Alternatives for women in crisis

THE EDITOR: Contrary to the opinion of Ms O’Callaghan (Monday July 12) the ongoing argument on the proposed abortion bill had nothing to do with my giving in to the urge to put pen to paper. Having been well educated by the Catholic Church on “let your conscience be your guide,” I believe that each person must live responsibly. No one has the right to “impose” their belief — religious or otherwise — on another. So, in order to see what Ms O’Callaghan accused me of, I have taken the opportunity to peruse the article submitted on the topic and find that in the main, they fall into two categories; those who because of religious faith and belief are anti-abortionists and those who claim that since abortions are already being done, the act should be decriminalised so that abortions may be procured by those who seek it in a safer medical environment.

Nowhere did I see any argument advocating women to go procure an abortion. Nowhere did I see that abortion sited as a means or population control. Nowhere did I see, contrary to the seeming belief of the anti-abortionists, that once abortion is legalised every pregnancy will be terminated. John Paul II regularly speaks of a prevailing “culture of death,” but — and I stand to be corrected here — must not a seed die if it is to come to life as a tree? Are not these the death pangs of the seeds of old ways of understanding in order for new visions to come to life? It is said that the faith we learn on our parents knees remain their faith unless we can unravel the skeins and reweave it into something uniquely our own. “Religion, as Pope John XXIII understood, appeals first to the imagination and not, as Pope John Paul II regularly insists, to the will.”

We have seen the work of the will, it does not work. Perhaps it is time to use the imagination of John XXIII. Can we say that as Church, as Catholics, we are firing up the imagination of women and girls in crisis so that they see before them an alternative way of resolving the issue of an unwanted child? Reality says no. It is obvious that orphanages and Mary Care are not the alternative they are made out to be. And until we as Church and Catholics can find alternatives acceptable — to the women in crisis  — for the care of unwanted children, abortions will continue — legally or not. It has been said, “truth cannot  be imparted by hitting one over the head with a wet towel, but must be slipped into like a warm coat.” All these anti-Aspire arguments are thuds of wet towels, where are the warm coats?

MARY SALANDY
St James