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People Can Get Angry About Anything: Even Baby-on-Board Parking Spots. (Sigh.)
It was around noon on the day after Donald Trump’s first inauguration as president of the United States. I was on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and one of the nationwide women’s marches protesting him was happening. I saw many “Impeach Trump” signs. Whatever you think of him, he was entitled to 24 hours in office before you woke up and decided to work toward his impeachment. More telling were some of the other handmade signs with slogans like “#Sad” (hashtags were in back then). Some just had sad faces. That made a lot more sense. People were unhappy and felt the need to do something with that agony. Getting mad about Donald Trump made it feel productive, like it had meaning.
I have my doubts that the same people were all that happy just because Joe Biden was inaugurated four years later.
That’s all a long way of saying: People’s political and social-media and taking-to-the-streets anger isn’t always primarily about what they claim it’s about.
But of all things to get worked up about . . .
On Thursday, Patrick Brown from the Ethics and Public Policy Center proposed that parking spots for pregnant women be more of a thing. Great idea. One of the cruelest realities is being pregnant in places where it is 90-something degrees Fahrenheit and humid around this time of year.
So, of course, how did some respond on X? By blasting Patrick for not understanding that pregnant women need exercise. I kid you not. (Good luck if he tries that with the Mrs. when she’s with child.)
Some responses are just vitriol/expletives. I’d like to believe they are not from real people. But having met some of you, I have no doubt. It’s one thing to not want another law, to worry that people will abuse these parking spaces as they do handicapped spots, or worry that there won’t be enough spots for people who are handicapped. It’s another to say that Patrick is an idiot who wants mothers to pile on baby weight.
Arkansas has already taken the opportunity to reject such a proposal. (Face palm.)
In better news, I saw at least two state-legislator types express enthusiasm for the proposal. (Ohio and South Carolina. And there may be some hope for New Jersey.)
Big, Beautiful Life Beyond Planned Parenthood
Before the week passes us by, I wanted to make sure to highlight this Wall Street Journal piece from Matthew Hennessey on the mega budget reconciliation signed on Independence Day:
It’s the most significant pro-life law ever.
The bill, which President Trump signed on July 4, cuts off Medicaid funding to nonprofit abortion clinics no matter what other health-related services they offer — or claim to. Planned Parenthood will of course be hardest hit. The nation’s largest abortion provider warns that 200 of its 600 “health centers” will be forced to close when the federal spigot runs dry. That is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.
Federal law already disallows the use of taxpayer money to pay for abortion. But any kid with an allowance knows that money is fungible. Planned Parenthood pockets the Medicaid funding it gets for the cancer screenings and mental-health counseling it supposedly does. It then uses the money to pay for abortions. A third of the organization’s funding comes from the federal government.
Social conservatives have dreamed for decades about bankrupting Planned Parenthood. Principal credit for this aspect of the big, beautiful victory belongs not to Mr. Trump but to Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Congressional Republicans, as a whole, are to the right of the president on abortion. But give Mr. Trump a large gold star for simply letting it happen, despite his liberal inclinations on such matters.
Phil Lawler adds to Matthew’s “most significant pro-life law ever” point:
Does that sound like hyperbole? Go ahead: name a more important piece of pro-life legislation at the federal level. The Hyde Amendment was a big pro-life win, certainly. The Mexico City policy has been important, but that’s an executive order (routinely rescinded when Democrats control the White House) rather than an act of Congressional legislation. There have been important victories in the Senate on judicial appointments, but again those have not involved laws. So if the defunding of Planned Parenthood is not the “most significant pro-life law ever,” what is? Frankly, the competition is not stiff.
Now the Trump administration could have just basked in that beauty for a few days. They could have sat and watched as Planned Parenthood pathetically, albeit predictably, sued. They could have popped popcorn as a judge — also not a shock — then responded with make-believe legal illogic to protect Planned Parenthood. They could have taken a vacation while others, like our Ramesh Ponnuru, defended defensible cuts.
