Abortion Kills a Child. That’s Why I Oppose It.

I oppose abortion for one reason: Abortion kills a living child. 

That’s it. 

I don’t have any other reason for opposing abortion. If abortion didn’t kill a living child, I would not oppose it. In fact, if abortion did not kill a living child, then opposing it would be wrong. 

But I do not just oppose abortion. I am pro life. That means I also oppose the misogyny, violence and discrimination (both legal and social discrimination) that leads to abortion. I believe that the sanctity of human life extends from conception to natural death, and that it includes all people.

Abortion is wrong because it is wrong to kill people. At a more basic level even than that, abortion is wrong because people matter. 

Human life matters because human beings matter. White people matter. Black people matter. Brown people matter. Men matter. Women matter. Children matter. Old people matter. 

Dementia doesn’t change that. Male and female doesn’t change it. Race doesn’t change it. Age doesn’t change it. Disability doesn’t change it. Poverty doesn’t change it. Wealth doesn’t change it. Power doesn’t change it. Powerlessness doesn’t change it. 

Human beings matter. 

I favor laws that support the sanctity of human life, including ending abortion, and I’ve got the scars to prove it. By the same token, ignoring or fighting public health restrictions in a worldwide pandemic is wrong because it kills human beings. Human beings are made in the Image and Likeness of God. Human beings matter. 

Lying is wrong because all human beings deserve the truth. We know lying is wrong because Jesus specifically singled lying out. He even called Satan the father of lies. Rape is wrong — every bit as wrong as abortion — because it is an attack on the humanity of half the human race and it is a direct attack on maternity, and on Our Lady. Rape is an attack on the life force itself, a kind of murder. 

Cheating, stealing, corruption, bullying are wrong because they deny the sovereignty of God Who says they are wrong, because they create poverty, destroy justice and lead to despair. Cheating, stealing, corruption and bullying destroy the common good which allows people to live together in peace.

Greed is wrong because it is idolatry of money. It is wrong because it deprives other people of the goods of life. Greed leads inevitably to other sins against God and humanity. 

Human beings are unique because we are free. We are moral agents. We can do good, and we can do great harm. We are the only creatures on this planet who can do evil. Because we can chose. Because we understand the consequences of our choices. Because we can know. We can think and understand. We can plan and remember. We can communicate with one another through the generations by the written word. We can build on what we know. We can chose. We can decide. 

We don’t just kill. We murder. We don’t just breed. We rape. We don’t just use. We steal and hoard and deprive others, and ultimately, we destroy. We exploit, deprive and kill. We share, love, help and build. 

We are moral agents. We can choose. 

We can sin. 

That is the signifier, the burden and the privilege of being made in the Image and Likeness of God. 

Abortion is wrong because it kills a living child. 

But this same right to life belongs to every human being, not just the unborn. You can’t kill people. 

You can’t cheat people, steal from people, lie to people, rape people, subject people to discrimination, deprive people of the goods of life, impoverish people to feed your greed. You can’t in any way reduce a human being made in the Image and Likeness of the Living God to a thing or a chattel. 

Catholics adore the Eucharist. We treat it with utmost respect. The thing we sometimes forget is that the unborn child, the elderly person with dementia, the raped girl, the murdered black man, the impoverished child searching through garbage for food, are the Eucharist in human flesh. 

If you do it to the least of these, you do it to Me, Jesus told us. 

Being pro life is an expression of that. It is not confined to politics and its end game is not making abortion illegal. “Pro life” is a simple political slogan expressing in two words the most basic teaching of Christ. 

People are the Eucharist. 

And you may not kill, cheat, lie to, steal from, exploit, rape, or deliberately harm them for your own selfish purposes.