January 27, 2019 – Polarization on issues such as “Pro-Life” and “Pro-Choice” routinely prevents clear dialog by those who hold them. So much so, that a well-known women’s rights advocate, and Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, has written dozens of books on issues encompassing women’s rights, social advocacy and spirituality. Sister Chittister is not only an established spiritual author, she is also co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women–– an organization devoted to preserving and protecting the Earth and God’s creations, while also creating social change for peace and healing.
In a 2004–the well-respected TV host, journalist and political analyst Bill Moyers, known to many as the former press secretary to President Lyndon B. Johnson, did an interview with Sister Chittister. During that interview, the Sister espouses what one would expect of a religious devotee–that she is “opposed to abortion” — but, then fully elaborates a rationale that so many who advocate the “right to life” seem to miss. She explains:
“But I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking. If all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed and why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”
What Chittister reveals in this interview, is the dark side of human nature–one that does not condone taxpayer funded assistance to women and their children–those who find themselves in the quagmire of either giving birth or obtaining an abortion. Almost always these women are the most vulnerable society has to offer, often very young and without financial means. Yet the evocative question here is: would a truly “moral society” condemn these women because they chose their own life over a life of an unborn child when that “moral society” finds it repugnant to financially assist her through her own moral dilemma? The resultant inquiry then becomes, who is truly moral in a society of taxpayers who believe that being moral does not include financial assistance to help these vulnerable women? Such a paradoxical and ethical quagmire for the pro-life movement: to be pro-life but not pro-help.
It is this competing dichotomy that Joan Chittister brings to the forefront in her many books, interviews, and writings. What she does bring is a real conversation about what it truly means to be “Pro-Life” without the moral message to provide for children by those who did not bear them. The moral dilemma, is that Pro-Life should be Pro-Support–yet, much of the “moral” right do not see this as a requirement of their faith–instead they see it as a flaw in the women who choose to do otherwise. Not considered are the ramifications beyond the just the “pro-life” incantation which many so often subscribe–but refuse to pay economic homage. How many of the pro-life group would pay for these women to be cared for as well as their children?
In essence, what the “pro-life” movement fails to see–is you can’t have moral righteousness without as Chittister points out, a morally required financial contribution to raise up these vulnerable children. Saying one is “pro-life” without putting the funds on the table is what Chittister would find to be “hypocrisy.“ Just as Jesus instructed his people to care for the poor and downtrodden–it is as axiomatic that those who espouse life without contribution contravene Jesus’ teachings of love and concern for ones’ fellow man.
This untenable dichotomy of espousing “pro life without pro funding” would be considered by Chittister as an immoral contrivance of the pro-life movement that cannot be morally sustained. To say otherwise, is projecting unfounded superior morality over the most vulnerable of society–is antithetic to Jesus’ commands against judgment of others, and inapposite of the Biblical teachings of humility and charitable assistance to those in need.
For more on Sister Chittister, visit: joanchittister.org