I believe in women having control of their bodies in reproductive issues. When a woman decides that she cannot adequately care for the tissue that might become a human being, it is more humane not to bring that child into the world. In many cases, the father either agrees that he is unable to become a real father or is not involved with the pregnancy he started. There are many who oppose abortion but fall short when it comes to providing funds to care for children born reluctantly by women unable to care for a child. It is easy to get emotional about an aborted fetus, but there the concern seems to end. Where are the pro-life people when a mother is unable to care for a child she was barred from aborting?

I am impressed with a quote from Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. that sums up the hypocrisy of many in the ‘pro-life’ movement:

“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.”

This quote speaks directly to lawmakers who vote to ban abortion but refuse to fully support women’s access to contraception, which would prevent many abortions. You don’t hear of these lawmakers offering to adopt children of unplanned pregnancies or even voting for the health care and other support needed for the children brought reluctantly into the world by struggling women.

It is time for all lawmakers, and indeed all pro-life Americans, to abandon the hypocrisy of caring more for an unborn fetus than for a child living in unhealthy, poverty-stricken circumstances because of an unplanned pregnancy.