Mary Kenny
Some years ago, I was invited to accompany an Australian right-to-life group to a witness vigil outside a Melbourne abortion clinic. I was staying with one of the women involved in the event, so I said I would.
It was a peaceful and respectful gathering. The participants were seated on a wall, or on the pavement outside the clinic. There were some right-to-life placards. Passers-by either indicated agreement, or, indeed, disagreement. One older woman muttered at the group “you people are mad”. Yet, my recollection is that it was an event where no one was harassed, but those involved felt the need to bear witness.
I have since met individuals in Britain who are part of networks such as Good Counsel and Be Here for Me, who offer their presence outside abortion clinics.
Last year, I met a sincere young Kerrywoman, Siobhan, who has been part of a group who gather outside an Ealing abortion clinic where the local council have sought to set an exclusion zone. (The Home Secretary, the Muslim Savid Javid, said that excluding vigils would not be a “proportionate response”; people had the right to demonstrate peacefully and non-threateningly. Some British pro-choice libertarians agree with this right to assembly, even for their opponents.)
When I asked Siobhan about why she participated in the vigils she said: “I just feel it such a privilege to be able to help women in these circumstances, whenever I can.”
And the Good Counsel network say they have helped women through their pregnancies, just by being visible.
If it is peaceful, if it is non-threatening to individuals, and if it is done in a spirit of being there for women in crisis pregnancies, the pro-life vigil is a valid expression of freedom of assembly.
However, I did learn, from the Australian experience, that it was not something I feel drawn to, personally. But that’s as it should be: people do things differently, and everyone brings something different to the table.
What I feel, personally, is an urge to emphasise the positive in the pro-life story: to marvel at the developments in foetal medicine – babies now having corrective surgery in the womb, for example.
Technology
The onward march of technology which explores amazing development of life and the wonders of medicine which can support fragile pregnancies. And to explore the many ways society could be more supportive of mothers (and fathers) who are struggling: or, as we see from falling fertility all over Europe, who feel the present economic structures of society just don’t validate and support motherhood in a positive way. Modern capitalism only sees mothers as “productive” if they are making money.
Each person brings something different to the table, and each person finds their own way of making a contribution to great causes.
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I was reminded, last Saturday, February 2, that it was Groundhog Day. I don’t think we have the groundhog – a kind of large squirrel or marmot [pictured] – on this side of the pond, but as anyone familiar with Bill Murray’s hilarious movie of the same name will know, the groundhog’s appearance is a noted spring ritual in America. February 2, as I also had to be reminded, is Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation. It certainly is in the Church calendar but it’s so under-emphasised that many of us are probably more conscious now of February 2 as Groundhog Day.
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Roma shows how precious life is
Both moving and harrowing, the much-praised film Roma, set in Mexico, could well be described as a pro-life story. It follows the poignant 1970s tale of a young servant girl, Cleo, working for a middle-class white family – Cleo herself is Mexican Indian – who becomes pregnant out of wedlock. The father of her child is horribly, even violently, rejecting of her situation, though the family she works for are kind.
There’s a truly heart-wrenching birthing scene which ends in tragedy, yet illuminates how desperately everyone wants a baby to live, wanted or unwanted.
The director Alfonso Cuaron previously made The Children of Men, from P.D. James’ novel; this too focused on fertility, imagining the horrors of a dystopian world where no babies were born. The message, again, was how precious is human life.