I am so tired of being lectured for my lack of concern for life because I am not in rabid support of the so-called Pro-Life movement. Pro-Life should not be just Anti-Abortion, yet that is how many in the movement appears to see it.

My problem is simple. I believe all life is precious, yet many in the pro-life movement only seem to worry about protecting children before they are born. They seem to be forgetting about them after they are born. For example, as a society we don’t seem to care as much as we should about the abuse of others. see: The Rape of Tamar

I realize that this is a generalization. I also note that it doesn’t perfectly fit any of us as individuals. However, what I am referring to is the general tone and accusations of members of the movement when you are accused of not being Pro-Life because you haven’t joined their activities.

When it comes to supporting life, what are our leaders doing?

My problem also comes from the fact that many of our leaders today brag about being pro-life. Their supporters constantly point this out, pointing to their work to protect unborn children. Meanwhile, those same leaders appear to ignore the impact on their other decisions on living children.

They also don’t seem to worry about people who are dying for other reasons. Warfare, poverty, and disease do not seem to be important to them. At least not worth the allocating of time and money to prevent or reduce the deaths caused by them. In fact, some clearly stake out that position to the confusion of people like me.

“Pro-life advocates should stop buying the premise that because we oppose the intentional killing of innocent human beings, we must take on other tragic societal ills under the banner of being “pro-life.” The criticisms are not only unfair; they are narrowly targeted. Is the American Cancer Society neglectful because it fights one type of disease rather than many?”

What Does It Mean to Be ‘Pro-Life’?

The Poster Topic today is the response to Covid-19. 

I live in a senior community of over 450 households. Many are on fixed retirement incomes and dealing with health issues related to aging. The virus hasn’t hit here yet. I cannot imagine what it will be like if/when it does, before there is an inoculation or at least a viable treatment.

This makes me hypersensitive, for which I apologize. Every time I see someone, who claims to be pro-life, calling for opening the economy while writing off the “old folks” as expendable, I shudder. What I see is someone painting a target on the forehead of all the people in my community, saying that they are not worthy of projection. Let’s just say that tends to make me a little disagreeable.

Also, I recently spent an hour on the phone counseling a seventy-year-old woman who has supplemented her small retirement income by being a substitute preschool teacher for years. She called for advice on an invitation to commit to being a substitute teacher this fall. The problem was health-related. The school was planning to only have face to face classes. She was trying to figure out how to tell them she was scared-to-death of becoming sick.

Finally, there was this post…

“Children are going to die this fall. Many of them. I know this country is already inured to needless child death, what with the school shootings and the immigrant concentration camps and whatnot. But there’s no need to expand that portfolio. My wife is a preschool teacher. She’s not going back to work this fall. How can she? How do you keep a mask on a four-year-old? How do you keep four-year-olds from touching each other during circle time? You don’t. The only way to win the game is not to have playtime.”

It’s Insane We’re Even Discussing Sending Kids to School This Fall

Next time you see the re-opening the schools discussed, look at those who are writing off the risk of the children dying or teachers and what they consider to be more important.

Is being Pro-Life now Anti-Economy?

Based on many things I read today, the answer for many is “Yes!”.

Everyone is struggling with the life and death issues related to our response to Covid-19 and the impact of that response on the economy. The question again is; Which is more important?

‘“If you keep the shutdown going for 2 months more than we need to, that’s just an unbelievably costly mistake. … If we lift the shutdown 2 months too soon, that would be an unbelievably costly mistake,” says James Stock of Harvard University, who is working with public health experts to develop models weighing the economic trade-offs of different containment strategies.’ 

Can you put a price on COVID-19 options? Experts weigh lives versus economics

Yet there are other studies that warn of the life threatening impact of a major economic recession. Failure of supply chains for food and medicine, coupled with the loss of access to medical treatments will be fatal to many.

‘A recent New York Times article quoted a Delhi, India worker stating, “Instead of coronavirus, the hunger will kill us.” The piece reported that around 265 million people around the world could face starvation by the end of the year and that measures like strict stay-at-home orders are “drying up work and incomes, and are likely to disrupt agricultural production and supply routes.”’

Covid-19 is deadly, and so is keeping millions of people out of work

Where is the balance?

I really don’t have a clue where the real balance point is, or how we go about discovering it. Some countries are strict, New Zealand, and others are slack, Sweden. We don’t yet know where the healthy middle is. We know that some people will die. We also know that others will go hungry.

“Lower earners, those with less schooling, women and certain minority groups have borne the brunt of the economic pain driven by soaring unemployment.

Other groups — White men, higher earners, and the better-educated — are more likely to have jobs. Not only have they kept their incomes, they’ve also increased savings and are more likely to be able to borrow at dirt-cheap rates.”

A tale of two recessions: Some Americans thrive as others suffer

Because this situation is “Novel”;
because it is complicated;
because it is new;
new information is coming in all the time.
We can’t really stand up today and say “We know the truth.” 

“CDC data shows that during the first 6 weeks of the 2017–2018 flu season — roughly in line with the length of the pandemic so far — 1.3 out of every 100,000 people were hospitalized. For COVID-19, it’s nearly 30 out of every 100,000.”

Here’s Why COVID-19 Is Much Worse Than the Flu

Look again at being Pro-Life

So, back to my original question.

Is it really fair for those who are Anti-Abortion to condemn those of us who focus on all forms of life, simply because we don’t place their chosen issue ahead of all other issues? As Christians, shouldn’t we in be favor of all life?