Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84Plough Quarterly • Autumn 2016 43 is a developing child, and why would we want to kill it? That leaves me with a lot of questions: What is it we’re trying to do? What are we working for, and where do we want to go with all this? Where do we want to end up when we’re done? I’ve had some answers that are really visions. One is that we’re trying to create a new world – and there are a number of kinds of worlds that can be created by people’s energies. I’m aware that when I imagine a world where abortion is unthinkable, it isn’t necessarily what other people think of. I need to be specific when I say, “a world where abortion is unthinkable.” Why is abortion unthinkable; what makes it that way? I’ve met people who were projecting a world where abortion is unthinkable because we were so regimented and women were so oppressed into being breeders that there was no freedom; all children would be carried to term, and there were no other ways to decide. That’s not what I mean when I think of a world where abortion isn’t considered. What I think of is a world where all people, all humankind, are valued just because they’re human, where they’re welcome just because they’re human. A world of generosity. I think of Catholic Worker homes, where there is always room to pull up another chair to the table, always a little more to go around, a world where there is welcome for people. It would be a world of responsibility, where we think about what we’re doing and take the consequences of our actions. A world of peace, where it’s assumed that everybody will be sus- tained at a basic level, not a world where some people will be floating in superfluous wealth and other people starving. A peaceful world, where there are other ways of solving conflicts than killing each other, a world where rape is also unthinkable, and where economics do not force women into sexual activity. I think, if we were able to create a world where those were the assumptions, it would go a long way toward making a world where abortion wouldn’t happen; it wouldn’t be in the picture and it wouldn’t be necessary. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the “beloved com- munity.” That’s the kind of world we work for, where everybody is beloved. He talked about a world where black children and white children, Gentiles and Jews, Protestants and Catholics – and so on – everybody, all the children, could play together and work together and have enough to eat and be respected. It’s hard to imagine the kind of justice, economic justice and justice for women, that would have to exist for there really to be a world where abortion is unthinkable. Not illegal: unthinkable! It’s a spiritual question. It’s as though our souls would have to be pulled out of our bodies and remade and put back in; we would need to change our heart of stone for a heart of flesh. When I’m talking about such a world, I’m a little bit shaky, because I know that somewhere deep inside there’s that one thing I don’t want to change, that I don’t want to give up, and I’m not sure what it is. But I know it’s there. It’s that one thing I have to fight and learn to give up before the new world can come to be. One of the guidelines for nonviolence is that if you want to go someplace, you have to “go by getting there.” If you want the world to be one way, you have to live that way, and that helps the world become that way. Imagine a world where war and abortion are both unthinkable, and then start to live as if we already lived in that world – that moves us along the path.