Standing for the Unborn

In all of our Jesuit works and institutions and in our shared charism to serve, we hope to witness ever more authentically to God’s mercy and saving love for all humankind. The close linking of the service of faith and the promotion of justice has been a hallmark of Jesuit ministries from the very beginning. There can be no service of faith without the promotion of justice. Jesuits, therefore, must seek an end to the injustice of abortion.

It is part of our Jesuit charism to enter into creative dialogue with diverse cultures, a concern that reflects our desire to evangelize in the most universal sense. Such concern positions us well to engage in fruitful interaction with contemporary spokespersons of diverse viewpoints on life issues.

Ignatian spirituality reminds us that the work of making correct choices about moral issues such as respect for unborn life is a difficult one. Through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, a believer comes to realize that our lamentable hardness of heart, our sinful tendency toward selfishness and our aptitude for choosing to follow the “enemy of our human nature” make refusal to protect human dignity a real possibility even for well-intentioned people.

St. Ignatius was famous for teaching the “discernment of spirits” and urged his followers to take greater notice of their emotions, internal movements and spiritual desires. He instructs us to be attentive to the various kinds of decisions that typically confront us, including matters of clear right and wrong.

These insights shed some light on the ethics of abortion, at least insofar as we might assist in discerning the psychological health and spiritual state of those who procure or undergo abortions. Evidence from numerous sources, including the Project Rachel programs set up in many dioceses to counsel women and men who have experienced or been involved with abortions, suggests at least two things. First, that tremendous pressure is often brought to bear on women facing unplanned pregnancies. Second, that horrible trauma and regret often haunt participants in the aftermath of abortion. As the United States bishops poignantly noted: “Roe v. Wade has left a trail of broken hearts.”³ The struggle to achieve a sense of reconciliation with God and the aborted child often takes years to resolve, if it happens at all.

A key theme of Ignatian spirituality is freedom. Indeed, an important function of a spiritual director in the Ignatian tradition is to facilitate the freedom of the directee. This might include aspects of what can be called “freedom from” (e.g., freedom from fears or inordinate attachments) and aspects of “freedom for” (e.g., freedom to pursue a more authentic calling, lifestyle or set of relationships). Political philosophy teaches us that freedom is not the power to do what we like but what we ought. All too often in abortion debates, “liberty” and “choice” devolve into codewords for utter freedom to terminate a pregnancy without limits or conditions.

To be pro-life is to be pro-woman. Because we support women, we oppose abortion. We realize that the prevalence of abortion on demand is a clear indication that women are not receiving the types of societal and personal support necessary to bring their pregnancies to term. As Mary Ann Glendon, the Harvard law professor who headed the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995, stated: “All who are genuinely committed to the advancement of women can and must offer a woman or a girl who is pregnant, frightened, and alone a better alternative than the destruction of her own unborn child.”

Just as Jesus sought out opportunities to reach out to women who were downtrodden, challenging the social conventions of his day, so has the Society of Jesus worked with and for women since its founding. St. Ignatius worked with women of faith throughout his life, accepting their offerings when he was a destitute pilgrim and working for their advancement locally in his years in Rome and universally through the men he missioned around the world. In our day, the 34th General Congregation stated its firm resolve to oppose any social injustice based on gender, reflecting the best of this relationship between women and the Society of Jesus throughout the world in its Decree 14, “Jesuits and the Situation of Women in Church and Civil Society.”

Some influential voices posit a zero-sum conflict between “women’s reproductive rights” and the right to life of unborn children. Jesuits ought to find their place among those who demonstrate the obvious confluence of women’s rights and respect for life in all its forms. Pope John Paul II summed this partnership up when he wrote: “Therefore, in firmly rejecting ‘pro-choice’ it is necessary to become courageously ‘pro-woman,’ promoting a choice that is truly in favor of women. It is precisely the woman, in fact, who pays the highest price, not only for her motherhood, but even more for its destruction, for the suppression of the life of the child who has been conceived. The only honest stance, in these cases, is that of radical solidarity with the woman. It is not right to leave her alone.”⁴

The United States is blessed to be a pluralistic society with a vigorous tradition of free thought and speech. To be surrounded by such a kaleidoscope of cultures, customs and ideas is a privilege rare in human history. While enriching, this can also be a potential source of frustration and conflict. What binds the United States together is a tradition of tolerance and mutual respect for the opinions of others, as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States.

