Where to Next?

So often in matters of public policy we forget the underlying issue. The policy dimensions are all we see. We are presented with no deeper conversations on a subject with moral overtones by the sometimes shallow news media. Activists on all sides are given a full 10-second sound bite, if they’re lucky.

Genuine attempts to peel away that external, thin layer of debate can expose an even messier soup that is even more difficult to fathom—hence the desire many have to let others deal with it. Nowhere is this truer than the American debate on abortion, a clash of all three core ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Typically, we don’t think of these three self-evident truths to be in conflict. But they can certainly appear to be, especially to the woman involved in an unwanted pregnancy, or her boyfriend/husband or family. True enough, an unplanned child is not always a pleasant surprise for people bent on that third ideal in the Declaration.

Simply put, the responsibilities a new child brings can be a cramp in one’s happiness pursuit. And if pursuing happiness is our highest ideal, well, why should we be so surprised at the number of abortions still performed in the United States?

Blend into this the resentment every human being has towards somebody else telling them what to do—i.e. depriving them of their liberty—and we now have a double whammy. Call the new life what you will—a fetus, a pregnancy—it is the specter of being responsible forever for a growing child outside the womb that is the source of so much angst. Talk about being denied one’s liberty! What ideal can possibly compete with the claims of liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Indeed, there is only one overarching ideal that can compete with those other two.

That is the sacredness of human life, without which no liberty or pursuit of happiness exists. Preserving life is key to our self-concept as human beings. That may be why Jefferson included it in the Declaration. It’s that important.

For example, we look up to those, like Mother Teresa, who do their best to help keep life going in the most difficult places in the world. We rush loved ones to the hospital after a heart attack or stroke in order to keep them alive. We celebrate when a new life is brought into the world, even when some are brought into a difficult life of poverty. We salute those who adopt a baby, and rightly so. Pro-lifers and most pro-choicers both have an instinctive appreciation for life.

Indeed, many people on both sides of this sensitive issue still instinctively know that Roe v. Wade is no real solution to the abortion conundrum—this 36 years removed from the Supreme Court’s decision in that historic case. While abortions have gone down a bit lately, still the numbers are staggering. What does it say about us, as a people, that we still have so many abortions, and for reasons that go far beyond rape, incest, or the life of the mother? In fact, some studies indicate that these situations account for only 7 percent of the overall total of abortions performed in this country.

One could get morose when considering how many people have allowed themselves to become callous with the newfangled thought that, somehow, an unborn child’s life is less sacred than a child that is born. The distinction between the two is so lame as to make us shake our head as to how we are able to justify anything in the name of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Yet there is some cause for hope, even among those who are pro-choice, because their reactions to the abortion issue indicate that they don’t buy even their own self-stated philosophy on the subject. And some of their concerns are not without merit—they need only better solutions.

For example, one will often hear pro-choicers calling out pro-lifers on their apparent concern for the fetus yet perceived lack of empathy for the distressed single mother or the infant born into poverty. “Where is your compassion for the mother then?” we hear.

Of course, many pro-life activists follow the Mother Teresa model of love and assist young pregnant women in a non-judgmental way, helping them every step of the way if they need help with their pregnancy, or even adopting babies whose mothers can’t care for them.

Other pro-lifers, who aren’t led to adopting, would be happy to join a pro-choicer in building up the self-esteem of our young women and men, helping to decrease the odds of more unwanted pregnancies. This is an area of agreement and an important one.

The truth is, except for the most hardened of souls, most pro-choice Americans still wince at the thought of an unborn baby being denied a chance at life. They wish, as pro-lifers do, that some kind of better answer was present for all involved.

Well, there is a better answer, and we’ve got it: Christ’s love. But it will take creative energy only the Holy Spirit can give to help us find the way to heal the whole situation.

Perhaps the best answer we can give to pro-choicers generally is to reaffirm to them that, though we love life first, we also love liberty and the pursuit of happiness, too. We don’t sit around and plot ways to meddle in other people’s privacy and lives. Far from it.

What we do state, unequivocally, is that life is God’s to give and God’s to take. Other than honoring the life God gives us and others, we very much like exercising our God-given liberty and enjoy pursuing happiness, though in a way that honors God.

The Christian can give great solace to someone in crisis, like a young woman facing an unexpected pregnancy. We can point to a Lord who knew all about pain and hard choices. We also have a Lord who lived to see a better day after the crisis had passed. If more young women can really believe that there is life after a challenging pregnancy—and that they have real people to love them through it—then perhaps fewer abortions will take place, regardless of what the current laws on the books may be.

Surely we can all agree, that would be a good thing.

Stephen Reed, a Centurion in the 2008 class, is a former talk radio host and serves as grants and foundations specialist for PFM.