“Why Haven’t We Ended Abortion?”
by Rachel MacNair Part 1 of 2 posts responding to Ward Ricker’s essay, “Prolife – Not” Ward Ricker has been active in opposing abortion, but has recently written an essay expressing alienation from the pro-life movement. In Part 2, I’ll address that feeling of alienation more directly, but first I was challenged by his complaint…
Oppressors of Women Scapegoat Fetuses to Preserve Patriarchy
by Richard Stith [Originally published in The New Human (Vol. VI, No. 5, June 1977), newsletter of the National Youth Pro-Life Coalition,, under the title “Abortion Proponents Are Often Exploiters of Women.” Lightly edited.] We’re all familiar with the argument that racism is fomented by those who exploit poor whites, in order to generate a…
Misogyny vs. Patriarchy
by Rachel MacNair Before I get into why I think it’s important to understand the difference between misogyny and patriarchy, I want to explain how they fit into the Consistent Life Network’s set of issues. We identified six issues of violence involving socially-tolerated killing of human beings, as listed on this banner: Each of the…
Book Review: “Resisting Throwaway Culture”
by Mary Lou Bennett Resisting Throwaway Culture: How a Consistent Life Ethic Can United a Fractured People, by Charles C. Camosy. Anyone living in the United States today is acutely aware of the pain and decay that permeate society as a result of contemporary moral issues. With such awareness, feelings of sadness, despair, and disbelief…
When Women Lead: The Pro-life Women’s Conference
by C.J. Williams This year’s Pro-Life Women’s Conference had a theme: WHEN WOMEN LEAD. But what might just as well have been the unspoken theme was unity, and underlying all unity is consistency. As the Consistent Life Network (CLN) set up to table in the enormous Pontchartrain Conference Center in New Orleans, we were surrounded…
The Mirror-Image Counterpart of the Selfish Society
by Richard Stith This 1978 article was originally entitled “What it Means to be Pro-Life: Toward a Political Theory for Our Movement.” It appeared in The New Human, Vol. VII No. 2, March–April 1978, a publication of the National Youth Pro-Life Coalition. It’s been lightly edited. Does being “pro-life” mean something more than being against…
Dorothy Day and the Consistent Life Ethic: Rejecting Conventional Political Paradigms
by Rob Arner As anyone who has embraced the consistent life ethic (CLE) will tell you, the sense of isolation, of not fitting in can be paralyzing. This is all the more true when it comes to the traditional American political spectrum, with its the left-right/conservative-progressive dichotomy. CLE political positions, linked as they are by…
Jasmine, Aladdin, and the Power of Nonviolence
by Rachel MacNair The recent live-action version of the movie Aladdin didn’t deal much with specific consistent life issues. The only one brought up was war, and that was only because the villain wanted it, though never got beyond planning. Yet the fleshing out of the characters, compared to the 1992 cartoon version, led to…
Life-Affirming Doctors
Part 1: Let Everybody be Able to Find a Safe Doctor The author prefers to remain anonymous because, as she indicates, she doesn’t want her medical condition known to her family. My primary care physician retired, so I have to find a new one. This is an opportunity for me to pick a new one…
What’s Cruel for the Incarcerated is Cruel for the Terminally Ill: The Connection between Lethal Injection and Assisted Suicide
by Jacqueline H. Abernathy, Ph.D., MSSW In a recent episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, comedian and host John Oliver offered a scathing (albeit profane) rebuke of lethal injection as a means of execution in U.S. states with capital punishment. He detailed the issues with the drugs employed and…