Yesterday the FDA permanently lifted restrictions on mifepristone by mail. Almost 80% of abortions take place before 10 weeks gestation, meaning they could conceivably take place by way of medicine abortion (eg, the abortion pill).
It's common to see pro-lifers outside of the local Planned Parenthood clinic praying and holding signs of aborted babies, the reality of surgical abortion. I have to wonder, though, given this recent ruling--is this like the analog version of pro-life infantry on the ground (already sparse) in a newly digital age?
In other words, if potentially 80% of abortions are taking place in a decentralized environment--in people's homes, by mail--what are we doing outside of Planned Parenthood? Focusing on the 20% of (surgical) abortions after 10 weeks that are easier to pinpoint geographically happening in a centralized location? It introduces a potentially whole new battle front and strategy of guerilla warfare by abortion advocates the way the Vietcong during Vietnam fought. They became the "invisible enemy" changing the rules of warfare to achieve their ends.
Though it certainly could capitalize on this legislation, Planned Parenthood doesn't have a corner on mifepristone. I imagine the profit margin is thinner than with surgical abortions in clinics, but still...do you see where I am going with this? Who is the enemy we are fighting against when medicine abortion becomes the common method and becomes decentralized to the degree that your next door neighbor, your boss, your sister even could be getting her pill by mail--willingly--and killing her child in the privacy of her own home, and that is the vast majority of abortions taking place? Then where do you protest? "The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead" (Ecc 9:3). Planned Parenthood clinics then become this kind of symbolic thing, a kind of cicada shell left behind so that pro-lifers have some place to focus their prayers and signs and physical presence on. But what if these become minor statistical battles when the war is taking place someplace else entirely?
I don't know. It's incredibly disheartening. You know, I've been recruiting for over a decade now. For years I have been saying the in-person college fair--where you drive three hours to set up a table with swag and printed information to talk to maybe two or three potential students--is a dinosaur and a waste of time and resources. But pre-covid we had nothing to replace it with, so we just kept doing it the way we always had. Then 2020 came, and everything went virtual. So it's like, how do we attract these students now if we're not even meeting them in person anymore, they're not taking the SAT or GRE (so we don't have purchases lists anymore), and they're not even participating in the virtual fairs either? How are we suppose to do our job in this type of environment? It's like the rules have changed, and we're two steps behind. We're still acting like the British forces in the Revolutionary War.
I don't know what the answer is, but if things move in this direction, getting in your car and "going to get an abortion" is going to be akin to cassette tape decks in cars or fax machines or tobacco cigarettes. How will pro-life advocates (the "old guard"?) pivot and fight the hearts of those who place their orders for these pills? How do you fight one's heart? You can't. You can only win someone over one heart at a time.
Our Lady of Victory, pray for us.
The only way to win this war is to convert hearts and minds and souls. The same remedy that has always done so is still available.
ReplyDeleteIt is Christ. Only Christ.
The Catholic Church is lousy at evangelization these days. That has to change or even more souls will be lost. Be good, practicing Catholics and invite others to Mass with you. And do it with joy.