to die. And this topic isn’t even referencing those considering euthanasia: this topic is squarely that someone who is supposed to be taking care of someone else doesn’t, instead neglecting them to the point of death, generally by malnutrition or dehydration. People are starving to death because someone else thinks they have a duty to die.
Euthanasia
Euthanasia – he painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. The practice is illegal in most countries.
– Oxford dictionary
I didn’t ask Oxford for its opinion; Oxford pointed out that it’s illegal in most countries of its own accord. Hey, look, red flag that you’re probably doing something wrong: the dictionary recognizes it’s so barbaric that they note the general illegality in the definition of the word itself.
Euthanasia at least gives the one dying a say in the matter – at least theoretically. This is probably why Americans favor its legality, because it appears to be about the freedom to choose to no longer live. However, this practice takes advantage of people in their weakest states, and in many cases takes advantage of people who lack legal capacity. (“Legal capacity” is the ability to make a binding decision. For example, if someone is experiencing severe dementia, that person is not capable of making decisions and thus lacks legal capacity.)
Capital Punishment
Then there’s the death penalty issue. Capital punishment is the murder of a criminal convicted of certain crimes. It isn’t always used when available; sometimes the guilty party instead receives a life sentence to prison without the opportunity for parole. In 2019, there were 22 people executed in the United States, and statistically one of them was innocent of the crime he was convicted of.
Life Empowers: Pro-Life is Pro-Woman
That’s the theme for this year’s national March for Life: Life Empowers: Pro-Life is Pro-Woman. Looking at the data, this is incredibly true. From abortion to early termination of life, women are the most likely targets of the culture of death.
Abortion
The people most hurt by abortion is the women who endure them. However, while the mothers are likely to experience emotional side effects, the fathers also experience loss including the same PTSD, depression, and various disorders that the mothers face.
A reminder and plea to all pro-lifers: any woman considering abortion is suffering. She is likely feeling cornered, abandoned, maligned, scared, and worried. She faces despair. We are called to be hope to the hopeless. Know that she needs help, and we are called to act as God’s hands and feet in providing the help she needs, providing the love she needs. Remember always to love her through her fear.
Elder Abuse and Euthanasia
How does elder abuse and euthanasia disproportionately kill women?
Women have longer life spans than men, and generally speaking, the older one gets, the more likely that person is to experience disability, debilitating disease, and/or terminal illness. Some jurisdictions require just such a pre-requisite before permitting the use of euthanasia, rendering women enabled to commit suicide when they are at their weakest and loneliest states.
Building into this loneliness, the older a person gets, the more likely that person is to suffer from neglect. Husbands die before wives, leaving women to the care of the other people in her life. Children and grandchildren often build lives away from them, leaving them to the care of nursing home staff.
Summary
I strongly encourage everyone to investigate these issues. They are literally questions of life and death, and as such they are absolutely worth our time and energy. I am proudly pro-life. The people who are enduring hardships – whether in crisis pregnancies or being abused in nursing homes – should be treated with the love, care, compassion, and respect that we are called to show to all humans. I hope to see you on the March!
First they came for the forgotten,
– Consequent Ideas adaptation of a poem by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller
And I did not speak out
Because I was not forgotten.
Then they came for the elderly,
And I did not speak out
Because I was not elderly.
Then they came for the unborn,
And I did not speak out
Because I was already born.
Then they came for me,
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
