Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
A Eulogy for the March for Life

A Eulogy for the March for Life

Last updated on: January 24, 2020 at 3:47 pm by Mary Pezzulo

A Eulogy for the March for Life 2020-01-24T15:47:33-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I have tried so hard to ignore coverage of this year’s March for Life.

Last year was bad enough. That was the year I was informed that demanding that people claiming to have the moral high ground uphold themselves with fortitude and courtesy when heckled is inimical to the pro-life cause. Every kind of bad behavior is excusable as long as the bunglers who committed it were trying to be pro-life, I was informed. I didn’t want to talk about the March anymore.

But today, scrolling through social media for something else to talk about, I saw people I once respected praising the president for addressing the March for Life in person, as if he was taking some kind of a risk for doing so. They keep saying this was an important gesture, a meaningful one, one that “took courage.”

I was taken aback in spite of myself.

How could they say that a Republican showing up on the National Mall and giving a speech at the March for Life “took courage?”

Why does it “take courage” for a Republican president to address the March for Life in the first place? This is supposed to be part of their platform. Why does it take courage for Trump, in particular, to stand up in front of a group of people in MAGA hats, parrot a speech that someone else wrote, and receive their applause? The president likes to do that. Addressing rallies of people who agree with him is the only part of the job that he enjoys. It excites him and makes him feel like a king. Wanting to feel like a king is why he ran for president in the first place. This is a joy for Trump. He likes it when people applaud him.

Why does it take courage to do something you like, which you know will earn you high praise?

Aren’t there some other courageous things that he could do?

Overall, abortion rates have dropped every year from 2011 to 2017, all around the country, for which we should be grateful. But laws restricting abortion don’t seem to be the main driver of that. It seems to be a general reduction in the pregnancy rate. Abortion rates actually rose in some of the states that passed heavy restrictions. And those restrictions were passed at the state level anyway. President Trump didn’t do any of this.

I haven’t yet found information about the abortion rates in the past two years in the country overall. However, Planned Parenthood released a report saying that the 2018-2019 business year was the busiest year of their existence– the most abortions provided and the most government funds garnered, since they’ve been keeping records. President Trump didn’t stop that.

And Rand Paul, of all people, has spilled the beans that the GOP had it within their grasp to de-fund Planned Parenthood for the whole country, but declined to try, because the law might pass. I hope no one is going to accuse him of being a liberal trying to make the party look like liars.

Meanwhile, the Republican party seems determined to do everything they can, in practice, to hurt vulnerable children: the disastrous immigration crackdown, cuts to food stamps, poisoning the water. We’re told we have to put up with these eccentricities because abortion kills the most people. But they’ve done nothing to help those people either.

Still, we’re supposed to forget all of that and laud the GOP as saviors of babies and President Trump as the most pro-life president in history, because he made a speech at the March for Life.

I’ve kept asking, for nearly four years now, whether we should be interested in scoring ideological victories or saving actual human lives, and again again I’ve had my answer. Most people would rather score points. They would rather fawn over someone who says the right thing than actually help people. This is a flaw that human beings share all across the political spectrum, but it’s especially shocking when the people who commit it say they’re doing it because they are pro-life.

As for me, I would like to safeguard and protect as many lives as I can, from conception until natural death, without swallowing anybody’s party line. For this I’m called fake pro-life and not really Catholic enough, and worse things.

I used to go to the March for Life, when I was a teenager and a young adult. It made me feel that I had “Done Something,” that I had taken a stand for helpless lives in danger. After awhile, my health got too bad to get on a bus overnight, and I stayed home and interceded for the marchers. But after awhile I asked myself, what was I really doing out there? Was I helping anyone? Exactly how many lives, unborn or otherwise were saved by my standing on the National Mall with a sign shouting slogans at people who agree with me? Not that there’s no place for public protest, but a public protest at the exact same scheduled time every single year doesn’t seem to be accomplishing much. Wouldn’t our efforts be better spent doing something else?

The president used the podium today to stump for his second term, claiming “the unborn have never had a stronger defender in the White House” and claim that the Democrats are after him because he’s pro-life.

A politician desperate to keep his job, in an election year, showing off in front of a crowd of people who love him and will cheer for him no matter what, is not performing an act of courage. He’s advertising for himself.

I was once told that the reason we should still crowd the National Mall and shout at one another was for the sake of any pregnant women watching. “Imagine if it changes even one heart.” But that goes both ways, you know. Imagine all the people watching a self-serving fool pander to a fan base that fawns over him. What conclusion will they form, and can you blame them?

The March for Life may or may not have once stood for a consistent life ethic. I am the wrong person to ask if it did. But it’s clear that right now, it’s a campaign rally for a political party and nothing more. And it doesn’t take courage to attend your own campaign rally.

I’m told President Trump walked offstage to a rousing chorus of The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and I suppose that’s as good a dirge as any for the March for Life.

And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, “We’re gonna vent our frustration
If we don’t we’re gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse.

You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
You get what you need.

What some of us need is praise, and to be called courageous for seeking it.

The rest of us ought to go on trying to help safeguard human life.

(image via Pixabay)

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, visit our donate page.

New Pro-Life Movement

personal beliefs

politics

president

presidential election

Public face of Catholicism

Previous Post

January 23, 2020

Violence, Gaslighting and Flying Monkeys: How Abusers Manipulate their Communities

Next Post

January 26, 2020 Imagine a Flock of Tongue-Cut Sparrows

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who came to Jesus at night to ask about being born again?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Nicodemus Zacchaeus Simon Cornelius