When So-called Pro-lifers Are Hateful

I know, I know. Interdict got a bad name and is viewed as a tad heavy-handed and what with all the controversies, the bishops are ill-advised to behave in such a manner. Still, reading this blogpost from a group that styles itself pro-life, and watching this video of protesters harassing the graduating class and faculty at Gonzaga High School, the thought of an interdict crossed my mind.

The object of the so-called pro-lifers’ scorn was, of course, the appearance of Sr. Carol Keehan at the graduation ceremony. They shouted “Shame” at her and at Cardinal Theodore McCarrick as they entered the church for the ceremony. They evidently interrupted the proceedings inside as well. They carried signs with large photos of aborted fetuses. Is it just me, or do not these photos amount to an exploitation of an aborted fetus? There is a real tragedy here – a life has been lost – and they turn that into a poster or a bumper sticker. I understand that many pro-choice people do not consider just how gruesome a procedure an abortion is and prefer to avert their eyes. Still, that does not provide warrant for the exploitation of the child by reducing it to a prop in a political campaign. It is obscene.

I also like the reference to the health care law as “the Obama hell bill.” You wonder what these screamers would say to someone with a pre-existing condition who had been denied health insurance? Or to the Mom who works as a waitress at a small restaurant that can’t afford to provide healthy insurance to its employees? Or, to get right to the point, to the poor, young woman who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant but knows she can never afford financially to carry the child to term, but now can afford that child because of the provisions of the Pregnant Women Support Act that Sen. Bob Casey got into the health care law? What would you say to her?

Of course, if someone wanted to be really pro-life, they would do more than protest a high school graduation. They would actually take steps to help women facing crisis pregnancies. They would seek to care for the ill and the aged. They would, in short, dedicate themselves to the kind of work that has characterized the life of Sr. Carol Keehan.