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From the Supreme Court to Philadelphia to Boston: Is Abortion in America Ever Going to Be Extreme Enough for Us?

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Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ill., August 22, 2024. (Kevin Wurm/Reuters)

We just need to face the overwhelmingly obvious fact that most of us need to be doing something different, something more.

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I’d like it to be encouraged — and encouraging — that so many people are taking note of how ugly the abortion-signing ceremony at the governor’s office in Boston on Monday was.  

Don’t get me wrong: I am grateful for the lack of silence. Sometimes the culture of death has milestones that go largely unnoticed even by many on the right.  

Andrew Cuomo telling pro-lifers to leave New York comes to mind. Or Kathy Hochul saying Lady Liberty will embrace you for your abortions.

Seriously, check it out on the governor’s website, to this day (there’s video and everything):

“Abortion access is safe in New York – the rights of those who are seeking abortion services will always be protected here,” Governor Hochul said. “This plan will affirm that in our state, and leaders like Senator Gillibrand will fight on a national level. To the women of Texas, I want to say I am with you. Lady Liberty is here to welcome you with open arms.”

Gavin Newsom taking out billboards in other states to get women to go to California to kill their babies. Those are just a few examples.

However, even though there has been a parade of commentary about Massachusetts this week, it all feels way too familiar to me. 

I saw this tweet yesterday:  

I don’t think that’s actually true. 

I’m now thinking in particular of Kermit Gosnell.  

The abortionist’s trial was a moment where people said: This has got to change us. Surely, this is an outrage. Obviously, abortion has gotten out of control in America. 

And remember, it was under a Republican governor of Pennsylvania when state inspections of Gosnell’s clinic stopped.

I wrote in 2013: “History’s Jury Is Out: Has Gosnell Rocked Our Conscience?”

It was horrific.  

Kermit Gosnell was our real-life “monster,” with his “house of horrors.” 

And it did not, in fact, rock our consciences.  

Gosnell is dead now.  

We are still here. And still have a chance to have something to show for our time here.  

Roe v. Wade ended. A lot of people worked a half-century for that to happen.  

That will have been five years ago now.  

Abortions are up. Two handfuls of states allow them at any time for any reason. Other states — like New York, just need you to find a doctor who will provide a physical or mental-health reason for the abortion after 24 weeks. 

I don’t mean to be discouraged or discouraging. We just need to face the overwhelmingly obvious fact that most of us need to be doing something different, something more. And that may have nothing at all to do with a politician or platform or policy or law. It may have everything to do with what is right in front of us.

They may need your time at a local pregnancy center. Do you even know what your neighborhood options are? Heartbeat International and HerPlan both can help you identify locations. 

Are there any maternity homes in your area?  

There are likely children in foster care where you live.  

There are probably couples who foster in your community — even at the church you go to on Sunday.  

CarePortal is a good place to begin helping with foster-care — and before foster-care family — needs.

A niece, a friend’s daughter, a gal you’ve been casually mentoring may wind up with a positive drug-store pregnancy test before the end of the year. Will she be afraid to tell you about it?  

Is your church a place where women and girls would feel free to ask for help — even if they are teens or otherwise unmarried?  

There may be a woman a degree or two away from you who needs for a place to sleep and get on her feet.  

Women have more access to abortion today than they ever have had. And the pressure is greater than ever to go ahead and solve what we’re told is the problem — the pregnancy, the child.

You can get pills by mail without a doctor’s appointment! This is not even new!

So the pressure is on to eliminate the developing child. And yet, “woman’s choice” is still the mantra — even if science and common sense have been telling us for the lifetime of everyone alive today that there are two human patients involved. 

Abortion as “health care” is a lie. (And if you are a pregnant woman who is diagnosed with sepsis or cancer, no law or Catholic morality is making doctors refuse to treat a pregnant woman.)

“Sides” aren’t even trying to avoid talking past one another — or yelling at one another into a grave abyss.

What more are we going to do? Take the videos of the bill signing on Monday in Boston as an opportunity to recommit yourself — maybe to commit yourself for the first time in a substantive way, or to return and renew and up your game — to protecting and defending innocent human life.

Pope John Paul II united Christians, especially, in 1995 by writing about a culture of life and civilization of love. You don’t have to be Catholic or otherwise Christian or a religious believer to participate. What are you doing to contribute to building, nourishing, and supporting a culture of life and a civilization of love? Today, this month, this year, in 2027, and beyond?

It certainly could not hurt to ask. And it might save lives, if we follow up on the answers we find.

Let’s make this time different.

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