Before we celebrate. . .

It is a good thing and one for whom many prayers have been prayed but the overturning of Roe v. Wade has not and will not end abortion.  Each state will now decide and different states will decide differently, this is true.  But abortion has never only been a battle over an invented right.  It has always been a battle for the cause of life -- not only the unborn but every life.  It has always been a battle to make sure that we do not make certain lives the scapegoats we punish because we find their lives inconvenient or burdensome.  It has always been a battle for hearts that seem to crumple all moral supports in the face of desire and to live the lie that sex has always been mostly about pleasure and only incidentally about children.  We would do well that a court can give and take away such rights and that this battle is far from over.  Instead of being haughty, we should be modest in celebrating this victory.  Our work is not done and the cause has not yet been one.  If even one child dies in order to clean up a mess in the life of a boy or a girl, a man or a woman, it is one life too many.

Some have suggested that this is less about babies than about trying to control a woman's body.  There is no denying that every law that protects the vulnerable from the whims of the strong is an attempt to control or restrain those who would without a second thought end a life to make their life easier.  But what is too often forgotten is that the control that abortion seeks to put in place is a control that both the woman and the man overrode in order to succumb to their desires.  Desire cannot be the basis of law or right or we are all at risk.  None of us is so strong that we could not or would not be victims of those more powerful than we are.

Some have said that if we put as much effort into aiding the mother in her often solitary responsibility for the child conceived outside of marriage as we have fighting Roe, we might not need an abortion law at all.  How foolish.  Would anyone presume that the pregnancy centers all around that do offer counseling, material, and emotional support to the mother considering a way out of her pregnancy all receive government support?  Of course, the same churches and church members who march for life are the ones who pull out their wallets to make sure that this is not simply about a baby but a life, from beginning to end, acknowledged as sacred and a gift from God and supported into eternal life.  At one point in time churches covered every aspect of a child born outside of marriage -- not without error or evil to be sure -- but today the government has made it impossible to maintain the honest confession and abide by the rules set down from on high.

My own parish expects to send in excess of $5,000 to our local Pregnancy Center -- and this for one fundraising effort.  Our people volunteer there and we support a whole host of parachurch aid and relief organizations to make sure tit is not simply a vocal but shallow support of those who have no place to turn.  And we will continue to be there working, by the grace of God, to deal with the need as well as the outcome of our attention to the sacred task of caring for all life in our Savior's name.