Although the situation may often appear bleak, things are actually breaking the pro-life way in the struggle to protect human life from conception to natural death, says one of modern-day Catholicism’s leading authors and commentators.

Speaking May 9 at a Campaign Life Coalition clergy luncheon in Toronto, George Weigel acknowledged that it is easy to get depressed when we are surrounded by “so much vulgarity,” but it must be kept in mind that “this is not a time for exhaustion of despair.”

Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Centre and a Roman Catholic theologian. He is the author or editor of 18 books, in addition to essays, op-ed columns and reviews. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs and has been awarded eight honorary doctorates, as well as the papal cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. He and his wife, Joan, have three children and live in North Bethesda, Md.

In Toronto, Weigel outlined how the pro-life view is beginning to gain the upper hand. He said information that came out during debates over partial-birth abortion and scientific advances, particularly developments in ultrasound technology, have had an enormous impact. “It is impossible to think of the unborn child as another blob of tissue,” he said. Pro-abortionists are being forced to describe exactly what they are “pro-choice” about.

In the philosophical realm, it is being acknowledged that whatever is a human being was never anything but a human being, at any point along its developmental trajectory. Consequently, he said, it is understood that the moment of conception is not just an arbitrary point at which to mark the beginning of life.

Several decades of legalized abortion and liberalized approaches to sexuality have created a generation of women with experiences to recount and stories to tell. Weigel said the younger generation does not want the “fragmentation” their parents lived through, in the way of broken families. As well, there is an enormous openness to the understanding of the human body as a reflection of the interior life and not just a vehicle for sensual pleasure.

These developments, and others, allow the pro-life movement several avenues to reconfigure, amplify and retool its argument for even greater effectiveness, said Weigel.

First, pro-lifers should make it clear that they are the defenders of the true liberal tradition. The denial of the right to life of a certain class of human beings, as in the case of the unborn, is a rupture with the storyline of Western civilization, which has increasingly seen more rights bestowed on more segments of society, he said.

Abortion and euthanasia are also violations of the Canadian and U.S. tradition of being hospitable and generous societies, said Weigel, adding that the pro-life movement should more loudly trumpet the noble work it does for women caught in situations of crisis pregnancy.

“It’s not sufficiently known that the pro-life movement is in favour of something,” he said. “It is about saying ‘yes’ to life and putting real resources and talent behind that conviction … We need to lift up all we do for women.”

Weigel said incremental victories should not be discounted in the drive to win protection for human life from conception to natural death. “Some progress is better than no progress,” he declared, pointing to steps such as informed consent, parental and spousal notification and stricter regulation of abortion as aspects that drive down the number of abortions.

As proof, he pointed to a persistent 20-year campaign in Mississippi, in which he was involved, that incrementally succeeded to the point where the state now has only one abortuary in operation.

Finally, Weigel said there is a new cast of mind and an openness to the culture of life among young people, especially women. He said “the John Paul II generation” in the Catholic church has produced such brilliant young figures as Anna Halpine, who got her start with Campaign Life Coalition but is now impacting the international scene as leader of the World Youth Alliance.

In conclusion, Weigel said he was confident the pro-life movement can gather numbers in a sufficient critical mass to restore the right to life for all human beings. He reiterated this can be done by locating arguments within the “foundational themes” of our national commitments, such as the devotion to human rights.

He stressed that pro-lifers “are playing to angels and He who made the angels,” so that it is time to reformulate arguments and “get to work.”

“What we are contending for … is the foundation of the rule of law … and the foundation of Western democracy” he said.