This July 4th, instead of going to the fireworks display in our town, my wife and I scrolled the channels for the best fireworks coverage on TV, and landed on PBS, broadcasting from Washington D.C. The program featured a variety of popular musicians and entertainers singing and playing our country’s great anthems, like “America the Beautiful,” “God Bless America,” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Its host was country music singer Mickey Guyton, who radiated joyfulness throughout the evening, closing out the pre-fireworks program with her song, “All-American” (see above), the refrain of which is: “Ain’t we all, ain’t we all American?“ We were then treated to a spectacular fireworks display from the National Mall, bracketed by the Lincoln Memorial on one end, and the Washington Monument on the other. All through out the broadcast, the cameras panned the crowd, an eclectic mix of young and old, black, white, Latino, Asian—all smiling, waving flags, and singing patriotic songs. For ninety glorious minutes, unlike SO much of our shrill political discourse, our differences didn’t matter—we simply celebrated our country’s birthday with pride. I was moved by it.
That image is still with me, even as we enter into a new set of political circumstances regarding our nation’s most divisive social issue, abortion.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, declaring that abortion is no longer a “constitutional right,” but must be decided by each state legislature, is a a great victory for the pro-life movement! I was eleven years old when Roe was decided in 1973, and I never thought I’d see it overturned in my lifetime. I share in the euphoria of the pro-life movement in its reversal.
But I’ve read a lot of articles since, written by pro-life supporters, reminding us that “war" is not yet won, that we must now take the “battle” to each state legislature, and to metaphorically “gird up our loins” for the “fight” ahead in our state legislatures.
I agree there is much work still to do! But may I suggest we not frame the future in terms of warfare? The thing about a war is it automatically casts an “enemy,” and by gearing ourselves up for battle, we encourage the other side to gear up similarly. The issue is reduced to “us vs. them,” a matter of winning or losing.
I believe we will make more progress if we begin by what we share in common, and work from there.
I am not naive. I realize there are polarized extremes in this debate who scream at each other. There are political operatives that use the issue to foment dissent and acrimony for political advantage. But for the vast majority of America in the middle—people who don’t like screaming—I believe there is much we can work on together that begins to change the hearts and minds of our citizens. Building a culture of life is a long term proposition!
I’m talking about things like this: Can we not all support crisis pregnancy centers that serve poor women, that among other things, help women understand how to get Medicaid insurance for pre-natal care and delivery? That give her emotional support, especially if she is in an abusive relationship? Can we not reform foster care laws in this country to protect foster parents from the natural parents changing their mind—one of the reasons foster parents often adopt in other countries? Can we not make men more accountable for the children they sire, insisting that pregnancy is mutual responsibility for both the mother and the father? Are we willing to truly tackle educational reform, so that young mothers and fathers have hope for their futures, and don’t feel “trapped” in their own helplessness and poverty? Can we not work for a society that promotes the nobility of families, helping homes become more stable, with children guided by a fatherly and motherly presence?
It seems to me these are worthy goals, and by tackling them together, where-ever our starting point, we move closer to building a culture of life that allows us to pass legislation that protects life in all of its developmental stages, from the pre-born to the very old. Would that one day the very idea of exterminating our young was morally repugnant to all!
So yes, let’s work for laws which prohibit abortion in each of our states! But let us cast as wide a net as possible in building an alliance toward that end!
The motto of our country is "E Pluribus Unum,” which translates, "out of the many, one." May God's grace help us work in union with all people of good will to tackle this issue which has so divided us.
