(Image by Vinson Tan ( 楊 祖 武 ) from Pixabay)

Note: I do my best to avoid spoilers here, but if you want to avoid any and all spoilers (e.g., the name of the Bad Guy in Harry Potter), then you might like to give this post a skip.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is, perhaps, an unusual choice for me to write about in this series of posts on books that people who are interested in abortion should read, because it’s my least favourite of the Harry Potter books. (In case you’re interested, I currently rank them Azkaban, Prince, Goblet, Philosopher’s, Hallows, Chamber and Phoenix, but the order of the middle five changes from time to time). 

The book was written while JK Rowling had writer’s block, and in my opinion, that shows! However, I think it’s well worth a read regardless, both because like all Harry Potter books, it’s still awesome, but also because it has important lessons for the pro-life movement regarding the role of institutions in bringing about societal change.

Like many people, I really didn’t get Phoenix the first time I read it. The book grew on me after talking about it with other people. In particular, I had a conversation with my brother where I shared how frustrating I found it that we spent the whole book waiting for the baddies, Voldemort and his Death Eaters, to do anything. My brother pointed out that he thought this was actually really clever – the real baddies of Phoenix were the Ministry of Magic and the newspaper The Daily Prophet. In other words, the baddies were the government and the mainstream media.

This conversation made me rethink the book. Rowling has spoken many times about how a major theme of the Potter books is the dangers of authoritarianism. “Don’t ask questions” was the main message Harry heard growing up, and Rowling makes it clear how damaging she thinks this is. Instead, she thinks we should always question: particularly authority, orthodoxy, and conformity.

This theme is clear through all seven books, but it is particularly strong in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.The whole book shows what can happen when a self-serving government and media collude to distort reality, misrepresent the truth and even tell outright lies, all with the aim of maintaining the status quo. Harry and his friends are made more and more miserable right throughout the book as The Establishment wields more and more power.

What can the pro-life movement learn from this? Several things, I think. The first is the importance of focusing on the wider culture as well as institutions such as government and media. In Phoenix, there is a clear divide – some people side with Harry, others don’t. Some side against him for malicious reasons, but others simply don’t buy his side of the story. If Irish culture at large, our friends and families and colleagues, aren’t convinced of the pro-life message and don’t believe in the equality of unborn and born, then a biased media can really go to town. However, if the culture is generally pro-life, a biased media can do far less damage. This is why changing people’s minds on the issue of abortion is so, so important – it makes the media less powerful, and also makes it more likely that the media, in time, will change.

The second lesson is how there’s often no point playing by the establishment’s rules. Harry and his friends do not spend any time trying to engage with The Daily Prophet to try to get it to give both sides of the story. They ignore the Prophet altogether, and eventually collaborate with a different, fringe publication. At another point, a character who is about to be arrested unfairly simply makes a break for it. He does not go along with law enforcement and proudly proclaim his innocence: he goes on the run as a fugitive. 

The message here is that while there’s something to be said for engaging with media and politics as part of pro-life activism, there’s also a strong case for recognising when this is a losing battle, and focusing our efforts elsewhere. It’s worth bearing in mind that this is what the pro-choice movement did in Ireland, and it worked. Admittedly, they had the media on their side, but they worked over three decades to turn the institutions in their favour. Universities, trades unions, community activist groups, all slowly turned pro-choice, with the political class the last ones to change their minds. Pro-choice politicians such as Conor Lenihan even previously supported pro-life legislation such as the 2002 referendum. 

While culture may follow societal institutions as well as institutions following culture, I think it’s fair to say that a good deal of pro-life time and energy is spent on trying to engage with societal institutions on their own terms, as they currently stand, and make our case. This is no easy task, and those who take it on are to be commended. However, we may do well to take a leaf out of Rowling’s book, and focus on furthering our case without engaging directly with societal institutions who will not give us a fair hearing. This work involves, of course, seeking to change societal institutions for the better – but that may well only bear fruit after the culture has shifted significantly.

Muireann