‘Keep your rosaries off my ovaries’ – pretty much the unofficial motto for pro-choice counter protestors, as they protest against pro-life protestors who try to stop women outside clinics from having abortions. When I first heard about counter protestors, I initially dismissed them as ‘narrow minded people who just want to find an excuse to go against anything related to the Catholic Church’. However, in more recent times, I have begun to ask myself ‘As a Catholic and more specifically, as someone who wants to follow the teachings of Jesus, have they actually got a point here?’
To give you a bit more context, the first time I heard about protestors outside abortion clinics was at the end of a Mass in 2011. This particular group was called ’40 Days for Life’. At the time, I felt what they were doing was right, because they tried to stop women from having abortions, and in turn, help save lives. I thought the counter protestors were wrong, quite unfair and disrespectful with the slogans.
However, as time has passed, I have begun to realise a few things. Firstly, abortion is an incredibly sensitive issue, and it really needs to be treated that way too. I feel especially in this day and age, it has become such a polarizing issue, that you have to either be on one side or another. It is important that people begin to discuss the issue in a civilised and respectful manner, and not get into heated debates the whole time. Therefore, I still believe saying things such as ‘Get your rosaries off my ovaries’ is wrong, despite how angry people may feel, as it will only make the situation worse. I will probably expand more on this paragraph in a separate piece.
In addition, this Thursday, someone who has been involved in pro-life work is coming to my church’s Confirmation Class to give a talk. For the past few months, I have tried to prepare myself for this talk by educating myself more about the issue of abortion, and by trying to search for the truths surrounding the whole issue.
One thing I certainly do believe now is that standing outside an abortion clinic is certainly not the right approach. There are more effective and constructive ways in which people can ‘defend life’. Yes, there have been many women who have decided against having an abortion as a result of encountering these protestors. Nevertheless, there have also been many women who felt harassed, intimidated and stressed out after encountering these protestors, to the point where it was the complete opposite of being ‘pro-life’. There are several reasons why I think it is wrong. I will also give reasons based on what Jesus taught because a large chunk of the protestors are Catholic.
First of all, let’s look at this rationally. One of the most important things we must ALL realise is that no woman would ever want to experience having an abortion during her life. For many women, they feel at their most vulnerable as they are about to have an abortion. Now imagine you are a woman about to have an abortion. You’re going to have an abortion for whatever reason and you feel like complete shit. You’re not religious at all, and you think religious people are just a bunch of crazy nutjobs. Considering that there are many women who are not religious, and there are many protestors outside clinics who are religious, this scenario does sound pretty plausible. Now what makes you think their opinion will suddenly change when they encounter a bunch of protestors outside a clinic holding rosaries, pictures of Jesus and Mary, and banners saying ‘ABORTION KILLS’?
As I have looked deeper into the issue, some of the tactics these protestors use are wrong too, to the point where they may scaremonger and guilt trip many women. No woman should ever be demonized if she decides to have an abortion, but instead, shown as much love and support as possible to help her through a difficult time. And in all honesty, having this black and white attitude, with statements such as ‘It is not a choice’ is very insensitive. Try telling that to a rape victim. Frankly, it was not her choice to get raped in the first place. In addition, many women may be feeling suicidal with the circumstances of their pregnancy, and none of the protestors know about their circumstances or personal life. So standing outside a clinic trying to guilt trip a woman from having an abortion, or demonizing them, from a ‘pro-life’ perspective is not really pro-life, and a complete invasion of privacy.
Now to look at it from a more ‘theological’ perspective, and what Jesus had to say on it. I have tried to thoroughly dissect this point, and argue against it to question its credibility. I feel it has now gotten to a point where you would probably have to defy basic logic in order to disagree with the validity of this statement. The fact is that Jesus did not mention a SINGLE THING about abortion in the Gospels. However, Jesus said explicitly he was against praying on street corners, as Matthew 6:5 states:
‘When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full.’
One of the main things pro-life charities such as ’40 Days for Life’ and ‘The Good Counsel Network’ do for their protests is have public prayer vigils. Therefore, when you look at it, Jesus would have been against this.
Let’s begin to break this down. ‘They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them.’ Pro-life protestors have prayer vigils outside clinics on street corners. One of the arguments, as mentioned here, is that Jesus and his fellow apostles also prayed in public. However, their main intention was to talk with God. Meanwhile, the pro-life protestors’ main intention is to be seen by the people around them, especially the women going for an abortion, in the hope that they can change their mind. Therefore the intention of them to be seen on the street corners, according to Jesus, is wrong. If their main intention was to pray to God, why don’t they have their anti-abortion vigils at church instead?
Then, I began to question whether Matthew 6:5 had any real relevance. I was once told by someone something along the lines of ‘When you read a passage of the Bible, it is important to read the whole passage, otherwise it may be taken out of context.’ There are also many minor things in the Bible that Christians usually ignore, such as not eating shellfish for example. What I found interesting was that the passage following Matthew 6:5 led to The Lord’s Prayer, also known as the ‘Our Father’. This is one of the most important Catholic prayers; therefore you would assume that this passage is pretty relevant! Considering the Catholic Church see themselves as the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church founded by Jesus Christ, you would assume that logically, they would prioritise the teachings Jesus EXPLICITY mentioned in the Gospels, over issues Jesus did not say anything about.
