“WISDOM SPEAKS HER own praises, in the midst of her people she glories in herself.” What a luscious, full-bodied image from the biblical book of Sirach (24:1). Wisdom has sass! In an increasingly combative society, I’m drawn to Sirach’s prudence, poetic excess, and the authoritative agency of Lady Wisdom.
I’ve been keeping phrases from Sirach, also known as Ecclesiasticus, in mind as post-Roe legislation rolls across the states. The health of women and children (born and unborn) has been weakened, rather than strengthened. Political and social platforms ring out with dangerous nonsense about making criminal statutes apply at the time of fertilization, allowing the death penalty for abortion, or, conversely, promoting violence against “pregnancy crisis centers.”
How do we stop the howl when we feel urgently that lives are on the line? Sirach, which is part of the Catholic canon, says, “The fear of God is an abundant garden; its canopy higher than all other glory” (40:27). “Fear” means “body-trembling awe” before our Creator. Amid so much that I don’t understand and don’t know what to do about, this strange scriptural juxtaposition feels like Lady Wisdom speaking to our present condition.
LAST SUMMER, I read an article in The Atlantic by Elizabeth Bruenig titled “Make Birth Free: It’s time the pro-life movement chose life.” For me, her central thesis made sense in a post-Roe America and provided a way to step forward, rather than to a side.
Is it possible, as Bruenig proposed, that as a society we could agree that “pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care should all be free, and demand that the federal government make it so”? The average cost to give birth to a child in the U.S. is $18,865, with about $2,850 not covered by insurance, according to a 2022 study. Bruenig’s proposal, as she explained in an email to me, is this: “Expand Medicare’s offerings to include a program that covers pregnancy-related expenses,” for any American of any age. As a precedent, Bruenig looked at the first Medicare expansion that extended coverage to people of all ages experiencing a particular condition: the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease program that went into effect in 1973.
Bruenig wrote, “The federal government could — without much structural innovation — eliminate [pregnancy-related] costs altogether, and with them lethal barriers to maternal and infant care. Medicare already covers the costs of pregnancy and childbirth for people who are eligible for the program due to disability. This coverage could be extended to everyone, regardless of disability status, age, income, or work history — and such an expansion should be feasible, at least administratively.” The goal would be a benefits expansion covering 100 percent of pregnancy costs for all Americans without any other eligibility requirements.
But is there political will? Frankly, this is something that should have happened a long time ago. It should be at the top of every feminist political agenda — along with paid family leave and expanding the child tax credit.
The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is several times worse than in other high-income nations. Some people actually leave the U.S. to have their children in places that are cheaper and safer. Since the pandemic, the maternal death rate has skyrocketed. Unconscionably, the death rate is extremely high for Black mothers.
The Make Birth Free movement didn’t start with Bruenig. A number of conservative politicians and intellectual culture warriors have pushed different plans under a similar moniker. But Bruenig’s proposal for Medicare expansion is the most elegant and, importantly, the most equitable of those I researched. “A universal program would include all mothers and babies and would offer the same an equal chance at a good start,” Bruenig told Sojourners, including the uninsured and those accessing health care through Veterans Affairs or the Indian Health Service.
My own ignorance is vast amid this crisis of care. Yet, we may still glimpse Lady Wisdom glorying “in the midst of her people.”
Rose Marie Berger, a Catholic peace activist and poet, is senior editor of Sojourners magazine. She is author ofBending the Arch: Poems.
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