Fed-Up and Trying to Do Something about It
by John Gfoeller (
http://www.myspace.com/john_gfoeller)
4 February 2008
Hi, Everyone,
On Tuesday, 22 January 2008, I attended the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. In case you don�t know, it is the annual protest march against abortion.
Now, before you click away, I realize that many people disagree with that view; and many think that abortion should be legal. My goal isn�t to debate the issue.
Instead, my goal is to try to help to solve the problem.
I think everyone can agree that the number of abortions should be reduced. And that raises the question of why women get abortions in the first place.
From surveys and from word of mouth, it seems that money and timing are two of the most frequent reasons for getting an abortion. Yes, there are other reasons for abortions; but money and timing seem to be the most common.
(See the study at
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/psrh/full/3711005.pdf on the reasons why American women have abortions. About 73% of the women surveyed cited economic or timing issues as the reasons for their abortions. The Guttmacher Institute, at
http://www.guttmacher.org , provides statistical data for Planned Parenthood.)
In other words, many women have abortions because they do not have the money to raise a child; and they do not want to face poverty; or the pregnancy would otherwise be at a bad time in their lives.
However, those are problems that can be addressed. Poverty can be overcome by charity. Timing can be overcome by adoption.
The number of abortions can be reduced: simply by taking care of each other when we need it most.
Of course, political extremists on either side of the abortion debate will not like that solution -- because it does not help either side to be �right� or to �win.�
For everyone else, who would actually like to see fewer abortions, taking care of each other with compassion could actually help to solve the problem. Abortion will probably never go away. However, caring for each other when compassion is needed most can go a long to reducing the number of abortions.
Which brings me back to the March for Life. It was the first time I had attended that protest march, and it left me with decidedly mixed feelings.
On the one hand, it was impressive. Thousands of people had sacrificed time and money in order to gather in the nation�s capital --in the cold of January-- to stand up for human life. I was glad that I was there, and I intend to be there again.
On the other hand, it was disappointing.
Almost everyone there was white and Catholic. Now, there is nothing wrong with being white or Catholic; but where was everyone else? The two best speakers were a Black preacher and a Jewish rabbi; but there were hardly any people of color or non-Christians at the annual March for Life. What's up with that?
Well, abortion is the elephant in the middle of the room that no one wants to acknowledge; that's what. It's so easy to either ignore the issue or to yell at each other; and it's a lot, lot harder to actually try to solve the problem. It's so much easier to hate the other side instead of recognizing ourselves in our neighbor.
Worst of all: almost nothing was said about addressing the reasons why people have abortions. For two hours, we stood in the cold and heard speeches about making abortion illegal; but we heard very little about actually helping pregnant people find alternatives to abortion or helping people heal after having an abortion.
That is not good. Discussing abortion mostly in terms of legal or illegal turns an intimate issue of human life and human *community* into merely a political battle. Yes, the politics matter; but the politics are secondary.
What is most important is loving the neighbor and genuinely taking care of each other. We as a society must care enough for each other to make abortion largely unnecessary. Part of that is better education about contraception. Part of that is countering the culture of pornography by teaching (by word and example) how to practice self-control, respect and compassion. But a big part of loving the neighbor is simply caring enough to actually help people, when they need it, to keep their babies or to give their babies up for adoption.
So, that is why I made my �Pregnancy Options Help� webpage here at MySpace. (The address is at
http://www.myspace.com/pregnantoptionshelp .) It lists links and phone numbers to groups that can help people find confidential options with their pregnancies: either for keeping the baby or for giving the baby up for adoption. There is also information for people who already had an abortion and who want assistance in healing. The goal is to help and to heal: by proving information and contacts to people in need.
Please consider adding my page to your list of contacts:
http://www.myspace.com/pregnantoptionshelp .
Also, please let me know of any other groups that are trying to help people facing pregnancy or post abortion recovery (without being judgemental) and that should be included in my list.
Finally, please let me know of any groups that are trying to bring people together: pro-life and pro-choice. We will never make progress on abortion if we just yell at each other or march past each other. In order to reduce the number of abortions, we need to come together and address the reasons why people have abortions in the first place. We need to better take care of each other.
Thank you for your time in reading this.
Be well.
-- John
