If Slavery & Segregation Were Wrong, So Is Abortion

Prolife and the OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

By Fr. John J. Raphael, SSJ
(Taken from the Spring 2009 Josephite Harvest)

The week of January 20th was a period of great historical significance in our country as we witnessed the inauguration of the first African American as president of the United States of America.
It was a week of great symbolism as a country which has been deeply stained with the blood, sweat, and tears of peoples of African descent, chose a man of African descent to be its leader. Many could never have imagined a day when the White House, once serviced by African slaves, would have an African American and his family as its chief occupants
It was a week where a spirit of optimism and hope for a better tomorrow permeated the atmosphere as President Obama emphasized in his inauguration speech that his presidency would usher in an era of liberty and opportunity for all!
And so it must also be noted that in that very same week, an equally significant event was held in the very same place as the events surrounding the inauguration. On January 22, two days after the inauguration, hundreds of thousands of Americans of every race, color, and creed gathered as they do every year on this day, to protect and defend life and to ask President Obama, Congress, and the Supreme Court to include the unborn in the plan for America’s
future.
That week was a moment of great symbolism, but it also reminded us that countries are not governed by symbols, they are governed by men and women, politicians to be exact. And so, as citizens of these United States, we must hold our elected leaders accountable to our values as we move from symbol to substance.

As pro-life African Americans present at the March for Life, the St. Augustine High School contingent prayed particularly that the first African-American president would end America’s history of excluding whole classes of human beings from the full blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We prayed that President Obama would one day be known as a president who embraced and defended life from the womb to the tomb, and that the rights of the unborn would be given the same kind of consideration and respect that he and others are giving to the suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay. We continue to pray!
Pro-Life advocates, African Americans and others, know that we have a great challenge ahead of us in the defense of the unborn because, sadly, Senator and Candidate Obama, and many in his Cabinet, including our Catholic Vice-President, Joseph Biden, have regularly sided with the advocates of abortion.
During his first week in office, President Obama issued an executive order rescinding the U. S. Mexico City Policy. This long-standing policy prohibited the use of American tax dollars to fund abortion as a family planning measure in developing countries. President Obama’s order reversing this policy is being highly lauded by aggressive pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood – which stands to regain much funding which it lost as a result of the policy, and other groups such as the National Abortion Rights League, NARAL.
That American tax dollars are being spent in this fashion makes all of us more directly responsible for the consequences of spreading the pro-abortion agenda beyond the United States and into the developing world.
Unfortunately, this move is a signal that Candidate Obama’s promise to Planned Parenthood to protect “a woman’s right to choose” was not an empty one, hence his promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act – which would enshrine legal and unlimited access to abortion on demand throughout the country – if he became president must be taken very seriously.
If we believe that slavery was wrong, if we believe that segregation was wrong; if we would never support a politician who upheld these odious practices, then we must believe that abortion is wrong and actively fight to protect the unborn regardless of who occupies positions of leadership.
If abortion is okay, then slavery was okay; if abortion is okay, then segregation was okay because it was always a matter of choice – the choice of those who were in control. But if these things were wrong because they deprived men and women of human and civil rights, then how much more is that act wrong and offensive to God which deprives an innocent human being of his or her very life?
We must act as indeed our ancestors acted before us making possible the day whenan African American could be elected to the presidency of the United States. The law and the Constitution have not always been on the side of justice and truth.
After a terrible Supreme Court decision (Dred Scott) upholding it, slavery was finally outlawed after a war with the greatest casualty numbers of all American wars. It’s hateful daughter segregation was eventually ended by a Supreme court decision (Brown) that reversed a previous one (Plessy), a movement committed to non-violent protests, civil disobedience, and imprisonment (in addition to beatings, lynchings, and assassinations) — all designed to change laws first (1964 Civil Rights and 1965 Voter Rights Acts), and then hearts.
When America was pro-choice on slavery and pro-choice on segregation, the choices ofstates, slave owners, and segregationists ultimately had to be limited by law so that justice for the oppressed could finally prevail.
Are we are willing to stand up for the unborn today as our forebears stood up for us? If we are not, then unto what purpose is our faith? In the end, we must be accountable to God and there is no doubt where He stands,
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born, I consecrated you, a prophet to the nations, I appointed you” (Jeremiah 1:5).
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
May God make these United States and us, the people who form them, a people of life and justice for all, born and unborn, lest the great symbolism of recent weeks ultimately be rendered void of all substance.

Father John J. Raphael, SSJ, is principal of St. Augustine High School in New Orleans.