An open letter to the pro-life community

http://community.livejournal.com/feminists4life/199067.html

Thank you to amazonelf78 for finding this gem and sharing it. It is originally from the PLAGAL site itself.

How can a movement based on the inherent worth of each and every human life lose the moral high ground in the abortion debate?"There is not one Pro-Lifer among us who has not pondered that question when confronting the moral righteousness associated with the protection of a "woman's right to choose." Perhaps one factor in our hesitation is our failure as a movement to heed our own words and recognize the inherent worth of one element of our nation and of the Pro-Life movement. Is it now far past the time when the Pro-Life movement should begin some serious introspection over the cliquish and unwelcoming attitude of many, expressed in any number of ways, towards those who -- however fervent their opposition to abortion -- do not share a similar lifestyle with the great majority of Pro-Lifers.As one Gay Pro-Lifer who has been active in the Pro-Life movement for nearly ten years; as an attorney representing at a staggering cost those arrested at rescues; as a President of a crisis pregnancy shelter; as an adoptive father of two barely spared from the holocaust; as a Godfather to a child rescued at abortion clinic; as one who has shared innumerable tears with those in crisis pregnancies and with aborted women, I reject the assertion that all Pro-Lifers march to the beat of a single drummer.Nothing in any survey or opinion research suggests that Gay and Lesbian Americans are necessarily any less Pro-Life than heterosexual Americans. To the contrary, save for issues involving sexual orientation, Lesbians and Gays share the same views in the same percentages as the general population. Do those who believe that groups like "ACT-UP" represent all Gays and Lesbians also believe that NOW represents all women and that Louis Farrakhan speaks for all African-Americans? Such a stereotyping attitude provides a security blanket for those who are not only convinced that their lifestyle is entirely correct and righteous but that all "right-thinking" individuals necessarily think similarly.The disdain that many "mainstream" Pro-Lifers have for Lesbian and Gay Pro-Lifers is counter-productive as well as divisive, and it is timely indeed that we all remember that the mission -- the only mission -- of the Pro-Life movement is to save the lives of the unborn and rescue their mothers from a brutal victimization. Exclusive attitudes only serve to insure that there will actually be more abortions because it weakens and excludes from the all-too-small Pro-Life movement those who do not share a complete inventory of religious and moral beliefs.No, not all Pro-Lifers are "straight" and not all Gays and Lesbians are "pro-choice." The Pro-Life movement has enough to concern itself with in rapacious local abortion clinics, deceptive abortion advocates, and underutilized alternatives to abortion; and need not concern itself with differing lifestyles and other "non-life" issues.Indeed, boiled down to basics, the message of the Lesbian and Gay community and the Pro-Life movement is the same: All human life deserves protection and respect simply because it is human. It is a simple message, but none the less profound. Indeed, the growing scientific evidence that homosexuality is genetic may confront both anti-gay Pro-Lifers and pro-abortion Lesbians and Gays with a similar dilemma: Whatever will those myopic thinkers do when confronted with abortions that are being done because the unborn child has been determined to be homosexual?The Pro-Life movement is so rife with conflict that it is a miracle that we have achieved as much as we have. Catholics alienate Protestants who do not wish to say the rosary at abortion clinics; Fundamentalists quote scripture and alienate the less dogmatic; Christians alienate Jewish Pro-Lifers -- notwithstanding the fact that most Pro-Life proscriptions are based on the Old Testament; whites alienate blacks; the Religious alienate agnostic and secular Pro-Lifers who are motivated by humanistic and philosophical concerns rather than religious motives. And those ever-present religious and quasi religious issues such as birth control, sex outside marriage, etc, are forever tossing in the apple of discord and division into our gatherings.And while we are so busy trying to apply a litmus-test as to who can be a "good" Pro-Lifer, the number of aborted children and victimized women slowly mounts to such staggering proportions that numbers are unimaginable. Members of the Pro-Life movement cannot and must not alienate others who should be partners with us in the fight to protect human life.-CHARLES F. VOLZ, JR.