(This twenty minute talk was delivered in Spanish.)
Defending
Human Life
It
is a great pleasure for me to be here with so many leaders of the movement whose
purpose is to promote the sacredness of life and family. I wish to thank Dr.
Allan Carlson of the Howard Center and all the other organizers of this
marvelous Congress for their invitation to speak. I pray that the Lord of Life
will bless the work that we accomplish here in these three days and allow it to
bear great fruit in our world.
The
topic of “defending human life” is so broad and my time so limited today that I
thought I would narrow down my presentation to the explanation of a few simple
concerns that I have for the pro-life, pro-family movement that we all
represent. Those who wish further explanations of any of the pro-life concerns
that I will speak about can find them on our two websites,
www.hli.org (in English) and www.vidahumana.org (in Spanish).
I
propose to speak on two themes of great importance to all of us who call
ourselves pro-life and pro-family. The first is the foundation upon which we
build our families and the culture of life, and the second is the strategy to
deprive the enemies of life and family of the arms that they use to make war on
all that we hold sacred. Although this is necessarily a defensive strategy, and
no war can ever be won just on the defensive, nevertheless no war is ever won
without a defensive strategy either. I will speak about this way to defend life
and family in the context of a Congress with so many groups taking the
offensive to reconstruct and fortify the family in the modern age.
Theme One: the absolute principle of the sanctity of all human life
First, the
irreducible basis for all our work for life and family is one fundamental
principle that cannot be renounced if we are to save our culture from utter
destruction: namely, the sanctity of all human life. This might sound trite to
us who are pro-life, but the truth of it is not apparent to all, even many
pro-lifers. I speak of something very precise here. I mean that the principle
of the sanctity of human life ought to apply to all human beings, not just
those we happen to like. This principle is an absolute: in other words, it
ought to be applied to all human life everywhere, at all times and under all
circumstances. It cannot be renounced without great danger to our very concept
of humanity and therefore the very essence of civilization. To say that human
life is sacred is to say that we owe it reverence anywhere we find it and in
whatever form. As always, the practice of reverence toward anything or anyone demands
something of us. It is not easy to show reverence, especially in today’s day
and age where nothing is considered sacred. To be human means to be sacred. To
have life means to have a precious gift which is inviolable and which must be
defended as an either/or proposition. Either all human life is sacred or none
of it is. If we do not hold this principle as an absolute, then we run the
grave danger of legalizing or institutionalizing discrimination against some
human beings, usually those who cannot defend themselves against aggression. If
we do not defend innocent human life as sacred in itself and with an attitude that
admits of no compromise, then we will not long be able to defend anything else.
We will just accept and accommodate the ethic of the survival of the fittest.
A good example of
this was the stem cell debate of August 2001. Almost one month to the day before
September 11th, President Bush issued a decision to the American
public about the use of embryonic stem cells for research. In his statement he did
not sufficiently clarify the general confusion about the ethical difference
between embryonic stem cells vs. adult stem cells. Nor did he stand
firmly on the side of the defense of all human life as an absolute
responsibility of his office and of all people. Instead, he gave federal money
(and thus public endorsement) to the scientists who had already done the
gruesome deed of killing human embryos for research. And while he did say that the
government would not fund any further research on embryonic stem cells, he did
not show us why we must defend all human life. He did not defend all
human life. While appearing to uphold the sanctity of life with human embryos,
he actually made the deadly compromise of upholding the sanctity of only some embryos, and left the other equally
precious human lives to the business interests of unscrupulous men.
This is the difference
between who can never countenance the killing innocent human beings for any
reason and those who believe that killing is justified sometimes. Unfortunately this difference even runs through the
pro-life movement and through the churches, but if we are to have any success
in ending the wanton destruction of innocent human life by abortion or any
other attack on innocent human life, this principle must be our rock solid
foundation for pro-life work always and everywhere. Our very existence may
depend on it.
Theme Two: the weapons of mass destruction of our families and society
The second theme I
want to address is how to deprive the enemies of the human race of the weapons
that they use to kill children and destroy families. These weapons are contraception
and school-based sex education. They are indeed the “weapons of mass
destruction” that groups like MexFam (affiliate of International Planned
Parenthood in Mexico) use to impose the culture of death on all societies. Theirs
is a total, uncompromising, intolerant commitment towards these instruments of
cultural destruction, and if we are to truly defend human life, marriage and
families from this destruction we have an equally absolute commitment to depriving
groups like IPPF of their weapons.
The attitude of
most good people and even many pro-life activists is that the use of
contraception is just a “personal issue.” I dissent from this modern dogma! The
attitude of pro-abortion activists however, is quite different! They see
contraception as an instrument of social change. They know that if they can get
enough people to make millions and millions of these “personal” decisions they
can permanently change society to conform to their anti-life and anti-family
ideology. This is why they always, in every society in which they work (which
is everywhere), begin by infiltrating the Public Health sector, the media, and
faculties of medicine with their logic and their workers. They train the people
on the front lines – usually professionals – to corrupt the personal lives of
others with these forces of evil.
The pro-abortion
activists know well that there are always three inevitable, I would say
infallible, consequences of the contraceptive mentality when it permeates a
society long enough – and I wish all pro-lifers recognized these consequences
as well:
-
A
precipitous lowering of the fertility rate of a country
-
An
increase in abortion (whether legal or illegal) and the legalization of it
where it is not yet legal; and worst of all
-
The
formation of selfishness in a populace.
