While we are not busy promoting legislation to protect unborn persons in law, we will continue to support the thousands of crisis pregnancy centers and pregnancy aid centers that, at very great cost, provide real, on-the-ground alternatives for women in crisis pregnancies. We will continue to hold our spaghetti dinners (our Knights of Columbus Ladies Auxiliary raised a thousand dollars for our local Gabriel Project last week with a spaghetti dinners), we will continue to collect change and pass out lifesavers, we will continue our vehicle donation programs, we will continue to do all that we can, at considerable financial cost, to give real assistance to women so that they have real alternatives to procuring the death of their babies.
I dont' think that it can be argued that the availibilty for abortion didn't immediately increase it's demand.
When I was in 6th grade an eight grader became pregnant and saw her pregnancy through at a Catholic girl's home in Buffalo, NY. The year was 1967. Don't know if she gave birth to a boy or a girl, but she gave the child up for adoption. She went on to marry a fine man, have more children and live a generally happy life. In my mind, and in the mind of many of us small-towners, she was a hero because she extended her own right to life to her child.
Arguing that making abortion illegal would drive women back to the coat-hanger days is not a very effective one. You can always choose life, and in the US there is all manner of assistance open to you. Adherence to God's law on life, and courage are the only things the distressed girl needs to see herself through the hardship. The Church will help her any way she can.
Dear AlbionGirl,
The then-Eighth grader who did what you describe likely sleeps well at night, the sleep of the just.
" The Church will help her any way she can."
Yes, but it's not just, or even primarily the Church.
There are about 500 abortion mills in the United States. This is a major industry, generating the better part of a billion dollars per year in revenue. It is big business, and highly, highly profitable.
There are over 3000 crisis pregnancy and pregnancy aid centers in the United States. This is a major way of pouring large sums of money down the toilet, costing those who support them many millions of dollars in the aggregate. It is not a business at all. It is a money-losing proposition.
But the centers are there, ready to lend a hand, to give assistance, to help women find jobs, get benefits, learn householding, budgeting, and parenting. Giving temporary shelter, providing training, offering moral support, a shoulder to cry on. Nobody makes a damned dime off of them. The gentleman who is the Executive Director of our local Gabriel Project makes so little that his wife must work to make ends meet.
But folks do it. Millions of us. Each one of us sacrifices only a little (except for folks like the aforementioned Executive Director and his family). It's a few bucks here and there. I try to make it to the annual March for Life each year. A little activism, a little planning with the Knights for different events. Most of us play just a very small role. But it adds up.
It adds up to support for thousands and thousands of women in crisis.
It is about law, it is about legal protection.
But it isn't only about law and legal protection. It's also about directly assisting women who need our help.
sitetest
Errr, in 1967, abortion was not a legal option, and the only options I recall were marriage, going away and giving the baby up for adoption, or a back-alley abortion. None of those were regarded as "heroic" at that point in time; unwed pregnancy was shameful.