Abortion Breaks the Golden Rule
By Fr. Frank A. Pavone
When we come close to Christ, He makes it very clear how we are to respond to our
neighbor. These, in fact, are the first two Commandments of Christ's Law: love God above
all; love your neighbor as yourself. Two sayings of our Lord make it clear how we must
love our neighbor. One is the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you." The other is, "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do
to Me."
These words of Christ help us deal with one of the most burning issues of our day:
abortion. Our response to abortion is a response to a tiny, helpless child and his/her
mother. Apply the Golden Rule. Put yourself in the child's place. (We were all in the womb
at one point ourselves.) Would you want to be cared for and nourished and brought safely
to birth, or aborted? How easily the child is forgotten, because he/she is not seen and
cannot protest the abortion decision. But who would want to be killed in his/her mother's
womb? The Golden Rule also applies to the mother. If you were afraid because you felt you
could not handle a pregnancy, what would you want? Help! We need to commit ourselves to
help mothers raise their children, not kill them. There are over 3,000 helping centers
throughout the country, but they need more assistance from all of us!
Our Lord also tells us, "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do to
me." After we put ourselves in the position of the pre-born child and the mother, we
then put Christ Himself there! Surely the pre-born child is the "least" of His
brothers and sisters! The preborn have the least power, the least protection, the least
voice! They cannot speak, vote, protest, or even pray! The mothers also are often so
alone, and cast aside by those who don't understand their problems. Christ makes it clear:
by helping both mother and child, we are helping Him! By rejecting the mother and child,
we reject Him!
To love one another as Christ taught us demands that we reject abortion completely, and
work for better, life-giving choices!
Amen!
