Dear Mr. President: New Car Needed

During Obama’s presidential campaign I appreciated his nuanced assessment of the abortion rights debate. I didn’t appreciate his we’re-going-to-track-you-down-and-kill-you approach to terrorism. In his first days in office, he acted in both areas.

This week Obama overturned a law disallowing U.S. dollars to support family planning groups involved in abortions. “This should serve as a bitter pill for those who campaigned for him, all the while proclaiming their belief in the cause of life and family,” NPR quoted one abortion opponent.

While I haven’t researched the overturning beyond NPR’s precursory skimmage, I would wager that the abolishment effects hugely complex ramifications not all of which result in abortions. That said, however, to any pro-Obama-er who, like me, is also pro-life not just in pre-birth matters, this move–if indeed it does result in increasing abortion rates–by the new president is as unjustifiable as his approval of so-called anti-terror military strikes.

I’ve been writing recently about the children devastated in military conflict. Obama’s actions this week have furthered this evil devastation in no inconsequential way. According to The Guardian, “Obama, in his first military action as president, sanctioned two missile attacks inside Pakistan on Friday, killing 22 people, reportedly women and children among them. The attacks drew criticism from Pakistani officials at the weekend. Pakistani president, Asif Zardari, told the US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, that the strikes ‘do not help the war on terror.’ According to reports, he also warned her that ‘these attacks can affect Pakistan’s cooperation in the war on terror.'”

I think it’s rather obvious that the war on terror is about as silly and counterproductive as is the war on drugs or was Prohibition. The best way to deal with any of those problems–terrorism, drug abuse, alcoholism–is not to outlaw them or to fight them but to dig out their roots. These self-destructions need to be pre–empted through the cultivation of concrete opportunities and founded hopes that usurp the desperation that lures people into such behaviors.

Similarly, both the expansion and limiting of abortion have one thing in common: neither deals with the underlying social ills that supply the abortion industry with clients. To say otherwise would be like claiming that encouraging people to eat junk food–or outlawing it entirely–will solve the problem of people not growing their own tomatoes.

I resonate with selected concerns aired by Frank Schaeffer back in campaign season: “We can’t [reduce abortions] by concentrating on politics, or silver bullets such as trying for that one magic court appointment. It’s the ‘holistic’ approach that is really what’s important if our goal is to reduce the number of abortions rather than just ‘win’ political games…. What kind of care do we provide to mothers and children? What is our educational system like? Is health care available to all? Do our preschool programs and everything from paternal and maternal leave to the economic well-being of our country come first? Or do we argue about abortion rights while we live lives of such supreme selfish decadence that the nature of our country means that no matter what we do with the laws about abortion life will not be valued?”

We need to pre–empt abortion through myriad concrete opportunities and options, not the least of which are better adoption processes that allow caring parents to welcome adoptees into their homes without ridiculous delays and legal encumbrances. M and I know personally two loving couples our age who are at different stages in the adopting process, and it’s no less than nightmarish, considering their frustrated willingness to meet needy children’s needs.

From-womb-to-tomb pro-lifers concerned about abortion, military action, and counter-terrorism need to demand the crystalization of the change so welcomely promised by our new president over the past year. In a sermon this morning one pastor said it approximately in this way: “We have a new driver, but we’re still in the same car.”

Dear Driver: Our nation needs a new car.