A baby. A mother. A father. They are at the heart of the season we are in. And, yet, as Mary Eberstadt points out in her book How the West Really Lost God, all those elements seem foreign to many who did not grow up with a father. Or a mother. And, of course, those who do not have a baby for reasons of grueling inability, or excruciating loss, or fear, or actual choice. Her point is an acknowledgement of reality. And a point of reflection and encounter. Maybe especially in our post–Roe v. Wade world.
One Saturday morning not too long ago, a young woman from a pro-abortion group in New York City recognized me at a pro-life prayer vigil across from the flagship Planned Parenthood clinic there. She screamed to my face, “Kathryn Jean Lopez, what are you going to blame on abortion today?” I confess, I smiled. I thought, “She must actually read me!” If I am not just preaching to a choir, writing satisfies some of my deepest desires. And I do believe that abortion creates more immiseration than we know.
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