Is America Pro-Life?
By Guest Blogger Sean Patrick Miller

Is America Pro-Life? If you want to find out, go out into the streets and the people will tell you.

A group of dedicated pro-life pray-ers (Our Lady of Guadalupe Rosarians) faithfully get together every Saturday from 11am to 12pm to pray the rosary imploring Our Lady for her help to end the abomination of abortion.

As they do this, they display pro-life signs to remind people of the injustice that is committed daily in this country.

When I have been praying with my fellow pro-life friends, I’ve noticed that the majority of the feedback we receive from the public is overwhelmingly positive. Only rarely will somebody feel the need to be rude with a vulgar comment. When movements are grown from the “grassroots,” you really get a good sense of how the people in the nation really feel.

I believe most Americans believe in the rights of the unborn. Approximately, 4,000 babies are aborted every day as the rest of us enjoy our days in peace and freedom. If America is the land of the free, why are the unborn denied this privilege?

Deep down Americans know that abortion is wrong. 

Of course, the mass media chooses to ignore this as they provide quite a “slanted liberal view,” with the hopes of deceiving the people.

The truth cannot be ignored, though. Even when couples go for an abortion, they frequently express sorrow for what they are about to do and then proceed with ambivalence. If it wasn’t morally wrong, they wouldn’t have any struggle or trepidation before making such a critical decision. Unfortunately, many couples buy the lie that the abortion industry sells them: there is no hope.

That’s the same message that the mass media projects.

Of course, this is largely done by layers of lies that distort the truth and even ignore the scientific facts regarding life in the womb. If the mass media were honest, why wouldn’t they be open to a debate regarding the matter?

At all costs, they avoid the facts as they deceptively prey on the feelings of those in a precarious situation. They rely on slogans which incite fear into the hearts of those who are in a fragile state. And they manage to manipulate the masses without an honest display of the facts. They falsely give you the impression that most Americans are pro-choice.

Where does this leave us? How do we get out our message of love for both “the woman and the baby?”

I still believe most Americans are pro-life and the people who are unsure about the abortion issue only need to be properly educated.

If a person is sincere and willing to look into it with an honest heart, I feel confident they will eventually become pro-life.

Personally, I can relate to this because at the age of 20, when I was in college, I had mixed feelings about the subject of abortion.

Deep down I was pro-life, but I had a sociology teacher who made statements that confused me.

I respected her and liked her as a teacher. Besides, she was a professional, so I felt that she must be right since she was in a position of authority at a Catholic college. However, my intuition, which has always steered me clear of danger, alerted me with an uneasy feeling about her position which I just could not ignore.

One particular day, she stated, “I think abortion is a horrible thing, really, but I still think that people have the right to do it if they choose to do so.” This just made no sense to me, and it was such a conflicting statement. After all, if abortion is so horrible, then why should anybody have the right to do it? Did she really believe that it was horrible?

Since she was my professor I respected her, but I still had doubt within me. I struggled with this and it kept gnawing at me. I knew that I needed to get to the bottom of this, and I could not continue feeling ambivalent on this issue. It was just too important!

One day it happened! It actually seemed to happen by accident.

I was watching EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) as Fr. Frank Pavone, founder of Priests for Life, was speaking on abortion. Around this time, the late Cardinal John O’Connor, of the Archdiocese of New York, gave Fr. Pavone the specific apostolate of educating others on abortion.

Ironically, it seemed that Catholics needed this education just as much as anybody else. The episode I saw was so enlightening. It was as if Fr. Pavone lifted the veil of lies and exposed the truth about abortion in an instant.

One thing that he said, which I’ve always remembered, was that the pro-choice stance never ever wants to speak about the act of abortion. They are willing to talk to you about a variety of circumstances, such as extreme situations, but they will never talk about the actual act of abortion. As they avoid this particular aspect of the topic, they will talk to you about everything else as they engineer the language to best suit their needs.

As an example, it is much more comfortable, to say the “termination of a pregnancy,” as compared with what it truly is: the “killing of a baby.” Sugar-coating the reality does not change that reality, nor does it lessen the guilt associated with the act. Denial does not help anyone as it continues the injustice and prevents the need for necessary healing.

After listening to Fr. Pavone, I felt so relieved, and I could now see everything so clearly. Consequently, this knowledge demanded me to do something, and it was the birth of my own involvement in the pro-life movement.

Another important point that Fr. Pavone has made for many years is that people need to see abortion in order to have their hearts changed. Many times he has said, “Once Americans see the horror of abortion . . . they will become pro-life.”

I really believe that this is most especially, true. Pictures say more than words can at times. This is certainly true when an injustice is taking place. Of course, nobody wants to see an aborted baby. However, sometimes we need to see something that is so horrific that it inspires us to move out of our mold of complacency.

Most Americans are too complacent about abortion as we have let it settle into our cultural landscape. The time of urgency is now. We need to get off of our couches and into the streets. The time to pray and counsel those that are most in need is now!

Is America pro-life?

Without hesitation I would say so. We need to educate the American people and pray so that their hearts may be open to receive the truth about “Life.” Then together as a country we can be truly united as we fight for freedom for all of our citizens, including the unborn. The ugliness of abortion will be banished from this land as the beauty of a newborn child rightfully replaces it.

As Americans, we can then proudly stand next to one another as we declare liberty and justice for all.