Ron Kelsey is the archdiocesan consultant for the pro-life office. You can email him at: profile@archkck.org or call him at (913) 647-0350.
by Ron Kelsey
After nearly 37 years of legalized abortion and during October Respect Life Month, let’s take this opportunity to reflect on the pro-life message.
Is the message we are using placed in the context of the current state of our culture? Are we delivering the message in a manner that gets attention and such that it will be received rather than immediately rejected? Is the message thought-provoking? Does the message achieve one of our primary objectives, which should be to help individuals understand that the lives of human beings are at stake?
Allow me to give an example of a piercing message that accomplishes some of the above: “Large numbers of human beings in various classes are threatened with death by legalized killing each and every day.” Reread this sentence slowly and allow it to sink in. Legalized killing of various classes of human beings?
The statement emphasizes that it is no longer only unborn human beings who are threatened with legalized killing, but the slippery slope has now led to legalized killing of other innocent human beings, including embryos — which biological science establishes as human beings. Embryos are killed via embryonic stem-cell research, in vitro fertilization-related events, and prenatal genetic screening (including sex selection). Other classes now legally killed include the elderly, the disabled, the sick and the dying (legally killed in a few states via assisted suicide and euthanasia-type actions).
I believe that many in society have no idea of this reality. Why not? Because anti-life forces use language that hides and deceives what is happening — phrases, such as: clump of cells; terminate a pregnancy; cells in a petri dish; right to die; death with dignity. Astonishingly, we even still hear the foolish and biologically false statement that we do not know when life begins. It is no wonder that society is unaware or confused.
So the above message opens the door to address many issues. Some individuals may object to the message, saying that it cannot possibly be true. This then becomes a teaching moment. We can then shine the light of truth on the existence of the human being, with biology as our witness. We can also point out the danger that exists when our government subjectively decides that a class of human beings can be legally killed.
This then puts all classes of human beings potentially at risk, as witnessed by the expansion of classes that can be legally killed since Roe v. Wade.
Our understanding that we, too, are human beings should spur us into action to protect every innocent human being from being legally killed because every human being, regardless of class, is a child of God.
