Taking Life out of the Court’s Hands We can step up to the plate where women need help most.
National Review, Jul 9, 2018, Kathryn Jean Lopez
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What is the future of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in all three trimesters of pregnancy here in the U.S.? Many people are activated for or against the cause. It’s all an opportunity to ask: Who are we and who do we want to be? A people who let the Court determine things we really should be talking about on a more intimate level, or a people known for stepping up to the plate when life gets hard?
Friends who just returned from the Holy Land mentioned Efrat, a group they encountered along their travels. The name comes from Miriam of the Old Testament, the sister of Moses. A courageous woman who attained the supreme spiritual level of prophecy, Miriam was granted an additional name, Efrat, which has the same root as pru vrvu — to populate the world — in recognition of her heroic measures to save Jewish children from annihilation.†As the website explains . . . The organization is dedicated to saving the lives of unborn Jewish children.
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Our abortion debates can bring out the worst in our politics. But the people who do the work of listening to women and walking with them in their needs are some of the saints and saint-makers among us. The woman who trusts enough to believe that she will be able to raise this unexpected child, or who gives her child to a loving couple ready and able to give her a home, are some of the most generous among us. The families who open their home to a foster child for an uncertain amount of time have some of the most vulnerably generous, loving hearts among us. They are the kind of people who should be receiving more headlines and attention; they are worthy of celebration and emulation. And we should be asking them, always: What more do you need?
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The chairman of Efrat has been quoted as saying, “We do not have a single case of a woman who was sorry in the end that she brought her child into the world.†Isn’t that the side we ought to be erring on? Not promising simple ways out — these aren’t that at all — but helping women make choices for life and love? People are doing that in the world, and in ways that aren’t deeply mired in miserable abortion debates. They somehow bypass them and address instead real-life needs, rather than scaring people who are already in frightening situations. Instead of adding to the screaming, what if we all found a group and got more involved, financially or with our time? Or look around and fill some real needs. It’s harder work than pontificating about the Donald’s latest move. And more fulfilling, too. And it may even save a life.
More:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/take-abortion-issue-out-of-courtrooms/
