What I said to an anti-abortion activist & other thoughts

Posted on June 2, 2009 in Abortion Courage & Activism Terrorism Violence

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but nobody thinks of changing himself.

Leo Tolstoy

From my Twitter account (EmperorNorton):

I used to be anti-abortion, but then the hatred that was spoken by the others in the movement became impossible. When I discovered that many anti-abortion people were hostile to my pacifism and my anti-death-penalty stance, plus when I saw the complexity of the issue when it comes to pregnancies and how the anti-abortion movement didn’t acknowledge that abortion might be necessary to save the life of the mother not to mention the cruelty of putting a woman who was raped through an unwanted pregnancy, I shrugged my shoulders and became pro-choice because the anti-abortion movement was clearly not for me. Too absolutist. If there is ever a superior alternative offered without the hateful rhetotic and better answers to the question of rape and life-threatening defects, I will certainly jump on board. But I value and respect the human beings around me. I know that life is a difficult struggle. The anti-abortion movement simply isn’t pro-life enough for my taste.

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This article by Frank Schaeffer strikes me as a conscientious statement of the problem with the anti-abortion movement’s rhetoric.

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The anti-abortion people who I encounter don’t get the full import of the term “conscience”. They seem to think it means that you have an opinion and you do everything you can — no matter how harmful the rhetoric or the methodology — to achieve that goal. Most draw the line at violence, but nearly every one of them uses language that is so stinging and inflammatory as to incite some of their number to arson, bombing, assault, and murder.

As a pacifist, I have come to appreciate that what I say can be an influence on others. The example of a young man who converted to Islam and then shot a military recruiter was thrown at me. Was I responsible for that? I replied that it was certainly reason for me to pause and examine how I spoke in opposition to the war. Was I demonizing the opposition? Did my words forget that pacifism means avoiding killing ((The way I live my pacifism is this: I do not spend my life preparing for violence. I do not own guns and I do not take courses in martial arts. I seek alternatives to violence, avoid situations where violence might occur.)) ?

When we act from our conscience, we don’t just look at our behavior but the way we influence others. This is where the anti-abortion movement largely fails to be a movement of conscience. To tell the truth, I think it is nothing more for most people than a chit to count against liberals when issues such as the wars, torture, oppression, etc. are raised.

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Movements of conscience do not see the opposition as an enemy to be defeated, but as potential converts. So Gandhi persuaded the British to leave India: he did not start a war.