Politics, Policy, and Real People

One more thought on our trip to Washington DC earlier this week --

Until interning this summer with EMC, all my pro-life work had been on the political side -- activism, educational outreach, lobbying, opinions articles. I tend to approach problems this way, with a political bent or methodically from an intellectual standpoint. This makes me a fine student, but it doesn't necessarily translate into our work here.

Since my arrival in May, I have learned enormous amounts of information concerning fetal development, abortion procedures, and the help available in New York City to pregnant mothers. But mostly my time and thoughts have been concerned with the chaotic, surprising, and often heartbreaking situations of the women and girls we see.

This is real life. These people aren't ideas or abstractions. They are not here to back up mine or yours or anyone else's ideology. Half these women don't even know what the labels pro-life and pro-choice mean.

So standing in Washington DC in front of Nancy Pelosi's office and trying to get members of the US House of Representatives to listen to our demands seemed almost surreal. Holding a banner, declaring that 'Abortion is not Healthcare,' listening to the empassioned words of Alveda King on the steps of the Cannon building, I marveled at how distant these two aspects of our fight can seem.

Which matters more? The woman sitting right in front of me, not convinced the life inside her is precious and unique? Or the bill sitting on the desk of every US Representative, mandating that every taxpayer pays into a fund which will enable women across the country to get abortions that much easier?

And the question for me becomes, for whom are we fighting? It might be easy enough for those who are pro-choice to use rhetoric and weak statistical evidence to make their case on Capitol Hill, but on the streets of the Bronx their case falters pretty quickly. In the face of the women we see, the politics of abortion seem irrelevant, and oftentimes purposefully ignorant. After working for EMC this summer, the arguments concerning why taxpayer-funded abortions constitute a public good have become barely comprehensible to me -- do policy makers even attempt to understand the people and situations they are supposedly trying to help?

Inside the Beltway or out, I'm grateful for the different opportunities I've had to fight this fight, grateful for the chances I've been given and the perspectives I've seen. After this summer, it is likely that I will return to more political pro-life activity, but I will never forget the faces of the real women I've met, the lives I've been blessed to impact and those who've blessed me, and just how high these stakes really are.