Pro-Life Exceptions
What They Say About Us
Is your love conditional? As a parent, do you love one child more than the other, based on some perceived value? Who determines the right to life? Should there be pro-life exceptions?
These questions may appear simple on the surface but what does the world tell us? When it comes to the unborn, how does your pro-life walk measure up to your pro-life talk? True love means putting someone else above yourself. It means loving even if it requires sacrifice.
“Love to be real, it must cost – it must hurt – it must empty us of self.” Mother Teresa
Pro-Life Exceptions?
The Great Commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind”. (Matthew 22:37) Second, according Jesus is, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Matthew 22:39-40)” which gives us the answer. Applying this explicit instruction to the unborn, means that we accept no exceptions and allow no compromise. We must love our neighbor and our neighbor is everyone – every human being, born or unborn!
Who Is My Neighbor?
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shares a story with a lawyer who attempts to entrap Him. Slyly the lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-37) Yet Jesus leaves no room for doubt in His replay. The command is clearly stated and clarified. Even though some may shy away, repulsed, as they did with the unfortunate robbery victim, we are called to show loving care to everyone. If this means stepping out of our comfort zone, proves to be inconvenient, or takes an abundance of grace – we are still charged with obedience to the command to love.
No Pro-Life Exceptions
As we consider this lesson, how can we position ourselves to hold exceptions when it comes to the most vulnerable of all neighbors? The violent war raging against the unborn, in our country and around the globe, begs an honest answer. These innocents have done no harm, committed no crime. Like the man who was robbed on his way to Jericho, they are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. These are the babies people sometimes refer to as pro-life exceptions.
Some babies come to this world with less than perfect credentials – at least from a secular viewpoint. These are innocent babies – conceived through rape or incest, bearing physical anomalies, or posing a health risk to their mothers. Yet their worth, their right to life, is not a choice we have a right to make. This holds true, even when considering flawed human preferences or false values. Therefore, those who are not fully committed to the unborn are exposed.
United for Life
Unity is a strong word. One that evokes the power of the like-minded coming together. When the pro-life movement becomes compartmentalized it weakens its own stance in the big picture. In division we let a gap open in the pro-life door, by allowing exceptions. Exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother already exist in many minds. With this way of thinking, we wrongly allow ourselves to abandon the 1% of those conceived by rape and still maintain our support for the other 99%. Yet, once a class of individuals is deemed as unworthy of saving, we have diminished the entire message. Each life is equally important and worthy. Therefore, exceptions to the pro-life cause are unjust.
Conquer the Culture of Death
A child has no control over whether she was conceived in romance and true love or in the violence of an aggressor against her mother. The child remains, along with her mother, as an innocent victim. So, if we do not learn to unify behind all life, the entire pro-life movement suffers. Who is equipped to become the judge of worthiness? What will be the criteria? Will it be the accidents of conception? Physical or mental infirmity? Being planned or a surprise?
You see, when unity crumbles, so does strength. United we stand, divided we fall. We must unite behind all children!
Abide in His Love
The undeniable conclusion is that whether we are righteous in claiming to be pro-life (or not) is determined by whether or not we attempt to put conditions on who deserves life. That simply is not our call. God, the Author of Life, gives the right to life to each individual at His desire. He, and only He, creates the life and only He holds the right to call a life into eternity. The righteous heart acknowledges no pro-life exceptions and no compromise! It holds fast to the command to love.
“Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” (John 15:9-10)
Out of curiosity, where do you stand on capital punishment Birjit?
It always comes to that doesn’t it? First a couple of points. Comparing the innocent unborn, who cannot in any way have sinned and are therefore completely blameless, to a criminal is an unacceptable comparison. Assuming that justice has been served, through a finding of guilt in the legal system, I still find it highly implausible to think that the death penalty is necessary in this day and age – at least in first world nations.
That being said, I hold to what the Catholic Church teaches: CCC 2267 Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.”
What do you think Jesus taught about capital punishment?