Instead, someone had the bright idea that the Department of Homeland Security use Scripture to celebrate searches in U.S. woods looking for people in the country illegally. (I’m all for enforcing the law, but some of these people are desperate.) It also feeds the too-easy characterization (with disappointingly boilerplate rather than teaching feel) that the U.S. Catholic bishops make about the bill and “the great harm [it] will cause to many of the most vulnerable in society.” And while I share their disappointment that the Planned Parenthood cuts aren’t stronger, they don’t leave room for the prudential aspects of some of the cuts to unsustainable government spending.
As Lawler writes:
Unborn children are surely among “the most vulnerable in society” today. They are the ones most likely to die violently within the next few months. But rather than focus on the concrete achievement of cutting taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, Archbishop Broglio produced a fair copy of the vague rhetoric that Democratic lawmakers had used to denounce the Big Beautiful Bill.
I remain with Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearings. Climate change — and extreme weather, I don’t think she’d mind me adding — I honestly have never had an opinion on. We need to be good stewards of creation. I need to do my part better. (Though I am not giving up air conditioning this month or next — as long as I’m near weather upwards of 80 and humid — if that’s part of the deal.) I do know that the human family — man and woman, made for one another, capable of a life-giving union — is part of that creation. And Planned Parenthood is an, if not the chief, enemy of that most natural enterprise.
Some are, but I am not popping champagne corks about defunding Planned Parenthood for a year. But if Planned Parenthood is weakened, that is good for human lives and the life of our culture. Defunding Planned Parenthood for only a year — versus the ten years as it was originally in the House, before going to the Senate — is but a baby step (as I said here), but one that sure shows some real progress for once! Or Planned Parenthood and its allies wouldn’t be freaking out.
The Loving Side of Social Media! (It Can Be! It Really, Truly Can!)
We need more reports like this one, from Rebecca McLaughlin:
Yesterday, a couple from our church adopted the 8yr who had been living with them as their son for over a year. So much of our church showed up to support them that the judge said we’d broken the record for an adoption hearing. This is what church family looks like in action.
Fostering Family Flourishing
Jedd Medefind, the president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans and an adoptive father (who was head of the White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives under President George W. Bush), writes on a new study commissioned by CAFO finding encouraging results about family flourishing after adoption.
He writes:
People of all major faiths are more likely to step into the lives of kids in foster care than those who identify as agnostic, atheist or no faith (also known as the religious “nones”).
People of Christian faith are especially likely to do so. Compared to “nones,” Christians are nearly twice as likely to adopt and more than three times more likely to foster. . . .
This new data also probes a deeper layer. . . . Even amidst the serious struggles that often come with foster care and adoption, families that do so are significantly more likely than others to report they are thriving, especially religious families. . . .
That doesn’t mean foster care and adoption are easy. They aren’t by any stretch. Might it be that healthy people are more likely to take on hard things? Or do hard experiences form healthy people?
I’ve seen both to be true. Over two decades serving in this field, I’ve observed that the life-altering decision to foster or adopt often flows from a distinctly whole-life kind of faith. It’s an entire ecosystem that includes earnest belief and daily practices of faith, a vibrant church community, willingness to sacrifice in answer to God’s call, and — in the long run –a visible flourishing.
The “flourishing” part of that picture sometimes feels far off, even laughable, for families in the trenches. But over time, those who don’t give up reap a beautiful harvest.
As a fellow adoptive parent put it to me, “It’s been brutal at times. But I wouldn’t give it up — not for anything. Our daughters needed us. And nothing in life, absolutely nothing, has done more to grow us all to be more like Jesus.”
Stayed tuned to National Review Online for more on this to come.
Abortion and Forgiveness
By the way, the reason I was on Fifth Avenue on January 21, 2017, was not really to cover the anti-Trump march. There was a day of prayer at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This was the only day the cathedral schedule could fit it. Sisters of Life stood outside the cathedral, welcoming people in. Protesters were welcome if they gave up their placards and crass pink hats. A number did so. And at least one — she talked about it after; she was so overflowing with gratitude — went to confession to confess her abortion. And before she left, she was making arrangements to participate in a post-abortion healing retreat. I pray it was only the beginning of her healing and that she was far from the only one.
