The Poor Cry Out for Justice, and We Respond with Legalized Abortion
by Graciela Olivarez, 1972 Commissioner appointed by US President Richard Nixon from the “Separate Statement of Graciela Olivarez” in Report of the President’s Commission on Population and the American Future U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972 To brush aside a separate statement on the issue of abortion on the grounds that it is based on religious…
If Men Could Get Pregnant
by Rachel MacNair The “Sacrament” We’ve recently had the idea of what would happen with abortion if men could get pregnant come up twice. In last week’s blog, Mary Liepold said: “I still agree with blessed, angry Florynce Kennedy, may she rest in peace, that if men could get pregnant abortion would be a…
When “Choice” Itself Hurts the Quality of Life
by Richard Stith Consistent Life Network board member and Research (non-teaching) Professor of Law Editor’s note: these ideas are more fully developed in a 2011 paper available for sale, entitled Her Choice, Her Problem: How Having a Choice Can Diminish Family Solidarity. Here’s a question about “choice” and abortion, assisted suicide, and voluntary euthanasia: Could…
Where Violence Begins
by Rachel MacNair The planetarium presentation, as usual, was beautiful. Yet there was a disquieting aspect to the language used. Stars were “dying.” Why not “being transformed”? These stars did something in a “desperate” attempt to prevent this. How can an inanimate object be desperate? One star taking material from another star was “cannibalizing.” …
Excerpt – Peace Psychology Perspectives on Abortion
Excerpt from the Introduction to Peace Psychology Perspectives on Abortion by Rachel M. MacNair Understanding Perspectives Back when I was in college, pursuing a major in Peace and Conflict Studies at Earlham (a Quaker college, I being a Quaker), several of us activists put together a program to educate about what was wrong…
Ancient Roots of the Consistent Life Ethic: Greece
by Mary Krane Derr The ancient Greek mathematician, musician, vegetarian, and spiritual teacher Pythagoras (580? BCE-??) taught a nonviolence ethic rooted in the kinship of all living beings. Pythagoras’ ethic did not exclude or denigrate women. Most unconventionally, Pythagoras defined only sexual misconduct, not intercourse itself, as polluting. He accepted women equally as his students….