What I find most ironic and hypocritical of all though, is that during the protests, these groups will also hold pictures of Jesus as if he would have agreed with what they were doing, when he was completely against it. Then the non-religious people will get pissed off with Jesus and think ‘He’s a bit of a dick,’ when he really was not. If you wanted some consistency, if they think abortion breaks the fifth commandment of ‘Thou shalt not murder’, then they themselves are technically breaking the eighth commandment of ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbour’. Reminds me of the saying ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’. In addition to this, they will also say rosaries. Funnily enough, one of the main prayers of the rosary IS the ‘Our Father’. This is where I now start to see that although the statement ‘Keep your rosaries off my ovaries’ may be a bit disrespectful, frankly, the rosaries should not be anywhere near the street corners outside abortion clinics in the first place!
However, many priests, and even bishops join these vigils and protests. They all have way more theological knowledge than I ever will so for me to say something like this will sound completely ridiculous to many Catholics out there. However, I was reassured when I found out Archbishop Blasé Cupich did not allow priests or seminarians to join in these vigils when he was Archbishop of Spokane in the U.S, which angered many pro-lifers.
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It was all good me sitting at home and coming up with these views when I had not experienced what protestors outside abortion clinics were like first hand. Therefore, a few weeks ago, I decided to observe from a distance one of these protest/vigils and decide for myself if they were doing more harm or good. This particular vigil was done by The Good Counsel Network outside the Marie Stopes Clinic in Warren Street. I only decided to stay around for about half an hour, simply because I have far better things to do with my life. The plan was to see how they approached people going inside the clinic, and to see how these people reacted, and afterwards, speak to the protestors and get to know more about what they do.
As I walked down to see what was going on, what I found interesting was that the two people outside the clinic were both MEN (and the third one who came to replace the second guy who said the rosary). I am not saying that men should never have a say in the debate on abortion (what the fuck am I doing writing this?!), but logically, as men will never be in that position to consider having an abortion, I feel that the sensitivity, compassion, and empathy Jesus showed in the Gospels is reduced when they approach women who are in an extremely vulnerable position such as this. During the half hour I was there, admittedly it was not too busy. I’d say only about four people went past. Most of them ignored the man giving leaflets. There was a woman with someone who went into the clinic. She covered her face and the person with her tried to avoid the man as he thrusted a leaflet into their face. Straight away, my heart told me that this approach was wrong. I strongly believe that the message of Jesus was more about love and compassion, and not something that would increase the pain and suffering one has to go through.
I then decided to speak to the man with leaflets. Before this, I said a prayer to give me the courage to talk to him. As I approached him, I asked him if it was okay if we could go to a side to speak instead of right outside the clinic, in case a woman going inside heard something insensitive that would hurt her. His response was something along the lines of ‘It’s not too busy, but okay. I might have to go back though in case a woman goes in to kill her baby,’ which I thought was quite insensitive. In all honesty, I felt he looked more like someone on the hunt for something, rather than someone who would reach out with genuine love and compassion.
I asked him for a leaflet, and then asked him about what they do, and how long he himself had done these protests for. He said he had done it for about a year and a half, and the protestors and volunteers all receive ‘in house’ training for a period of time before they go out on the streets. He said he himself was one of the few employed by The Good Counsel Network to do this, but most of them do it voluntarily. This was when I told him that as a Catholic, I believed that their approach was wrong, and that there were far more constructive ways to deal with the issue. Looking back on it, it was probably not the brightest idea. Still, I explained to him why I thought what I did. Inside the leaflet, it said one of the possible complications of abortion was breast cancer. I told him that this was disproved by both Cancer Research UK and the World Health Organization, two leading health organisations, and that maybe they themselves were technically breaking that eighth commandment of bearing false witness in saying this. He kept telling me how I was forgetting the word ‘POSSIBLE’. (Well then, they may as well put that abortion turns women into flesh-eating zombies…) After a bit, one thing led to another, and then he told me that if I did not agree with EVERY SINGLE thing the Catholic Church taught, then I was not a Catholic. I told him that it was important to question the legitimacy of Church teachings, but he told me that I could not because the Catholic teachings were infallible. The thing is if the Church teachings were TRULY infallible, and not questioned, then Catholics would still believe that the Sun revolved around the Earth. We would still have people in the Vatican who would advocate the death penalty (Hey, wait… I thought they believed the ending of human life was wrong!). These are just some examples of why that point was wrong. I wanted to get an insight on where he had gotten his extreme views from. I asked him how long he’d been a Catholic for. Ironically, his reply was ‘That’s none of your business, there’s no need to interfere with my personal life’. (Well then, what on earth is he doing outside an abortion clinic???)
I decided to walk away from the conversation before it got heated after he dismissed my evidence as coming from ‘pro-death websites’. I told him that it was wrong to use terms like that, and that no woman would ever want to have to go through having an abortion.
In conclusion, I know not all pro-life people who stand outside abortion clinics have this kind of ignorant attitude or set of extreme views. However, what does concern me is the fact that there ARE protestors outside clinics who hold these views. They are not professionally trained or qualified to approach these vulnerable women, but instead, given in house training which probably consists of bias (especially religious bias), and sensationalist statements in order to scaremonger and guilt trip them from having an abortion. I, in no way am saying that people should not have the right to defend life; I feel that it is important to defend life. However, I firmly believe that there are far more constructive ways to defend life at a much earlier stage than by standing outside an abortion clinic. I believe using sensationalism and scaremongering, rather than truth, and genuine compassion also goes against what Jesus would have taught in the Gospels. So all in all, as a Catholic, I firmly believe this is the wrong approach. My next piece will talk about more constructive ways in which people can deal with the issue of abortion.
