With the End of Roe, Let’s End the Violence

N ights of Rage are how some pro-abortion activists planned for the Supreme Court’s decision in the Mississippi abortion case. It was nowhere as bad as I feared, thanks be to God. But there have been attacks on pregnancy centers and churches, and tensions are high. In a country of division, can we at least stand up against more violence — even beyond the violence of abortion?

For a half century, the pro-life movement has been making the case for the humanity of the unborn child. We’ve prayed. We’ve peacefully protested. Most years it didn’t really make the news unless you watch EWTN (Catholic TV) or read conservative or Christian sources, but we’ve marched on Washington in frigid January, begging the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. It hasn’t been fun, but every year we see more and more young people, filled with hopeful joy that this wrong will be righted. Anyone who has ever seen a sonogram knows that there is a developing child in the womb. Joe Biden has now repeatedly recently slipped up and said that a woman should have a right to abort her child (rather than merely using euphemisms about supposed choice — when, in fact, all too often women and girls are pressured into their abortions). It was unintentional on his part, I assume, given the Left’s decades-long insistence on euphemisms when it comes to abortion. But let’s talk about the child, thank you. Let’s talk about abortion. Let’s talk about what it actually is. Not health care. Not freedom. Death.

And that violence that abortion insists on is manifesting itself in outbursts of violence on the streets and against pro-life women’s care centers. Graffiti. Firebombing. There are groups whose names I won’t mention to because I don’t want to give them more attention. I’ve experienced one of them in New York. They taunt. They spit. They harass. They set up human blockades. They don’t really want to have a conversation or debate. They want to drown out prayer. Heaven forbid a scared mom know that there are people taking the time to pray for her. If they don’t drown us out, sometimes a young scared mother stops to talk with a sidewalk counselor and reconsiders her abortion. If you’re actually pro-choice, that shouldn’t be the greatest threat there is: that a woman actually knows and decides she can be the mother she already is.

I use the word pro-abortion to describe domestic terrorists, the hurting people I encounter on the streets, and the politicians who insist on the extension of abortion in America, because that’s the honest truth, and they have been more open about in the latter days of Roe.

As we awaited the decision, 250 or so women met in Philadelphia. Some young, some with more experience serving as mentors and spiritual directors. The gathering is what has become an annual event, the GIVEN Forum. It’s an opportunity for young Catholic women to explore who they are in the light of God’s plan. It’s a radical concept in our modern world: We have been made by a Creator for a purpose, with specific gifts. And the fullness of joy and freedom comes in seeking that plan, doing His will. I’ve talked to gals who are already doing amazing things from a wellspring of generosity and love, consciously stemming from their Baptism. They know their lives are not their own. They know their lives cannot be remade in their own image, or any image the world insists on. They see people around them trying it and drowning in misery, and they want to help. Multiple times, forum attendees have quoted Pope Paul VI at the end of the Second Vatican Council: “At this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women impregnated with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid mankind in not falling.”

My favorite line comes at the end:

Women, you do know how to make truth sweet, tender and accessible, make it your task to bring the spirit of this council into institutions, schools, homes and daily life. Women of the entire universe, whether Christian or non-believing, you to whom life is entrusted at this grave moment in history, it is for you to save the peace of the world.

Those aren’t just words from an old Church document. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI handed me the same words. He knew that not only had it not been fully communicated and embraced, but it was absolutely essential to the transformation of our sick culture — a culture of death, as Pope John Paul II put it. A throwaway society, as Pope Francis frequently puts it. It’s not popular to quote popes — unless the pope is talking about climate change — but these men have been calling us to examine our consciences. Why choose death when we are meant for life? Why snuff out the innocent when they deserve our protection? Why pretend that abortion doesn’t harm when, in fact, it kills a child and is an inconsolable wound to the mother?

Please, condemn the violence. Talk. The end of Roe v. Wade isn’t the end of the world. It’s a new day, one in which motherhood can get the attention it deserves. The Washington Post recently ran a profile of a teenager who had twins after Texas passed a new law to better protect some of the unborn in their state. The point of the piece seemed to be that these precious children shouldn’t have been born. The response of some pro-lifers was to raise money for the girl and her twins.

Celebrate life. Embrace it. Surround it with love and resources. There’s nothing better than a baby in this world. Such a sign of hope and renewal. And we need mothers to know they bear the greatest gift and revere their child. That’s what Creation has set up for us. The gals at GIVEN have no interest in fighting Creation. We’d be wise to support them and do everything we can to support mothers and families, practically, individually, and as policy. A generation of women embracing the gifts that they are — this will move us in a more life-giving direction. If they can only survive the rage on the other side.

This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.