Don't Mess with Texas

09-19-2021Pastor's LetterFr. John Bonavitacola

Dear Friends,

On this long journey to end abortion in the US, it has often been two steps forward and one step back. That may be the case with the recent US Supreme Court ruling letting stand the Texas law that prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected. The court allowed it to stand for technical reasons while the merits of the law are being litigated in the lower courts. How it ultimately shakes out is anybody’s guess at this point but it is a win for the Prolife cause.

I say it is a win because the Texas law shows that the Prolife strategy works. Our strategy has been to change minds and hearts to reconsider abortion and consider other options that protect life and help women at the same time. The Prolife people of Texas did just that. They convinced enough of their fellow Texans to vote for legislators that would enact laws to protect the unborn and a Governor that would sign such laws. That is the democratic process at work. Unlike the Roe v Wade decision, which was more like a ruling of an oligarchy, the recent Texas law was done by a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Roe v. Wade was an imposition by a 5-4 majority of the Court and it has never sat well with our society. Even the late Justice Ginsberg, who did her best to protect legal abortion, understood that the decision was a usurpation of the democratic process. And the late Justice Scalia often said that if the citizens of this country want abortion than they should pass a law and not look to the Court to create such a law.

Over the years we have learned that working to put in place legal protections for the unborn is a hard, hard battle. Even when a law is passed that restricts abortion, there is usually a court somewhere willing and ready to perform judicial jitsu to overturn it. Hence the reason to try to elect leaders who will appoint judges who don’t reflexively defend the misguided logic of Roe at every chance.

But we shouldn't place all our eggs in that basket either. How often have we elected so called “Prolife” congressmen or senators only to have them betray the cause? Most recently when the Republican Party with its ‘Prolife platform’ held both Houses of Congress and the Presidency, they still refused to defund Planned Parent. Not surprising, an abortion poisoned world is a world of broken promises and monstrous betrayals.

And that is why we need to redouble our efforts to change hearts and minds on the issue of abortion else we rely on feckless, spineless politicians and Judges who distain the democratic process. Could the day come, when even though abortion is still legal, it is never used because we have convinced every one of the dignity of all human life including the unborn child and offered loving and safe alternatives?

In light of all that, continue to do what you have been doing to uphold the dignity of all human life. Don’t be shy about telling others that you regularly support Crisis Pregnancy Centers by offering supplies for newborns, products needed by expecting and new moms, by volunteering your time at these centers or by praying in front of Abortion Clinics. By doing so you can start a conversation and as St. Peter wrote, “give reasons for your joy”, in other words explain why this is such a critical issue for our world and why there are so many better options for women than abortion. In the process you can plant the seeds that eventually can grow to win another over to the cause for Life.

Finally, in the words of the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus:

We shall not weary, we shall not rest, until every unborn child is protected in law and welcomed in life. We shall not weary, we shall not rest, until all the elderly who have run life’s course are protected against despair and abandonment, protected by the rule of law and the bonds of love. We shall not weary, we shall not rest, until every young woman is given the help she needs to recognize the problem of pregnancy as the gift of life. We shall not weary, we shall not rest, as we stand guard at the entrance gates and the exit gates of life, and at every step along the way of life, bearing witness in word and deed to the dignity of the human person—of every human person.

Love, Fr. John B.