As I sit down to write this column, I’m aware that so much of the news today is about abortion. As usual, the arguments are along the same lines. Pro-abortion groups argue for a woman’s right to choose. Pro-life groups argue for a baby’s right to life.
As you might imagine, I am pro-life. And I think that the question not asked in these debates is this: “What would the baby choose?”
Obviously, we can’t interview the fetus, but we can ask a challenging question: “How many people wish they had been aborted?”
I’ve never heard that question asked in surveys. Perhaps it has been. I imagine most people would say that they are glad to be alive.
Despite the poverty I was born into, I’m glad my mother chose life. Growing up in a poor and “broken family” is far better than not having a chance to grow up at all.
My family, as I’ve shared before, really was the church. Father Francis Wagner, at my home parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Essex, especially looked out for me. He would always ask me to serve Mass at funerals because he would take the servers out to breakfast afterward. He always asked me to serve weddings. In those days, someone often gave a tip to the servers. He knew our family could use any money.
As an aside, I think I told the story before of how I would try to disguise my voice in going to confession to him so he wouldn’t know who I was. Invariably when I finished confessing, he would remind me about another funeral or wedding with which he needed help. My disguise never worked.
In truth, most people like to help other people. The decision to choose life is also a decision to allow others to help us in life.
I have no desire to make people who have had abortions feel worse about themselves. God forgives even our most terrible choices, and we need to forgive ourselves and others.
We need judges to keep life orderly. We need compassion to make life bearable.
In the seminary, Sulpician Father James Brennan always emphasized in his canon law class to “be kind, be kind, be kind.” We want to be pro-life. We want to be pro-kindness!
