One of the most common stones thrown at “pro-lifers” is that we are “One Issue” people. We don’t care about any other issue except abortion; we are not interested in what happens to babies who are born into difficult circumstances and we do nothing for pregnant mothers either before their babies are born afterwards.
Sign on the dotted line
To give an example: one day somebody approached the picketers outside the Morgentaler abortuary and challenged them to sign a document. It stated they were pledging to support a baby from birth to maturity. They were to sign on the dotted line as a token of their concern for more than the baby in the womb.
Naturally, nobody was dumb enough to sign this document and Lois Sweet used this fact in an extremely distasteful article which she wrote in the Toronto Star, to prove that “Pro-lifers” are not interested in anyone but the baby in the womb.
How do we answer this charge?
I suppose one reply would be to simply say that the accusation is false. But my experience is that parallel examples are always useful. Let us turn to the large field of modern medicine.
There are all kinds of specialists these days and they seem to be increasing. There are heart specialists and brain specialists and lung specialists and ear specialists etc. But we don’t ‘accuse the heart specialist of not being interested in the brain, or the eye specialist not being concerned about the ears. Each one does his own thing and if they all do their part the entire human body will be catered for. But if they all specialize in the eyes who will look after the ears. And if they all concentrate on the ears, who will restore our sight? A scientist who is involved in research on leukemia is not chided for ignoring other deadly diseases. People know that there are other specialists who deal with the varied problems to which the flesh is heir.
Interest must be diversified
Applying the same principle to everyday living; suppose all men were mailmen, who would deal with crime or impaired driving? If all store keepers were grocers, where would we get our clothes? People don’t abuse the grocer and accuse him of not being interested in the naked nor do they abuse the tailor for neglecting the hungry. I haven’t heard of the nuclear freeze supporters being accused of not helping the handicapped. Yet they are all “one issue” people in the contest of what they do for society.
Perhaps the best way to sum it all up is this. If everybody did everything, society would be in an even worse mess than it is! We all need each other’s talents, but for society to achieve any kind of efficiency, these talents must be allowed to bloom in the soil which suits them.
There are limits to what people can do
Certainly it is imperative for all of us to be aware that injustice takes many different forms, has many ugly heads and that there is much work to be done, But no-one can be actively involved in solving every problem. Each one of us has limited resources of time, energy and money.
I know many people who are actively engaged in such necessary works as helping the handicapped, supporting pregnant women, feeding the hungry, etc. There are people who volunteer to go to foreign countries to help in health education and agriculture.
I feel called to help as a volunteer in the Pro-Life Movement. To me, the most important aspect of social work is the defence of the unborn, but I would be very unjust and uncharitable if I were to assume that people who feel called to other forms of charity were not interested in the baby in the womb. Of course they are interested but their talents lie in different fields of endeavour.
St. Paul
Perhaps St. Paul puts what I have said more succinctly when he says, “If the whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing? And if the whole body were the hearing, where would be the smelling? But God has so adjusted the body-that there may be no discord but that the members may have the same care for each other. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.”
Thank you, Paul. I couldn’t have put it better myself!
