Heartbeat Texas Act and the great misnoma
“The Texas law (effectively banning abortion past six weeks when the baby’s heart can be detected) will significantly impair women’s access to the health care they need, particularly for communities of colour and individuals with low incomes,” says President Biden.
Two points arise here. Firstly, abortion is about the greatest act of self harm a woman can inflict upon herself, leading to physical, emotional, mental and above all spiritual harm.
Secondly, if poverty and low incomes are among the pressures which cause women to take the life of their unborn child – not to mention coercion – surely these causes of abortion are what should be targeted.
President Biden, who although a professed Catholic, does not accept the teaching of the Catholic Church that life begins at conception. How can this be? Does he know better than the Pope, Christ’s vicar on earth, the hierarchy, and the teaching of the Church he professes each time he recites the Creed at Mass?
Here again we see the impossible position American Catholics are in. Vote for a socially progressive political programme and at the same time the killing of babies in the womb or vote for a conservative programme which damages individuals, society and the world in so many ways and yet speaks up for the unborn.
The question often posed to young people in youth ministry is WWJD?
Christian young people faced with the question of abortion know only too well what Jesus would do.
Let’s pray for women and young girls who are seduced or coerced into this greatest act of self harm.
Let’s pray for a fair, just and moral society where all have what they need for a decent and dignified life. This would make taking the lives of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society unthinkable.