Prisoners of War

            I did not put the words, “War on Women” in the title because if I saw such a title, I would assume it was a stupid article.  Labeling the defense of life in the womb and religious freedom as a war on women is beyond irritating.

            It seems that rabid pro-abortion groups don’t have a clue what a war on women looks like. Why are they not rising up in a fury over the degradation of women in Middle Eastern countries where genital mutilation, forced marriages and judicial and educational inequality for women is just the tip of the iceberg?

            Where was the outcry when the United Nations announced that an estimated 200 million girls are missing from the world due killing girl babies, now known as “gendercide”? Why are these supposed pro-women voices not getting behind the documentary, It’s A Girl? Take three minutes to watch this trailer and digest how readily girl babies are killed for the crime of being female. 

            And where the abortion-loving, contraception-pushing radicals when Planned Parenthood was caught on tape, not once but several times, encouraging the abortion of babies because the mother didn’t want a girl?   They have been silent on such atrocities because love of women is not their motivation, but rather a hatred of Catholic teaching that says abortion and forcing people to go against their moral consciences is wrong.

            Yet, there is some truth in the twisted label of a War on Women. This is war—spiritual warfare!  And God-fearing Christians are all prisoners of this war. We accept such a position willingly as St. Paul did when taken prisoner. “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles..." (Eph. 3:1).

            The real war on women is being waged by the culture, and like-minded men are our comrades and fellow prisoners. But in reality, it is we who are free while the anti-life, anti-religious freedom camp does not understand the true freedom that comes from obeying God’s laws.

            “For the slave called in the Lord is a freed person in the Lord, just as the free person who has been called is a slave of Christ”  (1 Cor. 7:22).  We, the slaves of Christ are free, and the warriors against the teachings of Christ are enslaved.

            The issue of this supposed War on Women is access to contraception and drugs that induce abortions by forcing organizations to pay for them regardless of religious values.  David Green, a Christian founder and CEO of the 500-store Hobby Lobby chain, filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration’s rule requiring employers to provide abortion-inducing drugs coverage in health care insurance plans.

            Green is quoted in Human Events as stating, “By being required to make a choice between sacrificing our faith or paying millions of dollars in fines, we essentially must choose which poison pill to swallow. We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”  Green is the first non-Catholic to join the twenty-six other separate lawsuits opposing the HHS rule through the courts. That is what courage under fire looks like.

            Planned Parenthood is leading the accusation that anti-abortion Republicans are waging war. For the sake of not over-using the word “stupid” let’s call this one ignorant.  There are a greater number of women on the other side of this issue. The 2012 Gallup Poll revealed 2% more women are prolife over prochoice: 46% vs. 44%. When it comes to partial birth abortion, 62% want to see that barbaric procedure banned.

            As far as demanding abortion and contraception, both are really anti-women, but the liberal view is too blind to see. Men in our society are free to be less responsible to the women they impregnate. After all, the women could have been using contraception and can use abortion as after-the-fact birth control. With that mindset, why should a man be burdened with a child when he was in it just for the sex not the fatherhood?

            Women are getting hurt, not helped, through contraception and abortion.  They are becoming sterile through sexually transmitted diseases, getting used for their bodies, and becoming the walking wounded when after the first year after abortion, their suicide risk is six times higher than the average.  But the Catholic Church and those who follow its teaching are not forcing this truth and freedom on anyone. We are just proclaiming it and don’t want to be forced to pay for the intrinsic evils that hurt individuals and societies.

            Half the babies aborted would have been future women if given the chance to be born.  It's war indeed, but not just on women or men but on all society.  In the end, we can fight in the courts, wage a war with words and vote our consciences, but that is just the ground strategy.  Spiritual battles are won by the power of the Holy Spirit and the ammunition is prayer and fasting for the strength to stand "The Test of Fire".

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