The pro-choice position

By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
July 10, 2019

WE have to be familiar with the so-called pro-choice position that is now becoming the prevalent ideology affecting many countries and especially the young ones, the so-called millennials. We need to be familiar with it so that we can be better prepared to deal with it, since it is now invading our own country. In fact, there is now a strong foreign-funded pressure to instil this kind of liberal pro-choice view on us.

The pro-choice position, of course, refers to the so-called life-issues, like abortion, population control, same-sex marriage, divorce, euthanasia, etc. It has an eminently moral question that we need to be clear about.

We need to understand that there are moral principles that derive from the very nature of things, and especially of our own. And they have a universal applicability, going beyond our natural and artificial differences in race, culture, religion and other categories.

In a nutshell, the pro-choice position can be expressed in the following words as expressed by many of its advocates and followers: “I am pro-choice, even if that means abortion. I am also for same-sex unions, and I also support legalizing divorce. What people want to do with their lives and their body should not be controlled by other people’s religious beliefs.

“If you do not want abortion, don’t get one. If you don’t want to marry one of the same sex, by all means, don’t. Don’t divorce if that’s what you prefer. But to take away other people’s choices because you don’t agree with them is evil and wrong. The terrible thing is that many people can only imagine a world where their religion is absolute. What tyranny!”

It’s incredible that this view can be held even by very educated people, and people who are even products of Catholic schools and other very prestigious centers of learning.

At least two possibilities can explain this disturbing phenomenon. One is that these schools are not anymore teaching morals and are just focusing on technical things. And two, that the students may be taught morals but are not internalizing them. Of course, there are still many other possible explanations.

With this pro-choice position, one is practically saying that there are no absolute moral principles with a universal applicability, that everyone is absolutely free to do whatever he wants to do. In other words, one makes himself his own lawgiver, if not his own god. He cannot be told and taught anything. He has to be left alone. He can do anything he likes.

It is amazing that many people with this position do not realize that they are going against even the very basics of common sense. We are never alone. We can never be alone. We have to live by certain laws. We cannot escape the fact that we have to submit to certain do’s and don’ts.

Abortion is not about exercising the right over a woman’s body. Whether one is a believer or not, abortion is simply killing a human person. A fetus inside the mother’s womb is not just a clump of cells. A fetus just cannot be but a baby.

And the so-called same-sex marriage is a contradiction since marriage can only be between a man and woman. It is not meant only for good-time, for giving in to what our flesh desires. It is meant for procreation, for education and upbringing of children and family, and the good of society.

Divorce simply goes against the very nature of marriage. It is rejecting one’s commitment of love however the marriage may go. The concerned parties in marriage promise “to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part”