Finding Common Ground with a Pro-life Voter
Many thanks to each of the 150 women from twenty-four states and the District of Columbia (USA), Canada, and Puerto Rico who participated in a recent RC gather-in about the U.S. presidential election.
A woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy is a wedge issue that is used to divide Catholics from each other. Catholics who prioritize opposing legal abortions identify as pro-life voters and will not vote for a Democratic presidential candidate no matter how terrible the Republican candidate is.
I had given up on talking with pro-life voters because their position often came from a rigid place based on painful emotions and they could be quick to attack people they disagreed with. However, I decided that this year’s election was too consequential to avoid talking to what was a significant block of Catholic voters. As a Catholic female, I needed to be engaged with this controversial issue.
Following the gather-in, I initiated a conversation with a male pro-life voter whom I had known for a long time. I listened to him talk about the speeches on abortion at the Republican National Convention. Then I briefly shared that abortion is a wedge issue used to divide Catholics from each other. I said that many people who are voting for Biden, including myself, would like to see abortion and the need for it become rare. I said that we work on the issue in a different way from the pro-lifers but that we have more in common with them in our concern for mothers and children than we can often tell [notice]. Much to my surprise, the man agreed that we probably had more in common than we realized. He went on to tell me all the things he disliked about Trump.
I got to Co-Counsel about this exchange afterward. Now my brain cells are processing the conversation and thinking about my next conversation with a pro-life voter. This has kept me discharging my Catholic female internalized oppression.
I’m excited to be facing my fears head on [directly] and deciding that I am smart enough and good enough to engage with voters on this controversial issue.
USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for USA political issues
(Present Time 201, October 2020)