What does it mean to be fully pro-life?

In several posts I talked about denial of communion who are actively and personally involved in pro-life activities. But, here is a small final thought. What does it mean to be pro-life in a full way? If all too many people are simply pro-birth but not fully pro-life, we need to ask, “What does it mean to be fully pro-life? Let’s take a look at the web site for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and see what they classify as being pro-life. You might be surprised at the type of issues that are considered pro-life issues by the Catholic bishops of this country. I would suggest that most probably many of the Orthodox bishops in this country would agree with almost all of them.

Here are the issues that are listed on the web site as being life issues:

• Abortion
• Assisted Suicide
• Capital Punishment
• Human Cloning
• Contraception
• Disabilities
• Embryo / Fetal Research
• End of Life Issues / Euthanasia
• IVF / Reproductive Technology
• International Issues
• Morning After Pill
• Natural Family Planning
• Partial-Birth Abortion
• Post Abortion Healing
• Roe v. Wade
• RU-486
• Stem Cell Research
• Unborn Victims of Violence Act
• Women and the Culture of Life

Most of them are rather obviously related to issues that organizations like Right to Life would be involved with. But, notice that Capital Punishment is listed as a pro-life issue. And, if you look farther into the website, you can find additional issues being listed under the heading of life. For instance:

• Health Care Reform and the Pro-Life Agenda
• Intercessions and Prayers for Human Dignity and Justice (listed under Pro-Life Activities)
• War (Iraq in particular) and the indiscriminate bombing of civilians (listed under Pro-Life Activities)

Well, you get the idea. In other words, a full pro-life posture includes a wide range of issues that have to do with the dignity of human life. I have no problem in saying that inside the USA abortion is the pre-eminent pro-life issue. But, we need to be cautious not to make it the only pro-life issue. And in some countries where famines and wars kill more than abortions (think the Sudan or Somalia), abortion may not be the pre-eminent pro-life issue there. Let me say it stronger. If we fail to mention the other issues, or if we minimize them, or if we even decide they are not really important, we are in danger of presenting an inappropriate witness to the world. This is why I have been so strong in this series of posts that have had to do with denial of communion.

No, I am not saying that communion needs to be denied to every person who is negatively involved in one of these categories. That would be overkill. But, I have certainly argued that people involved in any of several of the anti-life activities, if they are directly and personally involved, do need to be denied communion. But, it is even more important to maintain a balance in our witness. Too many in the pro-birth movement are only partially pro-life. But worse, there are those in the pro-birth movement who are pro-life but mute their full witness in order to not offend their compatriots. We dare not do that. We dare not be less than fully pro-life.