Really want to end abortion? Then heal sexual brokenness

As pro-life advocates lament Ohio’s decision to enshrine abortion in its constitution, I’m reminded of a Catholic high school pro-life seminar I covered several months ago, and what it revealed about our incomplete approach to the issue.

The event brought hundreds of students in a dreary auditorium to hear ministry leaders earnestly describe their approaches to ending abortion — the only pro-life issue on the agenda.

Some panelists extolled prayer and sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics; others stressed providing impoverished, abortion-vulnerable women with material support: housing, medical care, job training, etc. Another speaker urged the students to vote pro-life.

The teens listened politely but without enthusiasm.

Then a Sister of Life took the microphone, walked into the audience and looked around at the students. “I want to tell you what the real problem is when it comes to abortion,” she said to them. “And that is, I just don’t think you know how much Jesus loves you.”

Suddenly, the teens were paying attention; in less than 10 seconds, that sister had hauled the pro-life issue from the mire of politics, social justice, religious infighting and sexual ideology, and placed it back where it belongs: at the feet of the Lord, in that small sacred space between Creator and creature.

Being pro-life wasn’t a matter of simply marching in demonstrations, collecting donations and hosting prayer vigils, the sister said. Rather, it flowed from understanding who we are in Christ, and what God’s intention is for our enfleshed souls and for human sexuality.

In an era of profound sexual brokenness, Catholics desperately need to give such courageous and comprehensive witness. Without that, we cannot hope to end the scourge of abortion and every other attack on human dignity that manifests itself through the misuse of our sexuality.

The pro-life battle for hearts doesn’t start at the threshold of the abortion clinic, and it doesn’t end at courtrooms or state legislatures. Planned Parenthood founder (and ardent eugenicist) Margaret Sanger recognized the limitations of the law in regulating human sexual behavior. In “The Pivot of Civilization,” her 1922 manifesto for birth control she railed against “idealists and reformers who think that by the ballot society may be led to an earthly paradise.”

Everywhere, humans are struggling with deep sexual confusion and woundedness, and with deadly consequences. More than 64 million abortions have taken place in this country since the procedure was legalized in 1973. Globally, some 73 million abortions are performed each year. That’s about 6 million higher than the planet’s total annual deaths in 2022, and 5.1 million more than the current population of the nation of France.

Meanwhile, the pornographic industry in the U.S., which grew almost 12 percent from 2017-2022, rakes in over $1.1 billion in annual revenue. Some 4.5 million people worldwide, many of them children, are exploited by sex traffickers. An estimated 736 million women (almost one in three) across the globe have experienced sexual violence, most commonly due to a spouse or intimate partner – and that total does not include those who have been subjected to sexual harassment. In the U.S., 1.6 million people ages 13 and up consider themselves as transgender; almost one in five are ages 13 to 17.

None of that data mirrors what God had in mind when he gifted us with human sexuality. As Catholics, our faith challenges us to know and to do better, for ourselves and for humankind.

Before we can say we are truly pro-life, we need to undertake, both individually and collectively, a thorough sexual examen, and ponder the ways we have (or haven’t) stewarded our sexuality, regardless of our state in life.

We need to teach more effectively about chastity, which derives from the cardinal virtue of temperance and which enables us to attain an inner unity of body and soul.

We need to accompany our youth as they develop sexually, and not forfeit that task to Instagram.

We need to reach out to the single and the divorced, and to those who are confused about their sexuality, rather than leaving them to figure things out via TikTok.

We need to minister to those who have been sexually abused (whether by our own clergy or by others) and work to recognize potential abusers before they become offenders.

Mostly, as a society, we need to grow up, stop treating our gift of sexuality like a ramshackle playground and look at it from a holistic, “body, mind and spirit” — dare I say “trinitarian” perspective. We must demonstrate a little humility before our Maker, that we might stand tall in the fullness of our humanity, living out our dignity as sons and daughters of God — and ensuring that others can do the same.

“The Pivot of Civilization” may be read at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1689/1689-h/1689-h.htm.

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