Even as the modern pro-life movement was being conceived within the halls of medicine, grown in the journals of science throughout the United States, a war broiled within our country that would take the lives of more American soldiers than any other before and since.
The Civil War is remembered as one of the most bloody conflicts in history, fought primarily over the enslavement of blacks. Even before the war broke out, however, efforts were being made across the country to help escaped slaves, to free them and to provide them with safe places of refuge. Known as the Underground Railroad, extensive systems of safe houses, secret routes, passageways, and more were used by slaves to escape from slavery in the south.
These efforts, while not backed by law and often not even in compliance with it, likely saved tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of slaves, who were able to go on to make new lives for themselves in the Northern States or Canada.
Every slave saved through the Underground Railroad is unquestionably a good thing, and the abolitionists who aided them are admirable heroes, worthy of praise for the vitally important work they did.
But the Underground Railroad didn’t solve the problem. It freed slaves, but it did not stop slavery, and no matter how many slaves were saved through their efforts the core of the injustice continued unabated.
Crisis pregnancy centers, sidewalk counseling, and other such methods can be very effective, and I am happy for every woman and child they save. I am in absolute support of these efforts, and have personally worked to assist organizations dedicated to assisting those considering abortion. These types of efforts are our underground railroad. They are important aspects of the pro-life movement, helping people escape abortion and saving thousands of lives, and I greatly admire the people who devote their time and energy to this kind of work.
But we need to keep in mind that while these sorts of efforts prevent abortions, they do not stop abortion. The bulk of this injustice continues to stalk through our country, and I don’t think that any amount of sidewalk counseling, free baby supplies, and maternal help is going to change that.
In some ways, I fear that the pro-life movement has grown so used to abortion that we have a hard time imagining that we could ever actually end it. Because of this, we have devoted our time, energy, and a huge volume of our limited resources towards efforts like CPCs and sidewalk counseling, trying to help women not to get abortions, and I worry that we may be diverting too much from efforts to actually end abortion.
When people advocate that we just need to stop trying to impose restrictions on abortion, and focus on CPCs and sidewalk counseling and the like, I believe that they have already given up the fight. If all people had ever done was try to help blacks escape slavery, that injustice would likely have never ended. Similarly, as honorable and helpful as they are, the efforts of CPCs and organizations set up to help women who would have otherwise sought an abortion must not come at the expense of the larger effort to end abortion and extend legal protections to the unborn.
We have to be careful to ensure that we are properly balancing these different aspects of our movement, and that we are being as effective as possible in our efforts to protect the unborn and their mothers.
