This is my body

'Cosmo' girl vs. anti-abortion advocate

By Father Frank Pavone

Here is part of Fr. Pavone's article on the recent deaths of Helen Gurley Brown (writer of Sex and The Single Girl and for 32 years the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine) and Nellie Gray, ( lawyer who walked away from a successful career to found the March for Life):

"Two women whose worldviews couldn’t have been more divergent died just days apart, each leaving a dramatically different imprint on American society. Both sought to protect women’s rights but were on opposite sides of a cultural battle that has shaped the past half-century...

...Ironically, the same four words became a rallying cry for both women. The same simple words are spoken from opposite ends of the universe, with meanings directly contrary to each other.

“This is my body” describes the pro-choice, pro-abortion rights mentality in the most succinct way possible. I own this body and all its potential. I decide whether the child occupying space in my womb lives or dies. I answer to no one but myself.

“This is My Body” meant something entirely different to Gray, and to everyone involved in the anti-abortion work and advocacy. Those were the sacrificial words spoken by Jesus Christ.

But you don’t have to be Christian to understand Jesus’ message about love and selflessness. Christ teaches the meaning of love: I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person. Abortion teaches the opposite of love: I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself. Christ gives his body away so others might live; abortion-rights supporters cling to their own bodies so others might die.

Abortion divides Americans more profoundly than any other issue. Some say it is intractable. But maybe the reason is that we’re looking at it only as a battle to be won or lost on the political front. This is a deeper spiritual battle, perhaps embodied best by the very women who gave their lives to these respective causes."

Father Frank Pavone is the national director of Priests for Life.