There are several issues that led me away from the church, including abortion. About a decade back, more or less, I engaged with a wonderful pro-choice advocate by the name of Christina Page, author of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics, and the War on Sex. She was instrumental in bringing me around to the Pro-Choice work through her book and messages we exchanged.
Though the names are similar, don’t confuse Christina Page with Christine who authored this column in yesterday’s Philly Inquirer: We Won't Back Down on the Fight to End Abortion, by Christine Flowers, in which she writes:
“My heart is American, my soul is Italian and my spirit was once Irish. Now, I reject that last bit of my heritage, as two-thirds of my ancestral countrymen rejected humanity in their embrace of a progressive morality that sees dead babies as an easy price to pay for modernity.
There’s all the arguments that you’ve read before, and she concludes with a message she reportedly received from,
My favorite teacher and former law professor, Howard Lurie, wrote this to me in the hours after the Irish referendum:
“There is a very powerful weapon that Catholics can use against this silence: embarrass them. EMBARRASSMENT is a powerful weapon. Just look at the recent Starbucks incident. EMBARRASS them, EMBARRASS them, and then EMBARRASS them again. That is how you win.”
I thought “What the heck. I used to be in her camp, but reasoned arguments worked with me, so it might work with her.” I composed the following, and emailed Christine, whose email address was helpfully printed right there in the article. My argument read:
Dear Christine Flowers,
As a multi-generational Catholic of Irish descent, I assume we share some similarities. And in the past, I also shared your devotion to the abolition of legal abortion. But I evolved when I allowed the debate to be re-framed in a more realistic and humane approach:Which option is preferable: A: fewer abortions, or, B: Making abortion illegal, but not necessarily reducing the number of abortions?When I was a member of the faction that I assume you are a member of - the Religious Right, I went with the simplistic abolition of legal abortion.My wife is a Catholic from Peru, where abortion is illegal. But abortions are so common and so cheap, that doctors in Lima place advertisements on their office doors, listing the cost of an abortion.Plenty of Irish women are securing abortions, as you are aware, with these women traveling to other countries for the service.Abortions were happening by the millions in the USA, well before Roe verses Wade.My question to you. Wouldn't you rather be a positive influence on reducing the number of abortions, rather than passing a ban that will be ignored and repealed in the not so distant future.I think, to equate banning abortion with reducing abortions is to live in a state of denial, and to be complicit in the resultant abortions that happen, because our Religious Right seems to prefer punishing the poor, rather than helping them.Why not legalize abortion, but work like hell to assist poor women so they receive access to contraception and are empowered economically. We have the tools to reduce abortions - that's the high road I chose.On another note, I remained a church-going Catholic until November 2016, when I saw my parish, and most American Churchgoing Catholics back a presidential candidate, who, the evidence strongly suggests, paid a porn star to have an abortion, while playing the Religious Right like a fiddle. I didn't know about the Cohen payments at that time, I just knew my church had backed an evil SOB, and the Catholic Church in the US was no longer a force for good.In one historically Catholic country after another, the Church has aligned itself with oppressive regimes, alienated the younger generations, and set itself on the road to ruin. I used to decry the declining influence of our Church, but having watched our Bishops and devout brethren line up behind the most evil leader of my lifetime, I now celebrate empty church pews, and I know exactly why the Irish voted this way.I let go of the church. My family's descendants were likely Catholic for centuries, but it will end with me.It's time to make a difference, and it's time to work to reduce the number of abortions, but not by making them illegal.You can't embarrass or shame people like me, because I/we know we are the ones working to reduce abortions. It's the "ban abortion side" who create the economic conditions leading to an increase in abortions. The ground on which you stand is quicksand. The moral high ground is over here.Sincerely,Mark J. Hainds
I took a nap, when I awoke, I had an emailed reply from Christine:
This is the most distasteful anti Catholic rant I’ve received because it is packaged in faux reasonable raimient (sic).Don’t attemp (sic), sir, to pretend you care about unborn life or reducing abortions.Good luck in the spiritual wilderness.
It was pretty apparent that I was getting nowhere, so my reply was succinct:
You are welcome!
Christine’s immediate reply:
Stop stalking me you soulless manI pity and will pray for you
Having been labeled a “stalker”, I thought it ill-advised to continue the conversation in any form. And I don’t consider this a “win”. A win, would have been getting Christine to consider both the rationality of her arguments, and mine. Apparently, I am less effective at persuasion than Christina Page, who is at least partly responsible for helping me becoming an Agnostic. And for that, I will be eternally grateful.