For many people being Pro-life is a stance. However, if you are just standing still, you are not part of the movement. What struck the match that started the fire for me to do more than just pray at home and in church for the unborn? It isn’t the shortest story, but it’s mine and here it is.
I turned 18 in the year 2000 and exercised my right to vote for GW Bush, the prolife candidate. The peacekeeper in me felt very betrayed, however when talk came about using military force in Iraq before peaceful resolutions had been exhausted and weapons of mass destruction had been confirmed. I prayed and petitioned not only God, but the government. Peace is patriotic, keep our soldiers safe at home! But to my dismay the conflict became official on my birthday, March 20th. What a sour taste for my naiveté in politics! I decided that I would no longer be a one issue voter (abortion being the issue). After all, with all the back and forth between the two parties seemed like not much could really change. Abortion is really a battle to be fought on moral grounds changing hearts, not in the political arena, or so I thought. Life goes on.
In 2008, there was another election . . . Obama was on the ballot. Catholics were divided as usual. My husband and I generally agree politically. We consider ourselves independent. My husband and I followed the pre-election with interest, we liked things about McCain and Obama both. My conservative older brother starts harassing me, forwarding me gruesome videos of abortions like I’m pro-abortion. He sent me an email forward with the sentiment that anyone who votes for Obama will have the blood of millions of babies dripping off their fingers before God. I was infuriated. Just because I’m not a one issue voter, I’m treated like a pro-abort? I don’t want to get into all the details deciding who to vote for, but we were weighing our options we weren’t out campaigning for Obama!
But even though I loathed how my oldest brother was treating me, it made me think. Actions speak louder than words, do any of my actions really speak to my passionate pro-life stance? I was really out of touch with the entire issue.
Sometime later, as I wrapped up a season of church league softball, I saw an ad in our church bulletin about “40 Days for Life.” It is a peaceful prayer vigil making a difference in the fight against abortion. They pray outside of the abortion facility. Where is it? Very close to the softball park I played at once a week. It was a sign. Not conveniently located, clear across town (Boise 30 min), but if I can make the drive once a week for softball I can do it for this, after all it is life or death! And really, I kind of rejoiced that they aren’t very conveniently located.
So there it started and I have been trying to arm myself with information ever since. I realized that under President Obama Planned Parenthood (leading abortion provider in the US) has had an increase in funding of 34% from the government. They (PP) were given $542 million in 2011 and as far as I can tell every year since from the federal government. Planned Parenthood specifically is responsible for over 900 deaths per day. I pay taxes and it makes my stomach turn to realize how I involuntarily support abortion. Is this religious freedom, being forced to violate my conscience with my tax money? That is a topic for another post. Suffice to say that while we must ferociously love to change hearts, we must also never give up the fight politically. And in this case, my brother was right. Because it took me getting mad to take action, to get off the sidelines, and to join the movement.