The Supreme Court took on yet another abortion case on Monday, Nov. 1st, choosing to expedite the oral arguments of the notorious United States v. Texas and Women’s Health v. Jackson. The first, a.k.a the Texas Heartbeat Bill, outlaws abortions after 6 weeks, the second bans it after 15 weeks. The two lawsin question are some of the most conservative abortion laws in decades. The Texas Heartbeat Bill is officially the most restrictive ban on abortion passed since Roe v. Wade. Pro-lifers are back in the limelight, supported (perhaps) by a 6-3 conservative supermajority in the Supreme Court. “Overturn Roe” has moved from a pitiful plea to a charming possibility.
And everybody else is infuriated. Yet this time around the abortion debate, the pro-choice and reproductive rights activists hum a new tune- one of greed.
“Abortion Saves Lives,” read a sign held up in protest of the Texas Heartbeat Bill just a couple weeks ago. When Ohio legislators proposed the bill, a woman in Cleveland sported a neon green “I have a (heart symbol) beat too!” poster. 5th Circuit Court Judge Robert Pitman termed the bill an “offensive deprivation,” while Governor Newsom of California ominously signals the “dark days” that are upon women.
Yes, it’s a subtle shift, but it’s not to be taken lightly. a Gallup poll reports the percentage of pro-choice American women leapt from 43% to 52% in just two years (2019 to 2021).
There’s a tricky line of logic here. Abortion is not necessary, pro-choice women claim, but helpful, in attaining their ambitions- only those which the patriarchy stifled for centuries. It “saves lives.” Yet we must define “save” differently here. In this context, salvation means allowing a woman’s life to continue not only unimpeded, but unconstrained by inconvenient deterrents. And it is these words that upset the female inside of me. Mostly due to the very anti-maternal nature of it all.
It’s not like we didn’t see this coming, too. It was only 60 years ago that John Paul II led the charge against the nefarious (at least it was back then) “pill” and anything else that severed the possibility of life from sexual intercourse. His criticism of contraception was spot on, and today it thrives more than ever, leading to the worst news of all: women aren’t having as many kids anymore.
In 2020, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation published what they called “jaw-dropping” statistics on global fertility rates. According to their data, in the 1950s, women had an average of 4.7 kids. In 2017, the rate fell to half of what it was. The data predicts that, if the same trend continues, women will have an average of 1.7 kids in the year 2100. This, the news reported, is a “success story” for women who, with the help of contraception etc., can finally engage more fully in education and work, and are “choosing to have less children” because of it.
It makes me wonder… how exactly would these women define motherhood? It seems, for them, to be a controlled, voluntary exercise. Yes, sentimental, but only sometimes, and at the proper time. A dutiful existence — sort of. She may place such things on the backburner though, when valuable opportunities arise, or “achievements” can be earned. “Abortion saves lives” is the only logical conclusion of this particular sentiment.
Call me naïve, but have we ever known the heart and core of motherhood to be anything but sacrificial and full of self-denial? It is the very opposite of the maternal quality to place the needs of the mother above that of her child. It’s nature — it’s what’s meant to happen. Pregnancy is not just another thing in life “to do.” It’s not something you check off a checklist. It couldn’t be further from this. When I think of my own mother, it seemed she, like many mothers, had an earnest dedication to raising me. Never, for a second, did I or any of my siblings feel like a second best to anything else she wanted. Yet my mother was, and is still, ambitious. I remember finding out she turned down an impressive job right before she got married.
“What?! Why did you do that?” I asked her over the phone.
“I don’t know. I was about to get married.”
“So you probably regret letting that opportunity go, though, right?” I was still so baffled.
“No. Definitely not. I couldn’t picture my life without you guys. I don’t have any regrets.”
There are just some moments, with my mom, that I’m overwhelmed by her very earnest, simple love for me and my sisters. This was one of those moments. And because of this, I can’t imagine being the child of a woman who holds up a sign saying, “Abortion Saves Lives.” Her kid will automatically feel like a burden — like something his mom did not want to do, but simply had to for various reasons. It just doesn’t make sense.
Mothers — any human with any obligation, for that matter — cannot have it all, though every current prevailing opinion says otherwise. Perhaps it’s good to call it quits on a few things, in order to be around a much better thing- to watch it grow, live, and flourish. Maybe being a mother contains a beauty you just won’t grasp until you become one yourself.
But it is only through a giving up of the self that you can find it, according to Baylor University professor Elizabeth Corey. To her, a female does not strive in motherhood, like she strives for a successful career. She gives a gift of self, not an “achievement of self.” “Parenting,” she writes, “requires ignoring for a time the individual quest for self-perfection and excellence and focusing instead on the needs of another person.” It is a “setting aside of goals.” It’s the creation of a safe place to grow, not a checking off of a list that means the most to the child. Conservative literary critic Karen Swallow Prior called abortion “a failure for every woman and her unborn child- a failure of love, justice, and mercy.” Though her words are striking, they could not be more spot on.
These bills and supreme court cases of late now thrust the pro-life movement back into the spotlight. We should take advantage of this. Our philosophies of human life could not be more distinct from those that are pro-choice, and we have signs to show it, too. Signs that uplift the little lives that we don’t yet know, but soon won’t be able to picture our lives without. Signs that love something for the sake of its very existence, not because it was the right time or the best option. “Choose life.” It is that simple.
The views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the values and beliefs of Cogitare Magazine, nor of Grove City College.
