By Judie Brown
Progress can be an elusive word. It might mean moving ahead in very slow traffic or gaining ground in a foot race. So, as we go about sharing the miracle of the advancements we have made in the cause of life, let’s define what we mean by progress. We are writing here about the advances each pro-life person makes every day based on prayers for help, words of affirmation, and a smile. Yes, even a smile can be viewed as pro-life progress in real time.
In a perfect world, each child would have the opportunity to receive education about the meaning of respecting our fellow human beings. We believe that for any young person, his or her perspective on human dignity lays the groundwork for her future, her decisions, and the way she treats others. This is so vitally important that American Life League has built an entire program on the premise that at every age and in every grade, there are pro-life lessons to be learned. That is how the Culture of Life Studies Program came to be and how it continues to touch the lives of children through their parents and teachers. Every time a young person understands what respect for human dignity means in daily life, we see pro-life progress.
Today, literally every scenario in which a young person finds herself is fraught with dangers, especially when it comes to discussing, practicing, and being destroyed by sex education. The amazing Jim Sedlak understood this better than most, having studied the effects of Planned Parenthood’s brand of sex education for many years. He often said that such programs should be called sex indoctrination, since rarely were both sides of a message pertinent to sexual behavior taught.
Every time this time-honored truth is passed on to a child in a classroom or nurse’s office, pro-life progress is made.
It does not stop there however, because as we know, whenever a pregnancy is diagnosed in our day and age, the expectant mother can choose to carry her baby or eliminate her baby. She has what modern-day “philosophers” call a choice. But there are voices of truth in real time that will not step away from telling it like it is. One of those voices is Bryan Kemper, who recently wrote,
The pro-abortion movement wants to be referred to as pro-choice, not pro-abortion; pro-choice sounds less gross. Abortion carries a stigma with which they don’t want to be identified.
We should not give into the sanitization of abortion; it needs to be exposed for what it is. We should not allow rhetoric to define how we describe an evil like the killing of innocent human beings.
Progress is made in real time when someone hears these words and realizes that behind the sloganeering of the promoters of abortion, the agenda for killing little babies lies in wait. When eyes are opened to truth, progress toward an abortion-free environment is made.
Finally, we turn to the choice every one of us must make regarding how to treat those we love when they are confronted with the fact that their own mortality and death are but a breath away. The pro-life response to this situation that not a one of us can avoid is to affirm life at every moment. On this sensitive subject, Father Shenan J. Boquet opines:
In a culture grappling with questions of suffering, autonomy, and dignity, Catholics must continue to be voices for life, sharing the richness of Catholic teachings far and wide. If the tide is indeed turning, it is because these truths resonate with our deepest human instincts: to protect the weak, to accompany the suffering, and to honor the dignity of every person from the first breath to the natural end ordained by God.
Doing as Father Boquet suggests and adhering to unequivocal respect for human dignity, even when some loved ones and others may seek a hastier exit for the dying is the ultimate victory in our daily quest for pro-life progress. Waiting on God’s timing may be more challenging, but I can assure you from personal experience that one never knows when a miracle may occur seconds before death.
Pro-life progress is measured in lives affirmed, souls redeemed, and truths taught. Once a pro-life advocate surrenders herself to the will of God first, amazing things happen, and that, my friends, is pro-life progress in real time.