{"id":2139,"date":"2013-01-29T11:03:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T11:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/law-professor-says-pro-life-views-must-lead-to-cultural-action\/"},"modified":"2013-01-29T11:03:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T11:03:00","slug":"law-professor-says-pro-life-views-must-lead-to-cultural-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/01\/law-professor-says-pro-life-views-must-lead-to-cultural-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Law professor says pro-life views must lead to cultural action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Washington D.C., Jan 29, 2013 \/ 04:03 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Americans who wish to be truly pro-life must be willing to examine the philosophical and cultural implications of these views, said George Mason University law professor Helen Alvar\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\tBeing involved in the pro-life movement, she said, \u201cwill lead you places where you\u2019ll be surprised to go, because abortion is not a single issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAlvar\u00e9 delivered the keynote address at the Cardinal O\u2019Connor Conference on Life on Jan. 26, explaining to participants that if they want to \u201ckeep the integrity\u201d of their positions, they must be willing to take action on social and philosophical issues connected to abortion.<\/p>\n

\tHosted annually at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the Cardinal O\u2019Connor Conference for Life is the largest student-run pro-life conference in the United States.<\/p>\n

\tAlvar\u00e9, who was speaking at the conference for the third time since it began in 2000, told the 650 student participants that being pro-life may lead them to investigate the modern understanding of human rights and freedom.<\/p>\n

\tIn typical human rights discourse, she observed, weakness and disability are seen as a reason to extend \u201cgreater care\u201d to people, \u201cnot as a premise for their destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHowever, under current abortion laws, she noted, it is permissible for the vulnerable to be killed \u201cwhen you\u2019re killed by a member of your own family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAlvar\u00e9 explained that this radical re-imagining of human rights hinges on a revised definition of freedom as action without imposition or inconvenience from anyone else. But this definition, she warned, would eventually \u201ctake us to a really, really sorry place\u201d where any kind of human relation is seen as an imposition upon freedom.<\/p>\n

\tParadoxically, she noted, women do not walk into an abortion clinic \u201cfeeling empowered\u201d or free, but rather feeling like they have no other options.<\/p>\n

\tThe assumption that motherhood is \u201cunacceptable\u201d has made women dependent on abortion, she said, and this dependence has been enshrined in U.S. laws and culture so deeply that the Supreme Court has said that \u201cwomen cannot order their lives\u201d without abortion on-demand.
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\tA pro-life position will also lead one to reconsider the ethical, class and race issues surrounding abortion, Alvar\u00e9 observed.<\/p>\n

\tAbortion advocates such as Sandra Fluke and Cecile Richards present abortion as a tool for relieving the economic burden on poor and minority women, she noted, but in reality, the cultural misunderstanding of sex has harmed the poor.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSex is not just tennis,\u201d Alvar\u00e9 reminded the students, adding that sexual intimacy cannot be purely recreational.<\/p>\n

\tSex produces babies \u2013 a fact that is often ignored \u2013 and is also for bonding and forming relationships, she explained. After more than four decades of promoting unrestricted contraception and abortion, there are still troubling rates of single motherhood and women in poverty, she said.<\/p>\n

\tRather than empower women, Alvar\u00e9 underscored, the push for free contraceptives and abortions has made the situation worse, contributing to increased levels of\u00a0 infidelity, sexually-transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies among poor and minority populations.<\/p>\n

\tBoth Republicans and Democrats have contributed to the current state of affairs by aggressively promoting domestic and international contraception programs, she added.<\/p>\n

\tBy equating \u201csexual expression\u201d with freedom, she said, politicians gain \u201callegiance on the cheap,\u201d while failing to address the real problems of unwed parenthood and severe economic crises.<\/p>\n

\tThe pro-life movement can benefit society, Alvar\u00e9 said, through efforts to help members of all classes and cultures to \u201cform stable families and take care of one another and their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tWhile acknowledging that such a commitment is not always easy, she added that each individual can make a difference in his or her daily life, simply by \u201cgoing where a pro-life conviction takes you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington D.C., Jan 29, 2013 \/ 04:03 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Americans who wish to be truly pro-life must be willing to examine the philosophical and cultural implications of these views, said George Mason University law professor Helen Alvaré.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nLaw professor says pro-life views must lead to cultural action<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Jan 29, 2013 \/ 04:03 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Americans who wish to be truly pro-life must be willing to examine the philosophical and cultural implications of these views, said George Mason University law professor Helen Alvaré. ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/01\/law-professor-says-pro-life-views-must-lead-to-cultural-action\/\" \/>\n<meta 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