The Church's pastoral response to abortion is basically twofold: working for legal protection for the unborn and striving for economic justice for women and children. The Church's ethic of life is a moral vision based on the sacredness of life: the obligation to protect and nurture it and not to bring direct harm to it.

In the public debate on abortion, the Church has three important tasks. First, because we are committed to establishing constitutional protection for the unborn child to the maximum degree possible, we must carefully review abortion-related bills before state legislatures and the United States Congress. Second, we must urge federal and state legislators to work for laws and public policies which are both pro-life and pro-family and which address the legitimate concerns of women. Third, we must continue to educate people about the moral dimension of the abortion issue.

Of course, the movement from moral analysis to public policy choices is a complex process in a pluralistic society like the United States. Civil discourse in our nation is influenced, indeed widely shaped, by religious pluralism. Moreover, there is legitimate secularity of the political process, just as there is legitimate role for religious and moral discourse in our nation's life.

In a religiously pluralistic society, achieving consensus on a public moral question is never easy. But we have been able to do it before by a process of debate, decision- making, then review of our decisions. For example civil rights, particularly in the areas of housing, education, employment, voting, and access to public facilities, were determined after momentous struggles of war, politics and law to be so central to public order that the State could not be neutral on the question. Today we have a public consensus in law and policy that clearly defines civil rights as an issue of public morality. But the decision was not reached without struggle; the consensus was not automatic. And the issue is not fully resolved.

The fact, then, that a spontaneous public consensus is lacking at a given moment does not prohibit its being created. When he was told that the law could not legislate morality, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., used to reply that the law could not make people love their neighbors but it could stop their lynching them! Law and public policy can also be instruments of shaping a public consensus; they are not simply the product of consensus.

Martin Luther King

The defense of innocent human life is a cornerstone of Catholic social teaching, but it is not specifically a sectarian concern. Abortion is a human problem, not a narrowly Catholic one. While not all moral values and principles need be legislated, certain key values, principles and practices must be protected and promoted by law and public policy. Protection for unborn children cannot rely only upon moral persuasion; their lives must be protected, as our lives are, by the civil law.

The Church's consistent ethic of life demonstrates that it is not enough merely to protect and promote the rights of unborn children; we must also extend such protection and promotion of basic human rights to women and children. Besides its advocacy on their behalf, the Church can be proud of the many maternity-related services offered to women, such as free or low-cost prenatal and maternity care, adoption services, emotional and spiritual support, housing and continuing education.

The Church can be most effective in the public debate on abortion through moral persuasion.

Although the truth we have to proclaim is certain and the salvation necessary, we dare not entertain any thoughts of external coercion. Instead we will use the legitimate means of human friendliness, interior persuasion, and ordinary conversation. We will offer the gift of salvation while respecting the personal and civic rights of the individual.

Ecclesiam suam, No. 75

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