Lady, Liberty Beckons

Lauren Barbato (@lauren_barbato) has written an article for Cosmopolitan entitled I Don't Need Forgiveness for My Abortion. Her subhead is titled, "The Pope's proclamation that priests can absolve Catholic women of the "sin" of abortion only further stigmatizes the procedure." Note the scare quotes around the word 'sin.' Barbato spills a lot of ink rationalizing her absolute support for abortion; she could have conveyed the totality of her thesis using less than 140 characters.

Further stigmatizes. If we ever become a society where there is no stigmatization of abortion, that society would be relentlessly dystopian. The procedure. There is more than one way to willfully terminate a pregnancy. I can think of at least six. All of them carry equivalent moral implications, but some of them are more ethically problematic than others.

Barbato abjures forgiveness because she feels she has already "weighed the moral consequences" and "thought about whether or not my fetus had a soul." Has she ever asked herself whether her fetus had a natural right to be born, and experience the sensual pleasures that Barbato takes for granted?

The main reason Barbato forsakes forgiveness, is because of the requirement of repentance. There are "strings attached" to Pope Francis' offer, that include the unacceptable condition of having to "turn in their pro-choice cards."

Maybe Barbato doesn't need or want forgiveness, but there are millions of Catholic women who do. Imagine if just some of them turned in their pro-choice cards, what a powerful army that would be.

Barbato would dispute even the need for forgiveness that other women might have. She cites a study being used to refute the idea that women who abort their child feel any remorse. The study titled Decision Rightness and Emotional Responses to Abortion in the United States purports to show that ninety-five percent of women don't regret their abortion.

I don't think anybody believes that abortion consumers are happier with their decision, and suffer less buyer's remorse, than people who purchase a brand-new Mercedes Benz, by nine percentage points. The Decision Rightness study is just abortion marketing. And in marketing, it's just as important to lure new customers, as it is to reinforce the purchasing wisdom of existing customers.

One last word on the Decision Rightness study, for now. Just last week an international team of experts found that they could not replicate the results of 75% of the social psychology experiments. Using the study as an appeal to science is totally flawed.

I want to wrap up this essay with another exercise in consecration. If you have read my blog before, you might have seen the essay entitled, Happy Birthday Barack, which might initialize your consciousness in this direction.

I will post a picture of Lauren Barbato to assist in this endeavor. The intention is to get ourselves out of judgement zones, and into an awareness of the spiritual needs of each other.

Imagine that Lauren Barbato is completely within a field of pure white light. The field is being continuously replenished by a perpetual spring of cherishing, creative love.

Now imagine the Statue of Liberty. She has beckoned to souls seeking liberty, from the four corners of the earth, for generations. Inside her crown are people. You can see them inside her, looking out. The lady of liberty holds her torch aloft, and it illuminates the area all around her. This illumination has also created a field of pure generative light all around her.

Now imagine the field enveloping Lauren Barbato, and beholden both to her and to Divine will, is allowing light from lady liberty to reach her, and that there are not two fields of light, but one.

There are millions of Lauren Barbatos in our world, and each of them need to be thought of in this way. Don't tell them they will burn in hell, or send them pictures of mutilated fetuses. Don't judge them. Love them. Consecrate them. Imagine how powerful and life affirming just one Lauren Barbato could be.