Many years ago, I was sitting with my wonderful neighbor Buddy in a nursing home as his wife lay dying nearby. We were talking outside her room in a long drab hallway. It was the only place that had a bed when Buddy’s wife was released from the hospital.
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Her doctors had said there was nothing more they could do. It wasn’t a very nice facility — some might say it was more of a warehouse for the elderly poor. Then I saw something I will never forget — a young woman who was as close to an angel as I have ever seen. She made her way down the long hallway with a smile on her face, greeting each of the residents by name as they sat in their wheelchairs. Most had dementia, and many had lost control of their bodily functions. Yet this young professional, a physical therapist, didn’t just greet them, she physically touched each one as she passed. A hug, a hand on a shoulder, a gentle pat on an arm — I watched in awe as she showed continual kindness in a place of utter despair. She will forever represent to me the real meaning of the politically charged term “pro-life.”
Those who are authentically pro-life believe that every life is worthy of respect and protection, from conception until natural death. While the term is often represented in the media by those who picket abortion clinics and the Supreme Court, it must also be applied to those who shelter the homeless, feed the poor and visit the prisoner. In my recent experience, I’ve discovered that the term “pro-life” applies in profound ways to those who volunteer for our regions’ hospice providers.
It is ironic that many in the national media refuse to use the term “pro-life” for those whose deepest convictions hold that every child, regardless of their stage of fetal development, is entitled to what our Founding Fathers so eloquently proclaimed. We all are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights — the first of which is the right to life.
As the angel in the nursing home demonstrated, to be pro-life is so much more than just being “anti-abortion” — it means to care for a baby and her mother and father. Those who are truly pro-life wrestle with many difficult questions. For example, when it comes to capital punishment, what is the pro-life position? Historically, it has been that the life of the victim of a crime (typically murder) can only be valued fully if the justice system demands an equal price from the criminal. But in our justice system, which is at times itself more criminal than just, most pro-life people today have grave reservations. A rich man will almost never be executed, but an innocent, poor man might. Pro-life people wrestle with issues of war and peace as well. It would seem the pro-life position would always be “anti-war” — but I think both presidential candidates espoused a pro-life position in the recent debate, when they affirmed that genocide is unacceptable.
Those who are pro-life are grateful that the number of abortions in America is declining. The newest generation of Americans has grown up at a time when the “window on the womb” has been opened by the sonogram. Many young women today see that science and theology are in perfect harmony. Life begins at the moment of conception, not because there was a failure of birth control but because every child is the handiwork of our Creator.
