Msgr. Paul V. Garrity
When Roe v. Wade happened in 1973, women were given the legal right to make decisions about their pregnancies. Before this, there were no reliable statistics about abortions simply because they were illegal. Their illegality, however, did not prevent them from happening. Their previous illegal status prevents us, down to the present, from knowing how many abortions took place before 1973.
After 1973, Catholic bishops, among others, were quick to condemn abortions under any circumstances. Mainline Protestant churches did not. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that abortion became entangled with conservative and evangelical politics. At this point, it became the political issue that has roiled American political life until the present. The recent Dobbs decision, which rolled back Roe, represents a milestone in the culture wars that have dubiously painted abortion as the most visible evidence of an increasingly immoral society.
While the word abortion seems to describe the single reality of intentionally ending a pregnancy, it has become a simplistic way of describing a very complex reality. The complexity of the issues surrounding a pregnancy resist politicization because of their density. Reducing this complexity to a single word allows it to be simplified and, therefore, politicized. Reproductive health care is a far more comprehensive way of speaking about these issues, though using this concept makes politicization more difficult. As the culture wars began to grow throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, abortion became the word that defined everything.
When the Dobbs decision was announced, it conflicted with public opinion that had changed dramatically since 1973. In the 2022 elections, it became clear that Dobbs had become an albatross for the anti-abortion solons who had lobbied for years for the overturning of Roe. These same forces are now distancing themselves from the implications of Dobbs because of its demonstrated unpopularity.
What all this says is that abortion became a political football less because of moral outrage at terminating a pregnancy and more because it was politically expedient for its supporters. As the country has changed, so have the politics of abortion. What has been cast into bold relief is the real reason that many politicians embraced it so wholeheartedly many years ago. What has remained consistent is the fact that the overall health of all pregnant women has been routinely ignored.
The goal of overturning Roe v. Wade was always a political goal. Now that the political goal has been achieved, many who have espoused this for so long are discovering that they have been used for partisan gain. Had those who were opposed to Roe marshaled their energies to help pregnant women choose to have their babies, the shape of this issue would be much different today. To be sure, there are agencies and resources that do exactly this. These agencies and resources, however, are no match for the need that exists. What has happened is that more attention and resources have been committed to the politics of abortion and not to persuading and supporting pregnant women to bring their babies into the world.
The Prohibition laws of the early 20th century taught us that it is very difficult to legislate morality. Choosing to have a baby or not is a moral issue. Regardless of what the laws of individual states eventually say, women will continue to make their own decisions about bringing children into the world. It is clearly time to leave the politics of this issue to one side and focus on the moral imperative of doing all that needs to be done to support pregnant women as they deal with the intricacies and challenges of being pregnant.
In a pluralistic society, the vilification of politicians who favor choice over-restrictive abortion laws does not advance the common good. In past elections, some church-goers were told that they could not vote for anyone who favored giving women the right to make decisions for their own lives. This was a political instruction, not a moral imperative. When abortion became a political issue, its complexity disappeared. It was used shamelessly for narrow political gain. Those who told people for whom to vote because of the issue of abortion collapsed the distinction between the political and the moral. It is more clear today than ever before that no one should tell another person for whom they should vote.
Msgr. Paul V. Garrity is a senior priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and former pastor at St. Mary’s Church in Lynn.
