The Pro-Both Manifesto
meditations, mid-migration
About nine years ago, I heard a news story about the surprising number of people identifying as both pro-choice AND pro-life.1
Being in a fairly soft, in-between place myself at the time, I loved it. If I recall correctly, the reporters weren’t sure how to tell the story. Like, sure, they gave statistics: Japan had an even larger number of these people than the US. But what exactly was the viewpoint here? Is being both even internally consistent?
I felt like maybe I knew, and wrote this poem.
I wouldn’t write it the same way today. Like I said, I was in a softer, more in-between place on the issue. Mid-migration. But that's the point! This is for people on that border. And to people like me now, or me several years before that moment, it is an invitation: soften. Find common ground.
That probably sounds ridiculous. Especially in our current political moment. Isn’t this life or death? Don’t compromise with evil!
(The “evil” language will resonate more with strident pro-lifers (aka “me a few years before I wrote this”). For the strident pro-choice reader like me today, try swapping out “evil” for “those assholes” and see how it lands.)
I never published this back then. I could have posted it to my Medium, but I wanted it to be something more than just a blog post. I still feel like maybe it could be something more. So here’s another invitation: everything I write is published under a BY-NC-SA license. If you want to remix this—to make an animated YouTube with this as the text, or use it in a song, or reblog it (as-is or with modifications)—feel free! Just link back to this one, and use the same license. And don’t put ads on that YouTube video without asking me about it first.
The Pro-Both Manifesto
I am PRO. LIFE.
LIFE! I am for it!
The whole heaving biosphere of life,
in all its messy complexity:
I am for it!
Every mushroom, every
mole, every
mouse and mussel and mollusc,
every creeping vine,
every mossy stump,
every dancing leaf:
I am for them!
What a joy to share the same substance!
My molecules, cut from the same fabric!
With all I share this great commonality:
WE, THE LIVING!
We are here now, and not decomposed.
We are here now, reused parts from life expired!
And I confess that living is difficult.
I confess I don’t always know how to champion
both parasite and host
both predator and prey
both officer and protester
both impoverished and endangered
both the flailing survivor
and the potential in her womb
I confess that life has strange edges,
and I do not fully know all who
make up this great family.
(Oh virus, my comrade,
oh genetically anomalous blastocyst,
oh countless chemical pregnancies,
are you living, too?)
I am not smart enough
to know such with much precision.
But I thrum and thrive with all of it,
and live right into the ambiguity.
I am PRO. CHOICE.
CHOICE! I am for it!
I affirm the freedom
of every fellow creature.
I affirm no human has the freedom
to limit the freedom of another.
Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose.
At least. At least at my nose!
But as for what concerns only you,
do as you wish.
Even if I find it repulsive.
And even for decisions you must make
on behalf of other beings,
I find it hard to be prescriptive.
(You, doctor,
in that flooded hospital,
power out, life-support batteries dwindling—
Who should you carry to safety?
Who gets left to die?)
There are some choices no one should have to make.
There are some choices where every answer is wrong.
I won’t make those decisions for you.
To be honest, I’m relieved
that I don’t have to make them.
My heart breaks for yours
breaking under the weight
of monstrous decision.
I will trust you with your freedom.
Will you trust me with mine?
The exact news story I heard is lost to time, but here’s some information about US pro-both-ism from Public Religion Research Institute