Today's events have overshadowed everything else for the moment, and I have some comments.
First of all, if this had been the last instead of the only action in a series of real efforts to improve America's pro-family and pro-life efforts, we would have something to celebrate.
If overturning Roe was the last, instead of the only action, we would have a nationwide living wage that was more than adequate to support grownups and kids.
If it was the last, instead of the only action, families would not be forced to bankrupt themselves caring for a sick child or other family member because every family would have guaranteed health care.
If it was the last, instead of the only action, mothers and fathers would each have paid maternity/paternity leave for at least the first six months of the baby's life.
If it was the last, instead of the only action, education from Pre-K through college would be free at point of service.
If it was the last, instead of the only action, the "pro-life" Republican Party would have proven that it actually cares about families and children with all those other actions, but the opposite is true. It has proven that it is hostile to families, hostile to children, hostile to the poor, the elderly, the disabled. It fights against all those actions I have listed.
The other industrialized nations take much better care of their citizens than we do, despite having far less wealth and natural resources than our country holds. Our citizens struggle to put food on the table and a roof over their heads, while a handful of greedy corporate overlords is so bored and sated with life that they take vacations in outer space. The people who created the wealth with their work do not get their fair share of the wealth that they worked for. They are wage slaves.
It is no wonder that most women cite financial hardship as a reason for their abortion. We live in a culture that is hostile to children and families.
Forget for a moment the financial impossibility of raising a child on a food service workers salary. Women's bodies have always been under attack. Every war involves the rape and unwilling impregnation of women. From their own households where countless children are raped by family members, to the rape by coercion during a date, to the workplace where employers make it clear that the woman will be fired if she does not give the boss sex, I have experienced all of these myself and I know how very common it all is, how dirty and hopeless it makes you feel, and how impossible it is to keep one's sanity while at the same time being forced to carry a growing thing within yourself that is put there by force. For the woman in this position, it is not a baby. It is a hostile invader, a parasite, a daily reminder of the humiliation, shame and trauma. But do these "pro life warriors" who go to war against these women give a damn about any of that? No. Women remain the spoils of war.
The big lie underneath all this is that the party that claims to be "pro-life" is nothing more than an agency that works on behalf of the wealthy overlord class. In a deliberate, cynical ploy to get voters to agree to remain poor and to work as wage slaves so that the rich can get richer, it lies and says it cares about babies and families. It lies and says it is "pro life."
Lying is how it routinely does business. Each of Trump's Supreme Court appointees lied in their confirmation hearing testimony. They claimed adherence to the doctrine of stare decisis and that Roe was established law, so they would respect that and Roe wasn't in their sites. But the first thing we heard from them thereafter was a leaked document that the doctrine of stare decisis would be trashed and Roe would be overturned, and today we get the final draft. Instead of respecting stare decisis, they have thrown out the principle of adhering to precedent. Because they have a political agenda, everything that has gone before is now up for grabs, despite their assurances that this would not happen.
I used to vote across both parties. I used to believe that both parties consisted of people of good will that were trying to better the country and that I could vote either Republican or Democrat, based upon the issue under discussion at the moment, but I can no longer do that. I have lost all respect for the politicians in the Republican Party, with the exception of a very small number of men and women who have distinguished themselves recently with their honesty, ethics, and (frankly) bravery in calling out their fellow Republican politicians.
When I watched the interviews with weepy but jubilant "pro-life" demonstrators, crowing about their "victory" using a variety of triumphal language, the journalists would often ask them how they feel about the people whose lives have been upended by this action by a radical right wing political set of jurists. Not one of them had a shred of understanding or compassion for the girls and women against whom they had just effected a hostile takeover.
One woman blithely talked about adoption and I wondered how SHE would like to spend 9 months carrying the offspring of a violent rapist? Besides which, who is going to pay the medical bills for the women and babies? Who will support them when they can no longer work?
The biggest lie of all is that overturning Roe will save those "dear precious babies." What it will do is push women into back alley abortions (again) and into amateur self-surgery with knitting needles or crochet hooks. Those who have the money and the connections and resources to travel hundreds of miles to another state where it remains legal (for now) will avail themselves of it. My point is that abortions have always been available and always will be. "Pro-life" activists are kidding themselves if they think they are saving the babies.
As before mentioned, if the GOP really cared about children and families, it would not have pushed so hard against the social programs that could have helped them. It would not have worked to keep wages low. It would not have worked so hard to give tax breaks to the rich. They did not want to pay for pro-family measures and they continue to try to rip social security out from under the elderly who paid into it for DECADES which, if they succeed, will leave people like me on the streets. The underlying, consistent theme is NOT "pro-life," it is pro-rich guy. The "pro life" aspect is a hook to catch gullible voters.
I predict that the number of children that are born through forced compliance will be smaller than the number of women and babies that die as a result of either back-alley abortions, suicide, or self-surgery misadventure.
Anyone reading this may (incorrectly) assume that I am pro-abortion. I am not. I am simply able to have compassion and empathy for people other than myself who live in ways other than the way in which I live and who have a point of view that I do not share. I respect, also, that the USA is a country that was founded on freedom of religion. It is one of the main reasons why the original settlers came from Europe. They were living under a repressive religious autocracy.
My personal philosophy around sex life is formed by my life experiences which have taught me that women are always the losers when they have sex outside of marriage, and that unwanted pregnancies are only one of the many problems that arise when people treat sex as if it was an entertainment. My solution for the huge number of abortions performed in America would be partially ameliorated by a return to the custom of waiting to have sex until one is married. But I realize that you cannot force people to live in a way they do not agree with, nor should we WANT to do that in a country supposedly founded on freedom of religion.
Obviously, this issue is complex, and a lot of different people have opinions about this. The philosophical differences are huge - and neither side seems positioned to even begin to try and understand the other, which brings up my final point:
Whatever happened to evangelization?
Jesus never advocated for a takeover of the government. In fact, the opposite is true. Neither did he recommend that his followers use force to make people comply with his commandments. He told them to kick the sand from their feet and move on. That is all. These "pro life warriors" have done the exact opposite of what Jesus commanded. They work against the social programs that sound a LOT like Jesus's commandment to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, etc., and instead of evangelizing the culture, they go to war against it.
None of this looks like anything Jesus would recognize. It is hypocritical - something which non-Christians have noticed. If they disliked Christians before this era, they despise them now - because of the lying, manipulation, hate-filled bullying, and general hypocrisy. The manner in which one does things is important, and it is not ok to commit the evil of lying and manipulation in order to get something done that you consider to be "good." Catholics know this. It is in the catechism. Apparently, other types of Christians do not care about it.
If our culture is the opposite of something Jesus would like to see, the blame for that does not lay with the "lefties." We failed to evangelize. We failed to demonstrate the glory of Jesus Christ. We consistently behave in unholy ways and we are responsible for this culture becoming more and more pagan.
Instead of crowing about how we "won" this culture war and overturned Roe, we should be on our knees, with apologies on our lips, for how poorly we have evangelized this nation and how badly we have treated one another, in direct disobedience to Jesus commands. We have forced a standard of behavior onto non-Christians using lies and manipulation instead of evangelizing.
In the end, few, if any, lives will be saved. The conditions in which the poor live will be far worse, and the rich guys at the top of the pyramid will continue to take vacations in outer space. It is mind boggling. With all the resentment that has built up against hypocritical Christians, is evangelization even POSSIBLE now?
The solution? Each of us need to do better, be better, follow Him better, and be better examples than we have been. No one will listen to us otherwise, if they will listen to us at all after this.
May we all be blessed!
Sannyasini Kaliprana
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