As Catholics and Jesuits, we would naturally prefer to live in a country where every citizen, voter, and court consistently favor legal recognition of and protection for the unborn. We are encouraged by recent evidence indicating a modest shift of public opinion away from the easy availability of abortion, and are heartened that recent polls now show that far fewer Americans are willing to call themselves “pro-choice.” ⁵ In addition, we are also encouraged by the large influx of young Americans — those under 30, and therefore survivors of Roe v. Wade — who are active in pro-life efforts.⁶

We must acknowledge, however, that phrases such as “the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” in documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are phrases with contested meanings that others understand differently than we do. This awareness can lead us in two directions, only one of which will be constructive in the long run. The first is the sectarian option, something which has decidedly not been the dominant thread of the long Catholic tradition. It would lead us to seclude ourselves from this corrupt world, and have as little as possible to do with the workings of governments, courts, and the whole “culture of death.” It might make us feel better for a time, perhaps savoring the illusion that we are at least preserving our moral purity within a corrupt world, but it would not be socially responsible.

The more attractive option seeks neither to flee nor to dominate situations of pluralism. It commits us rather to a process of engaging those who initially disagree with us on some issues, seeking to create an acceptable consensus wherever possible by building upon those truths on which we can reach agreement, while continuing to educate and persuade those who disagree with our convictions. This path of “proposing, rather than imposing,” was described by the great American Jesuit theologian of the past century, John Courtney Murray. While emphasizing the value of tolerance and mutual dialogue, he also advised against any sort of moral relativism that might lead one to despair of finding and pursuing fundamental truths about human existence. Another way of describing this stance is to say that Jesuits are committed to narrowing the gap between the current civil law of our nation and the demands of the moral law as we understand it. Our long-term goal remains full legal recognition of and protection for the unborn child — from the moment of conception.

In the near future, we cannot realistically expect complete agreement among all participants in the abortion debate. We must listen respectfully to others’ opinions, just as we expect a fair hearing of our own arguments against abortion. Our confidence in the persuasive power of well-articulated defenses of pro-life positions sustains us, even as we acknowledge the long struggle ahead. An acceptable outcome may be a long way off, although building a consensus against the most egregious wrongs, such as partial-birth abortions, may be possible sooner than we expect. In the meantime, our common calling is to stand in solidarity with the unborn, the “least of our brothers and sisters” (Matthew 25:40), through prayer and political activism.

As we have throughout our nearly five hundred year history, Jesuits will continue to undertake a broad variety of works and play diverse roles in the Church and in the wider society. It is our desire that Jesuits, along with their colleagues, will continue to offer a consistent message of respect for life, especially for unborn children. All of God’s daughters and sons, particularly the most vulnerable and those yet to be born, must be treated with respect and protected by the laws of our nation.

Notes

1. The United States Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, handed down two rulings legalizing abortion in America. The principle decision, Roe v. Wade repealed all state laws prohibiting abortion. The companion case, Doe v. Bolton extended the right to abortion to the entire nine months of pregnancy.
2. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, Facts in Brief: Induced Abortion, www.guttmacher.org.
3. A Matter of the Heart, A Statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, November 12, 2002.
4. Crossing the Threshold Of Hope, “The Defense of Every Life,” www.catholic.net/RCC/POPE/HopeBook/Chap31.html.
5. The Gallup Organization, Public Opinion About Abortion—An In-Depth review, Lydia Saad, www.gallup.com.
6. A Matter of the Heart, A Statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, November 12, 2002.