My Choice Hurts Me … Still

Back in 2003, at the annual March for Life in DC which marked the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I saw a woman carrying a sign that read:

“24 Years Later … My Choice Hurts Me Still.”

Though there were thousands of other slogans, banners, and images, I couldn’t get this woman and her “Scarlet Letter” out of my mind. I was shocked, saddened, and unsure of what to do. Was I supposed to do anything? Thank goodness there were a few hundred people between her and me. That way, I could suffer at a distance.

When you contrast this woman’s honest message with the more strident and sickening visions of separated body parts and grim reaper costumes, you have an image of the two ends of the spectrum in this 30 year campaign. I would guess that it’s easy to dress up like death personified and shock people with your message — an act eagerly anticipated. It takes a whole lot more of something else to wear a big “A” on you chest that says: “I’m sorry. Don’t.”

It’s one thing to oppose, protest, and editorialize. It’s quite another to actually do something. As Orthodox Christians, what should we do? Practicing what we preach is hard. With the horrible practice of abortion, we must educate our children. We have a teaching responsibility about accountability, fidelity, chastity … It’s about sanctity. It’s about life.

Then there’s that woman with her sign. The sad reality is that all around us, even within us, are people scarred by abortion. Shrill rhetoric and staunch opposition without loving action is not the God-pleasing route toward healing.

It’s estimated that there were 200,000 people at that year’s March. Would that we had all parted to opposite sidewalks and, bowing our heads, let this one woman pass through our midst. Or, we could have sat at her feet and listened to her lament.

Then again, I could have simply made my way through the crowd and hugged her and thanked her for being there. In the end, as often happens, we suffer at a distance.

Three years later, that woman’s sign hurts me still.