These plagues are inflicted on
every society that generally accepts and practices contraception as can be
easily shown:
-
In
the undeveloped countries of the world the promoters of abortion tell them that
the number of children that they have is the cause of their poverty; this is an essentially discriminatory
attitude which stigmatizes children and the poor for the problems that
politicians cause; in case you did not know it, MexFam has been promoting
contraceptive use in Mexico for 35 years with this logic to the point where the
fertility rate has been cut in half [the logo if this Congress that features a
family with three children is unfortunately reflective of a sad reality – the
fertility rate of Mexico used to be more than six children per family!]
-
Europe has practically annihilated itself through forty
years of contraception and abortion and now cannot replace its own population –
there is only one country in Europe where the fertility rate is at replacement
level, and by 2050 the proud Europeans will be a meager 10% of the human race;
the only reason why America’s fertility rate is still at replacement levels is
precisely because of the Hispanic immigrants who are coming to our shores and
having children! Thank God for them!
-
It is a fact that every country of the world that
generally accepted and practiced contraceptives has also legalized abortion;
Mexico has not yet legalized abortion generally (except in the Federal
District), but it is only a matter of time – contraception is used practically
universally, sex education is instituted in the schools, and illegal abortion
is widely practiced.
Examples can be
multiplied ad infinitum, but you get
the point.
In my opinion the
worst effect of contraception is the selfishness that it forms in the minds and
hearts of people. The use of contraception carries with it so many messages
that implant themselves in the most intimate spheres of life and family.
Couples begin to hate children as burdens, they stigmatize and positively
revile large families, they opt for lifestyles that exclude or minimize
children, and the practice of divorce becomes regularized and justified for the
self-fulfillment of the parents with no thought of its effect on children. We
can see the long-term effects of forty years of the Pill in America: every
indicator of family breakdown has increased exponentially during these decades.
It
is imperative that we see the connection between contraception and abortion if
we are to preserve our children, our families and ultimately our societies from
destruction. It is equally imperative that we work against all forms of
contraception and contraceptive programs recognizing that they are instruments
of the culture of death. They do not, as they are said to do, lead to fewer
abortions in a country; quite the contrary, they only lead to more abortion.
Sex education
programs in the schools are another instrument of the culture of death that we
must stand against. Planned Parenthood calls what they teach to young people in
the schools sex “education” but in reality it is sex indoctrination and assures that teenagers and women of childbearing
age will be walking into abortion clinics in the millions each year around the
world. Sex education is the propaganda mechanism of the culture of death and is
a form of indoctrination of young minds, brain-washing if you will, in order
that they will be formed in the contraceptive from the earliest ages. Don’t think
they talk to kids about chastity or marriage either. Rather, they tell them
that they cannot control themselves and so have to “protect” themselves from
pregnancy. They use terms like “safe sex” which is not in any way safe, and they
foment attitudes and habits of promiscuity with the impression that sex is free
and that there are no consequences to this type of behavior. In other words
they indoctrinate them with an anti-life, anti-family ideology which goes
against everything that we hold true. Regretfully the “children of the
darkness” are much more astute in promoting their agenda than the children of
the light.
Just to give you
an idea of how successful the anti-life and anti-family forces have been
wielding their contraception sex ed weapons, US abortion statistics indicate
that a full 80 percent of women who
have abortions are single. Sixty percent of
all aborting women also report that they are choosing abortion because their
contraception has failed. These statistics mean that our youth have been taught
from an early age to be promiscuous and to use contraception for a false sense
of “protection” and ultimately to use abortion as a backup to all this selfish
behavior. Our youth culture is in the control, not of parents, but of “sex
educators” whose ideology is anti-life and anti-family. The enemies of life and
family make money by selling contraceptives that fail and by teaching young
people that the only negative consequences of sexual activity are children and
disease. They then turn around and make more money by selling them abortions
whether legal or illegal.
As a side note, I
believe that Hispanics in the US are a tremendously positive influence on
American society, and my only concern is that their (your) profound sense of
the sanctity of life and family will be eroded in time. Hispanic women are a
target for the abortion industry because it is essentially racist in its
attitude and outreach. For example, American blacks are only 12% of the
population, but they have 35% of all abortions. It is genocide pure and simple.
Likewise, the numbers of Hispanic women aborting is on the rise as the abortion
industry capitalizes on their vulnerability. In time this will have a
profoundly negative impact on Hispanic culture.
Yet I still have
great hope for the Hispanic presence to influence American society for the
good: when I meet Hispanic women going into abortion clinics in the US I tell
them that killing a baby is a mortal sin, and that God and the Virgin Mary do
not want the to abort. They immediately understand this language because it is
the truth and it comes from a culture that respects life and family. Usually
this logic does not work for American women because our culture has been so
deeply corrupted by selfishness.
Unless we as
leaders of the pro-life and pro-family movement around the world make an
absolute commitment to confronting contraception and sex education in the
schools in the same way we confront abortion, family life will continue to be
destroyed before our very eyes and we will continue to wonder how to turn back
the tide.
Conclusion
We
are privileged to be involved in the world’s greatest project: the defense of
the most innocent members of our race, and the instilling of the culture of
life through the family. Let us build our family ethic on the foundation of
absolute respect for all human life and let us be brave in confronting the
enemies of life and family by depriving them of their ability to make war on us
through contraception and sex education in the schools.
If
we do this we will make this world a safer place for life and family.
God
bless you!
