Pro-life or Pro-Birth? Toppling the Straw Man
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There’s an argument used against pro-life Christians that some Catholics have been carelessly throwing around lately. They think it’s a clever way of speaking about social justice. It’s not. And I’ll tell you why...
The phrase is: “You’re not pro-LIFE, you’re only pro-BIRTH.”
The implication is that pro-lifers don’t love the baby or mom beyond birth. After birth, they don’t care, don’t help, don’t support.
It’s ridiculous on its face. A straw man argument. A stale canard used primarily by people who are pro-abortion or by young pro-lifers who have been taken in by confusing rhetoric. And what most young Catholics don’t know is...
... that it was first used in 1994 by a heretical pro-abort religious sister named Joan Chittister. She didn’t use it because she’s pro-life from womb to tomb... she used it because she isn’t. It was an attempt to shame conservative Christians into supporting her preferred social programs. And to undermine the integrity of their anti-abortion work.
Sometimes her quote is shared online with a picture of her before she shed her habit. But you should know that she is no traditional nun. And she is pro-abortion.
How do I know? Because when I was a feminist pro-abort, she was one of my heroes. (Down with the patriarchy. Up with women priests. Forward with reproductive rights.)
I encourage Catholics to reject this “pro-birth” phrasing since it is designed to obscure truth and manipulate the conversation.
You don’t have to prove your pro-life commitment to anyone but the good Lord. And you don’t have to support specific social programs in order to be dynamically pro-life.
To those Christians who want to suppress the focused anti-abortion message in the name of “social justice”....
I have the authority to cry out against abortion even if I cannot help all those directly in need. I am only one woman and I do my best. But abortion is the torture and murder of children... and I am compelled by love to cry out against it. My authority to speak rests on Christ, not on my perfection. Not on my works.
I am pro-life. I am also pro-birth. There is no contradiction. And I will not be manipulated into silence.