Willie Parker and the Moral Higher Ground
WILLIE PARKER wrote a BOOK! Dr. Willie Parker, compassionate abortion provider, SAINT, and ALL-AROUND HERO is a great friend to LPJL–and to any and every woman who needs an abortion, contraceptive services, or a fierce defender of their rights… in other words, EVERY WOMAN.
LPJL has stood with Dr. Willie at his clinics in Alabama and Mississippi, and he never fails to stop in and raise our spirits when he’s in our neck of the woods. He’s a friend to all of us. And now, he’s a published friend. His new book, Life’s Work, subtitled A Moral Argument for Choice is available from Simon & Schuster.
In Life’s Work, the good doctor describes his own epiphany (he calls it his “conversion”) regarding morality, compassion, and abortion–“how he came to believe, unequivocally, that helping women in need, without judgment, is precisely the Christian thing to do.”
As a fundamentalist Christian and a practicing OB-GYN who never performed an abortion, Willie had a transformational moment while reading a sermon about the Good Samaritan by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He realized that showing compassion for women who needed his help was the very essence of Christianity.
As he put in his own op-ed for the New York Times Why I Provide Abortions, “the Samaritan reversed the question of concern, to care more about the well-being of the person needing help than about what might happen to him for stopping to give help. I realized that if I were to show compassion, I would have to act on behalf of those women.”
Beyond that, Willie’s book exposes the lie behind the assumption that anti-abortion forces in any way occupy some sort of moral high ground in the fight over abortion. A belief in choice is compatible with any sincere religious belief–including Christianity. In fact, a compassionate approach to religious belief demands that it includes exactly the kind of concern that Dr. Parker shows for his patients.
Anti-choice advocates and woman-haters love to appropriate liberal icons like MLK and twist their words around to support their own repressive beliefs. It’s truly a blessing to have someone with insight and courage of Dr. Willie Parker to reclaim the teachings of Dr. King and show the moral imperative behind the fight for abortion rights.
Join with LPJL and Dr. Willie Parker in teaching the anti-choice forces that they can’t simultaneously occupy other women’s uteruses AND the moral high ground. Oh, and show a friend of women how much you appreciate him and BUY THE BOOK!
