October is Respect Life month

By Jay Wonacott

Director of Marriage and Family Life

for the Diocese of Boise

This year Idaho voters have the opportunity to protect human life by voting No on Proposition 1. It is providential that October is Respect Life Month. We are at a crossroads in Idaho about our identity as a pro-life culture. Since the passage of the Dobbs decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the battleground for deciding abortion law occurs state by state.

There have been some defeats, with losses in Michigan and Ohio, but also victories in states like Florida and South Dakota. Fortunately, the ballot initiatives that would have radicalized those state’s abortion laws worse than the U.S. law under Roe v. Wade were defeated. Now, it is Idaho’s turn to choose life over the culture of death. (Read the stories throughout this special section for information about how extreme these abortion statutes would be for Idaho).

There are no ordinary people

Idaho has a culture that upholds the dignity of each individual person and the right to life. While strong on this right, Idaho is compassionate and caring with 25 pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) statewide, ready to help women facing a pregnancy crisis. Pro-life leaders across our state hold the passionate conviction that every single life conceived in the womb of a woman should be respected and protected.

Christian writer C.S. Lewis wrote in a sermon that “there are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal … It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors … Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object present to your senses … If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat — the glorifier and the glorified Glory himself, is truly hidden” (The Weight of Glory).

As Catholics, we see the hidden reality of life in the womb and we lend our voice to the voiceless to promote justice. We proclaim the hiddenness of children in the womb so they might be seen by all in their true dignity. By extension, unborn children are also immortals, given an immortal spirit by the God in whose image and likeness they were created.

In the highly acclaimed movie, Schindler’s List, Oskar Schindler saves the lives of 1,200 Jews during the holocaust. In saving these 1,200 people, Schindler actually saved more than 8,500 people; the living descendants of these 1,200 Jews. In the movie, those he saved present Oskar with a ring that has the words of the Talmud engraved on them: “He who saves a life saves the world entire.” Oskar had hoped that he could have saved more.

Doing small things

I am not Oskar Schindler, but I have my own story of helping to save a life from abortion. In the early 2000s, I was working as the Director of Marriage and Family Life in the Archdiocese of Portland. This job also had responsibilities in helping with respect life ministries, so I often took calls from women seeking information and help.

Sometimes we can make a bigger difference by doing small things. One day, for me that was simply answering the telephone.

I got a call from someone who said, “I have a young woman here who is strongly considering an abortion today, but she might change her mind if she were to get some help right away. Can you help me?”

I took a couple of deep breaths after hearing this news and proceeded to make a call to a pregnancy resource center affiliated with Catholic Charities. My contacts there said to encourage the young mother to come right away. I hung up the phone and called the woman back about where to go with the young woman. She took the information and hung up the phone, and I said a little prayer that this would work. I didn’t hear anything about what happened.

Fast forward into the future about six years: I was now working for Ascension Press and happened to be in Camas, Wash. with an event featuring Christopher West, speaking on the theology of the body. I was manning the resource table when a woman quickly approached me and asked if I was Jay Wonacott.

She was very excited to talk to me: “Do you remember several years ago when you got a call about a young woman who was considering an abortion and you gave her another option?”

“Yes, I remember! What happened?” I responded.

“Well, the young woman did choose life, and she had a little girl. The little girl is alive and doing well just a few miles away from here. In fact, I know she is getting in her pajamas right now to head to bed. I just wanted to thank you for what you did that day. She probably would not be here today if I had not gotten ahold of you and asked for some assistance.”

Of course, I had a lump in my throat thinking about the small part I played in helping this little girl’s mom choose life. The mother was scared, confused, and desperate. All it took was a few phone calls to get this woman to a place of support and to alleviate her loneliness and dispel her fear.

She chose life

I am sure the woman told me her name and the name of the mom and child, but I have forgotten. Maybe this is all for the better. I will probably never know her on this side of the veil, but I am so glad I picked up my telephone that day and played a small part in saving her life.

We are all precious in the eyes of God. He is the Lord and the giver of life. All of us have a mission to do what we can to protect and defend life in this culture of death. I pray that the young woman whose life was saved that day will continue to recognize her greatness and use her breath of life to praise God, in whose image she was conceived and born into this world.

Abortion would have destroyed this beautiful image in our world. Let us pray for life in October and keep Idaho a pro-life culture with our vote in November.