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whether you’re marching for life or not, you can always donate for justice (too)

whether you’re marching for life or not, you can always donate for justice (too)

Last updated on: January 22, 2017 at 10:12 pm by Rebecca Bratten Weiss

whether you’re marching for life or not, you can always donate for justice (too) 2017-01-22T22:12:39-04:00 Rebecca Bratten Weiss

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Reprinted from the New Pro Life page

There was a lot of discussion in our ranks, in the past month, about whether we would officially attend the Women’s March, or the March for Life, or both. It was decided ultimately that if as a group we could only make one march, it would be the one for life, though our concerns intersect with those of the women marching against Trump, also, and we think it unfortunate that there should be this unnatural binary forced, between the rights of women and the rights of the unborn.

But between tight funds (no, no Soros money here!), health issues, and babies on the way, it was not feasible to organize attendance as a group, especially since we only just started existing a couple of months ago. Some of our members have made it to one march, others are planning to be at the other. We are in solidarity with pro-life social-justice feminists across the board.

And although I originally hoped to attend both marches, myself, I am okay with staying home. This is partially because I have serious moral issues with organizations involved in both events, though I do think it’s worthwhile to try to find as much common ground as possible, in the midst of disagreement.

The main reason I am okay with not going, though, is that it would have been so expensive, at a time when I go two months without a paycheck. And if I could scrape together funds for travel, might not that money better serve the pro-life cause — and the women’s rights cause – if given directly to a woman in need, or to an organization that helps women in need?

Don’t get me wrong: marching is powerful. I know it’s important to be seen, to take a stand — as well as to take the chance to join in solidarity with others who are like-minded. There are a number of amazing feminist and pro-life activists I would have loved to meet up with.

But instead, I am staying home, and donating to the cause of social justice. Because the life issue is a social justice issue.

Social justice, I say, because the defense of life is a matter of justice, and the responsibility of the whole society. Also, because the defense of life is connected with other issues of social justice, such as poverty and worker’s rights. Usually when we talk about donating to certain organizations, we refer to it as “charity” — but the term “charity” when (mis)used in this context places the emphasis on the giver, not on the recipient. There’s the implication that the giver heroically went beyond the call of duty, and that the recipient may not have deserved such largess, but it was granted anyway.

In the Catholic tradition, such giving as it affects the giver is more correctly termed a corporal work of mercy. And works of mercy must be done freely, if the do-er is to be truly merciful. Supposing there is no one left who feels like being merciful, though? Or suppose their are only a few such persons? Or suppose those persons have little to give?

Those in dire situations still deserve justice.

So I want to emphasize this: that care for women in crisis pregnancies is not charity. It is justice. It is what these women, and their children, are owed by society. Every woman, no matter what her financial or domestic situation, should be able to look forward to bringing a baby into the world with exactly the same degree of medical care, time off work, practical assistance, and financial security that the average middle-class woman enjoys, when she stays home from work and nurses her child, napping from time to time, not worrying about how she’ll pay the rent or get her other children back and forth to school, or how she’ll recover physically, or whether her partner will expose her new baby to abuse.

Of course, you’re probably already thinking: it’s not so luxurious! And it’s true. Childbirth and the weeks after it can be incredibly difficult even for women in this secure situation. The sleep deprivation is for real. There’s something about the desperation of a newborn crying that ratchets the anxiety up to unheard of levels. There’s the bleeding, the cramping, the chapped nipples. And sometimes there’s the post partum depression, which can, no hyperbole, be a killer. Women who have had traumatic deliveries, or have to recover from C-sections, have it especially hard — even if they have financial security and a caring partner. Even if they don’t have to jam double layers of nursing pads into their bras, so they don’t leak milk all over the place, and make sure there’s food ready for the family, and try to squeeze into work clothes, and rush off to earn their keep.

But having just once in my life had the opportunity to stay home with a baby, instead of rushing right back to work, I can say: all other things being equal, there is simply no comparison. I’ve experienced being abandoned by a spouse, dead broke, and I know that having a supportive partner makes a world of difference. I don’t know what financial security would be like, post-partum, but I’m sure it must help one sleep better, in the little spurts of sleep one gets.

With this in mind, we at New Pro Life want to make the week prior to the March for Life into a week for social justice. We will be sharing pages of different organizations that serve the pro-life and / or social justice cause.

Whether you are going to the march or not, we encourage you to donate to one of these organizations — or, if you already donate regularly, to share, share, share the links to the organizations who do the good work, and encourage others to give: whether to one of the organizations we promote, or to another to which you are committed.

Let’s send a message that being pro-life is more than just a gesture. It’s a whole transformation of the culture.

Follow us at our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/newprolifemovement/ – or at our Medium page, https://medium.com/@newprolifemovement – where we’ll be sharing links to donate to different groups. And also feel free to share information about groups you support, or suggest any creative or innovative ideas you have, about how to make this really trend!

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