Swing Away
By Stuart Shepard,
Focus on the Family, CitizenLink
SUMMARY: It's time for pro-lifers to consider the home
run.
I kick my right foot twice to get the cleats to dig into
the batter's box. As the pitcher shakes off the catcher's
signals, I glance at the third-base coach. In the flurry
of decoys, I see him run two fingers down his left forearm
and tap his wrist twice.
Swing away.
The outfield scoreboard shows us down 5-4. A runner on
second. Two outs. Bottom of the ninth.
The flags in center field are blowing out. I tap the
outside of the plate, then raise my bat, fighting the urge
to grip it too tightly. The pitcher settles. The wind up.
The pitch.
As I start to swing, I realize it's not just the curve I'm
expecting, it's a hanging curve -- chest high. In the
split second before spinning orb meets flashing Louisville
Slugger, I realize the next likely home for this little
baseball will be clanging around in the left-field seats.
This is the moment where South Dakota is today, after all
but totally banning abortion.
This is the moment where eight other states hang today, as
they consider similar action.
Those of us who've been in the pro-life movement for a
while realize there are times for singles and doubles --
parental notification, informed consent, placing
ultrasound machines in pregnancy-resource centers. But
there are also times to swing for the fences -- and
remember what we are really fighting for.
Sometimes we can get so caught up in pro-life strategies
to place more and more common-sense restrictions on
abortion, it seems we can forget why we're here. The
reason we pulled on the pro-life jersey and placed the cap
on our head that brings us contempt and hatred from the
other team is not because we wanted to make abortion
safer. Not because we wanted abortion clinics to measure
up to state health guidelines. No, we all had an eye on
the last inning and the final out.
As my brilliant coworker Carrie Gordon Earll recently
expressed, we don't need to apologize and we don't need to
be embarrassed for stating clearly what we are about.
Abortion hurts women and kills their children and we want
it to stop.
Now.
Period.
We want to win this thing. Not for team pride, not for a
fancy ring, but because life is a sacrosanct gift from
God.
Now, in the course of pursuing that victory, we must be
wise. Swinging for the fence every time we step to the
plate will not win in the end. If you can get a runner on
base, a single will get him over to third, and there are
at least a half-dozen ways to get him home from there.
There is a time and a place and a need for incremental
advances.
But there is also a time to look over the heads of the
outfielders and visualize knocking it out of the park,
once and for all. A time to, as the baseball commentators
say, swing from the heels.
I recall listening to the Cincinnati Reds on AM radio one
warm summer evening in the early '70s. Lee May was at the
plate. He was known for hitting for distance, and on this
night he really got hold of one. Announcers Al Michaels
and Joe Nuxhall shouted as the ball rose and rose and hit
some unprecedented spot high up in Riverfront Stadium. I
think it was Michaels who pointed out that it was "still
on the way up" when it crashed into the upper deck.
We are at such a time. The pro-life movement is in need of
a towering home run, one that is still on its way up when
it careens off the cheap seats.
I know there will be 500 pro-abortion lawyers charging
onto the field, demanding the bat be sawed in two to check
for cork and insisting on a steroid test for the batter.
Others will call for the rule book to be changed to
reflect a constitutionally higher standard for a home run.
But just as in baseball, there are unassailable officials
who will ultimately make the call whether it was a fair
ball. At this moment, five of them will likely rule
against us and four will rule in favor.
As fans in the stands and players on the field, we all
need to pray hard while the ball is still in the air that
we can get one more umpire-justice placed on the U.S.
Supreme Court to tilt the balance the other way. One in
the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts, who so
appropriately declared during his Senate hearings
"Justices are like umpires; umpires don't make the rules,
they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is
critical -- they make sure everybody plays by the rules."
As I write this, eight state legislatures still have some
form of abortion ban in play.
If I could, I would take my spot in the third-base
coaching box and signal those lawmakers. I would slide two
fingers down my forearm and tap my wrist twice.
Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana.
Swing away.
Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Swing away.
America.
It's time to swing away.