When Juli Loesch told me that Sojourners was doing a feature on abortion, I was mighty surprised. She said it would be good to get the viewpoint of a typical pro-lifer who had made a conversion on the issue of nuclear disarmament. When I asked Juli what she meant by typical, she said, "You know, not a young, left-wing radical feminist type like me but a middle-aged, right-wing conservative Catholic right-to-lifer like you." Before I could react to that statement, my dear friend said, "You've come such a long way on this issue, don't you think it would be nice to share how you got there?"
Juli was right about one thing--I'd come a long way. And I was beginning to feel like the only gray-haired pro-lifer left who wasn't super-enthusiastic about Ronald Reagan for president. His willingness to support a Human Life Amendment sure put him ahead of the "personally opposed" Mr. Carter and Mr. Anderson on the abortion issue, and I liked his pro-family, pro-God emphasis; but his determination to "catch up" in the nuclear arms race presented a grave moral dilemma for me. I heard the Star-Spangled Banner when he spoke and felt nostalgic about the red, white, and blue as I remembered my father's 30-year career in the Air Force and my husband's tour of duty in Vietnam as a young army officer. I was still proud of both of them, and yet as Reagan spoke of increasing our military capabilities, I felt sick, and I felt scared.
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