“Well! I’m pro-life!” barked a student over their shoulder as they stormed down the hall, slamming the door on a conversation with another student. Recent political activity has generated quite a bit of hallway talk, including some acrimonious confrontations. “I’m pro-life,” words often uttered with an air of sanctimonious moral superiority. I’m pro-life and I’m pro-choice, words we use to define people and parties. Words we use to paint bold bright lines. Words that enable us to avoid getting to know a person, after all, they’re pro-choice. That’s all you need to know, no further inquiry is required or desired. But what does it mean to say, “I’m pro-life.” For most of us, it means that we are against abortion. That is all. We are against abortion, which is fine as far as it goes, but it seems rather incomplete. For most people saying, “I’m pro-life,” really means I’m pro-birth. But it could mean so much more. I’ve burned a few gray-cells contemplating what it means to be “pro-life.”
If I deeply and passionately care about life, many things engross me. If I truly am pro-life then a multitude of things clamor for my attention. Life begins at conception and continues until the last exhalation, and for Christians far beyond. All of the space, all of the endeavors between the womb and the narrow room fall under the prevue and concern of someone who is truly pro-life, so yes, I care.
I want the mother to have access to appropriate healthcare. I want her to enjoy good prenatal care and all of the associated vitamins and checks. If she needs them, specialists must be on hand. Birth ought to take place in a clean well-appointed and equipped facility. If the mother desires home birth and her conditions support such a choice, then she ought to be able to do so. I want her to enjoy the same good care my wife enjoyed during her pregnancy. For one birth, we needed an ambulance and one came at my frenzied call. Every mother should enjoy such access to required resources. All families want the best for the expectant mother and new child.
All family issues and values interest me as a pro-lifer. I’ve enjoyed good jobs with appropriate remuneration for my labor. It is hard to be a good parent when one must work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Good parenting requires an engaged parent. Being an engaged parent requires abundant energy. It is hard to summon such energy when you run from job to job. Living paycheck to paycheck leaves little room for emergencies that attend the life of every family. Being a pro-lifer makes me very interested in wages. Families need more than four hots and a cot. Families need access to healthcare, education, and those things that feed the soul, the arts. As a pro-lifer, I want people to enjoy a living wage, not a minimum wage. I want them to enjoy family time together, building and strengthening those ties that help anchor a young life. Working multiple jobs turns a loving caring parent into an absent parent. We need to craft a society in which a mother or father can reasonably expect enough pay to provide food, clothing, and shelter; plus those such things as an occasional vacation, a set of encyclopedias, or hobby supplies, those things which enrich life. I want that little baby to enjoy a nurturing environment that fosters life-long growth and learning.
As a pro-lifer, I find education falls within my area of interest. I want to enjoy the benefits of living in an educated society. That means I care about the quality of our public schools. I want to see well-paid and equipped teachers in appropriately sized classes. All children need a quality education if we want to compete in the increasingly integrated and computerized world economy. I do not want our nation to develop a two-tier education system in which only those able to pay the premium enjoy the benefits quality schooling provides. I cannot support those programs that siphon off scarce public education funds in order to provide the already well to do extra moneys to send their children to tony schools. Life is too precious to waste in ignorance. Children need to grow up in a challenging and nurturing environment.
As a pro-lifer, I fully support those actions and policies that preserve our environment. I want all children to grow up with clean air and water. We need not soil and squander our resources. I want to protect beauty and bio-diversity for those children we bring into this world. We live in a country with near Eden spaces, which need careful tending in order to preserve them for future generations to enjoy. I care that they find a land unravaged and able to well support life and the endeavors that support it. In truth, my pro-life stance includes all life. And I want newborn babies to look forward to a healthy environment.
For me, being pro-life naturally includes easy access to high-quality health care. Healthy families raise healthy children. Families should not have to make difficult, heart-rending choices regarding health care. One family member should not go without proper treatment in order to provide for another. Our health care system should be open to all regardless of income level or social status. We want the lives we’re fighting for to unfold in good health. Providing good health care for all would require a reallocation of assets, but think of the creative energy and power we would have available with a vibrant and healthy population. Being pro-life includes being pro-health.
So when I think of my pro-life agenda, I consider a wide variety of issues that do not involve pregnancy or birth. Life is so much more than the first few moments punctuated by a cry. While getting to and through those moments is critical, life is so much more. Being pro-life requires that I consider the entirety of life, that messy, convoluted, sometimes breathtakingly beautiful path, between birth and death. Life, at its best, includes opening previously unknown vistas. Life includes those moments of raucous familial laughter. Life steers its course through those sublime moments of shared quiet joy with a spouse. Instead of limiting my considerations to a single political issue, embracing the concept of pro-life makes me embrace all of the issues attendant to human existence.
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