Given that the tactic used by the pro-abortion rights activists in 1970 was effective in achieving their stated goal of changing the law, it makes sense to follow their example. Any social change comes when the issue is raised in the public consciousness by demanding the government and/or courts right a perceived injustice. It's a proven technique that works.
But is walking across Canada and speaking to local groups and media the same thing as driving across with land in a moving 'billboard' pasted with pictures of aborted children?
Today's activists would probably say that the images that they are presenting before everyone are not different from the graphic images that fill today's TV screens on shows such as the CSI crime series. The level of gore is no doubt similar, but I've got to ask: If the organizers of this initiative had young children, would they want them watching these graphic images of death on TV? I wouldn't. Almost everyone I know wouldn't. The images are too violent and real for small minds and young hearts to endure. Innocence lasts only so long in life. I can't believe it's right or proper to strip it from children in such a public manner.
I find it hard to reconcile this reality with the dove-like behavior that must accompany any initiative that claims to be Christian.
There are places and ways of making the same point. Bring a video and graphic demonstration that can be brought to sites to put before age appropriate audiences. Speak in churches... address service groups... hold a news conference... but we must be certain not to harm innocents in our attempts to speak for the voiceless in Christ's name.
I am 100% pro-life, but I think this new caravan is a misguided idea. I wouldn't want to see the kids in my parish to suffer a visit should they be traveling through the province, that's for sure.
BIG BLUE WAVE: For Immediate Release: Anti-Abortion Activists Highjack Abortion Rights’ Pet Project
Abortion is a grim reality. Seeing graphic images can bring one to accept this reality…especially those who are intellectually or psychologically unwilling to admit the truth. It also brings forward a kind of indignation among half-hearted prolifers…those who live in a world where the abortion “issue” is an abstraction. The cure for “lofty talk” is “getting your hands dirty” with the issue. We need everyone to work together doing different things and doing all the sacrifices necessary to finally bring an end to the injustice of abortion.
ReplyDeleteIt is especially critical to show people the images of babies aborted in the first trimester. It is such children, who constitute 90% of abortion victims. We must expose the myth that they are not really children at all.
The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform is not new to this king of work. It works!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0pocnuK3XAc
Unlike contraception and divorce, which enjoy almost universal moral acceptability among all segments of the population, according to the latest Gallup polls, abortion is considered morally unacceptable by the majority of Americans.
DeleteWe know however, simply from the number of abortions performed and who gets them, that even if it is an agonizing choice, it is a popular one and that contrary to popular belief, most abortions are procured by married women, of a relatively mature age, who already have children at home.
Catholic Women's religious groups work tirelessly to increase food security, shelter security and freedom from domestic violence among economically challenged women and their children and are demonized by men religious for it. Men religious, commonly perceived by the general public, including Catholic laity, to be composed primarily of pseudo celibate, homosexual pedophiles, simply want to criminalize abortion and punish poor women.
Do you really think that waving around pictures of bloody dead fetuses is going to bring about the kind of results you desire? LOL.
So we really know one thing. People that need abortions choose to get them, whether they want them or not. Abortion then, may be primarily a choice of economics and based upon the impact that another child will have upon the mother and not one based on disregard for the child. Indeed, many women have abortions based on grave concern for the future welfare of the prospective child and that of the children that they already have at home.
There will be no significant change in the numbers of abortions performed whether they are legal or illegal until economically challenged women live in secure enough circumstances to raise their children in an adequate manner. We know this because similar numbers of women have abortions whether it is legal or illegal where they live. the great lengths that women in illegal jurisdictions go to, the penalties they risk and the medical dangers that they endure. I guess the position of the pro life movement would be to lower the expectations of economically challenged mothers as to the care, nutrition and shelter of their children.
Anon: Bunk! You set up a straw man argument and then beat the stuffing out of it! In doing so you are one who is assigning a price to a human life... putting it into the balance to be measured against a better cable TV package or a nicer car. I don't measure human life with such a banal calculus. No one in the pro-life community does either.
DeleteFr. Tim
I make no price on human life but simply point out that it is one many women will continue to pay.
DeleteI find your assumption that poor women live lives of affluence with automobiles and cable TV packages at their disposal amusing. You need to spend some time in the real World, my Falstaffian friend.
“Do you really think that waving around pictures of bloody dead fetuses is going to bring about the kind of results you desire? LOL.”
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Obviously, you have little experience with this kind of work. LOL.
However, you do have a point about it being off putting. Yeah, abortion is off putting. Pictures of dead people are gross and disgusting, but not nearly as gross as actually supporting the practice of live human dismemberment. The judicious use of graphic media in appropriate places like college campuses, the public square, and various public events with some kind of abortion connection is very effective. This is why so many of the larger and experienced pro-life activist organizations support the practice. They have position statements that explain the ethics of these tactics if you are interested. They were written especially for people like you Anonymous.
The use of graphic images at the entrances to abortion facilities has mixed or negative impacts on last minute deterrence results. Some may say it is better than nothing if sidewalk counseling is unavailable. (Personally, I would not recommend the use there…a simple prayerful presence works better.)