One of the most important things that John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life,” 1995) was:
I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To the same Father and his mercy you can with sure hope entrust your child. With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people, and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone’s right to life. Through your commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life.
There are resources for you, if you have had an abortion, for healing:
Your Abortion Experience (formerly Abortion Changes You)
Hope and Healing After Abortion
K-Lo Rants
An Abortion Clinic’s Cynical Use of Fake American Girl Dolls
Cynthia Nixon’s Love Affair with Abortion
Around National Review
Andy McCarthy: Justices Alito and Thomas: Bring Us a Case on Parental Consent Regarding Child’s Abortion
Dan McLaughlin: District Judge Rules Congress Lacks Spending Power, Must Fund Planned Parenthood No Matter What
The Editors: A Rogue District Judge Forces a Confrontation with the Executive Branch
Kayla Bartsch: Planned Parenthood Is Not a Health Care Provider
Upcoming
The Guiding Star Project is holding a grand opening for a birth and wellness center in Tampa on August 9. See here for more.
The Heart of Christ clinic in Detroit will have its Courage Under Fire gala on September 11. Link here.
The Christian Alliance for Orphans annual summit is in Houston October 1-3. More here.
The Human Life Review’s Great Defender of Life Dinner is in NYC on November 7. Details are here.
Other Things
Brad Wilcox points to indications that men may be turning against pornography.
To mark the third anniversary of Dobbs in late June, the Celebrate Life celebration in Washington, D.C., included a diaper drive that collected 392,715 EveryLife diapers, in memory of the number of children whose lives ended in Planned Parenthood’s 2022–2023 annual report. Michele Venditto, director of strategic initiatives at Students for Life of America, told me: “The deliveries are taking place all summer. We gave out about 500 boxes of diapers at the actual rally, but we have been taking to churches and homeless shelter support. We started with our pregnancy help center partners and churches we work with — both to distribute them and to promote that the diapers were available. And we delivered to homeless shelters that work with families at risk.” Students for Life has ongoing “Summer of Service” events and plans to distribute the rest of the diapers during them. The goal of the events is both to serve and meet material needs, but also to let people know that “resources to help families exist. But people just don’t know,” Venditto says, pointing to their Standing with You website — www.standingwithyou.org –“just put in your zip code, and you can find help.”
EveryLife, by the way, is a pro-life, Christian diaper company and it is currently working with partners in Texas to provide a month’s supply of diapers for families in need of them who were affected by the devastating floods that killed so many young children — as we’ve seen and heard about with those agonized Camp Mystic families — and displaced so many others.
Speaking of those Camp Mystic girls and the counselors and staff and their families. All those precious souls. And about two girls who were swept away from their grandparents’ home:
Blair and Brooke Harber clung to each other as they were swept away by ravaging floods in Kerr County early Friday with rescuers discovering the bodies of the 11- and 13-year-old sisters from Dallas with rosaries and hands locked together, according to their aunt.
God love them all and keep them so close to His Heart.
Elise (Italiano) Ureneck: A Catholic mom’s case for reading (good) fiction
Imagine being the security guards who get to give Pope Leo babies to bless.
Forgive me, there is always so much to cover. We seek to give you some highlights, encouragement, and even details that may come in handy.
Thank you for reading. Please make sure you are getting this in your inbox, by signing up for the weekly email here. Please spread the word about this compendium of news and analysis and things to know — including upcoming events by sharing this and signing others up as well. And let me know what you are up to — as an individual, organization, community. Thank you. Let’s keep working and praying for a culture of life and civilization where no mother feels alone and desperate and men know how to step up to the plate of fatherhood — and do!
God bless you. I trust the nonbelievers among you don’t mind the prayers. We’re in this together for life.
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