Oregon archbishop pens pastoral in response to governor's abortion proclamation

(OSV News) -- Darkness "doesn’t get the final word," and Christ's call to "step out of the lie" and "choose life" remains the same, said Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Oregon, following that state's decision to officially celebrate abortion providers.

On March 10, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed a proclamation designating that date as "Abortion Provider Appreciation Day."

"Here in Oregon, we understand that abortion is health care, and providers are appreciated and can continue to provide care without interference and intimidation,” Kotek said. “To our providers and to the patients who live in Oregon or have been forced to retreat to our state for care, know that I continue to have your back."

Oregon has no legal restrictions on abortion, such as gestational limits or waiting periods. Chemical abortion pills are available by mail, and according to the state's Department of Justice website, "Oregon welcomes anyone who needs abortion care and cannot receive it in their home state." The state also operates an "Oregon Reproductive Rights Hotline."

State health authority data showed that 10,075 abortions were performed in Oregon in 2023, with 1,661 on women and unborn children from other states, a 60% increase from 2022. Gov. Kotek has also stepped up the state's supply of the drug mifepristone, used to chemically induce abortion.

In his March 13 "Pastoral Teaching on the Sanctity of Life," Archbishop Sample said the governor's proclamation prompted a "stunned silence" in which "you realize just how far a culture can drift from reality."

The Catholic Church teaches that human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the first moment of conception, and since the first century has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion.

Archbishop Sample expressed his astonishment over "not just the act of abortion itself, but the celebration of it. The idea that those who make a living ending innocent, unborn life should be publicly honored. Thanked. Applauded."

The archbishop said the move pointed to not "just moral confusion," but "a kind of spiritual blindness so thick that what should be self-evident -- the sheer wonder and worth of a human life -- is obscured entirely.

He said that abortion -- framed as "choice" rather than "killing" -- has been cloaked in "words … carefully chosen … not to tell the truth, but to make the truth more palatable."

Although "the modern world is a master of euphemism," said Archbishop Sample, "deep down, we know … what abortion is. We know what it does. And we know that no amount of slogans or legal jargon can make a wrong thing right."

He observed that "the need to frame it (abortion) as a social good, as a moral necessity, reveals the guilt just beneath the surface. If abortion were truly nothing, no one would need to justify it."
Archbishop Sample added that efforts to see abortion "honored, enshrined" reveal a culture that has lost "sense of the sacred," and a modernity that "has exchanged the wonder of life for the pursuit of power.

"If a baby is inconvenient, it must go. If it interferes with autonomy, it must be sacrificed," he said. "A life is no longer a gift. It is an obstacle, a burden, a problem to be solved."

Abortion results in "a world where the strong decide the fate of the weak. Where those with power have permission to eliminate those without it. Where human worth is conditional --
based on ability, autonomy, wantedness," he said.

Ultimately, "this is a spiritual issue," and "always has been," said Archbishop Sample. "At its core, abortion is not just about politics or law or even ethics. It’s about how we see reality itself."
The issue of abortion prompts critical questions, he added.

"Is life a gift? Or an accident? … Is love the foundation of the universe? Or is it simply power?" wrote Archbishop Sample.

While modernity has espoused "the premise that some lives matter more than others, "the truth lingers" and "cannot be fully erased," since the unborn child is "a life."

Yet "grace is still available" and "forgiveness is still possible," said Archbishop Sample, even "for those who have celebrated abortion … for those who have profited from it …for those who have convinced themselves that this is somehow a moral good."

"The call of Jesus is always the same: Repent. Open your eyes. Step out of the lie and into the light," he wrote. "And most of all -- choose life. Not just biologically, but spiritually. Choose to see reality as it truly is. To embrace the mystery, the beauty, the wonder of existence itself."