I finally found something in The Ragamuffin Gospel that helps me articulate what has bothered me about the political grandstanding of the pro-life movement. It’s a question of consistency and integrity; it’s a matter of seeing all humanity as worthy of “life”… and it is a honest self-appraisal for the ways we all fall short in living out God’s commandments to serve one another.

The way we ware with each other is the truest testof our faith. How I treat a brother or sister form day to day, how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street, how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike, how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life than the antiabortion sitcker on the bumper of my car.

We are not pro-life simply because we are warding off death. We are pro-life to the extent that we are men and women for others, all others; to the extent that no human flesh is a stranger to us; to the extent that we can touch the hand of another in love, to the extent that for us there are no “others.”

Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, p. 141.

There is much to consider here…