I read in an opinion piece recently by a Catholic Priest who has been very active in the movement for peace and non-violence. For the most part, I love his perspective on things. He paints Jesus as a radical for justice, for peace and for non-violence. That’s a Jesus I can get down with, a Jesus who represents the best of the Jewish community and what it has to offer the world.
So I was disappointed by what he had to say about abortion, and how he grouped abortion providers and the women who seek abortions into the same group who perpetrate unjust wars. What about the violence of forcing a woman to do things with her body that she does not want to do? Forcing women to carry children to term is a war in itself, a psychological and physical injustice.
And I understand that abortion is neither pretty nor easy. I know that if I were put in the position of considering one, as people amongst my friends and family have been, that it would be a deeply painful choice, one that would stay with me for the rest of my life. That is hard enough, and I don’t know exactly what I would do. I believe I would meditate about it, discuss it with my partner, and make a decision that would allow me the greatest chances of creating a happy, caring and safe home for the children that I want to raise one day. I don’t know if I could do that right now, and I don’t know what carrying a child to term and giving it away would do to my long-term psychological health. I do know that no Catholic Priest or member of Congress knows which choice is right for me.
I also know that the possibility that legal abortions will not continue to be accessible will push women to make illegal and dangerous choices. Back to the back alley. Back to more women dying in the pursuit of doing what they believe is right for their own bodies and their families. Thus, this weekend I was disappointed when 64 Democrats voted with Republicans to use a much-needed health care bill to force poor women’s hands on the issue of abortion. Poor women already suffer from so many limited options in this world. Why are they being further abused?
As I watched the proceedings on MSNBC’s live coverage, I was saddened that only one lawmaker had the courage to stand up and say, “As a Catholic, as a woman of faith, let me remind you that separation of Church and State requires us to never legislate our religious beliefs.” Her point was an important one: the Catholic Bishops actively worked with Congressional members to make the Stupak Amendment happen. Excuse me Catholics! I respect your right to practice your religion. But not on my body and not on my law. This type of lobbying is an act of violence against me and all of the women who should be able to make their own choices, not to mention that I think it has no place in secular democracy.
I truly value the contributions of religious people to social justice movements. The Catholic Priests Daniel and Philip Berrigan risked their freedom to save lives when they poured nepalm on draft papers in Catonsville, Maryland in 1968. John Dear lost his right to vote because of a disarmament protest. These men of conscience should be honored. But let their consciences remember the women who die and the children who suffer when the law dictates what a woman can and cannot do with her body.
On a theological note, let’s remember that one of Jesus’s closest companions (and perhaps lover), Mary Magdelene, was a prostitute, a member of a community that would have known a lot about how to cause an abortion. Yet he said nothing about abortion in the Bible. Those who take their cues from The Christ would do well to take their cue from him on this one too. Maybe he trusted a woman’s intuition and knew that her body was hers, and hers alone.And while it’s easy to pick on Catholics, Buddhists often suffer from this same kind of confusion about what violence is. I hope everyone realizes that regardless of their personal feelings about abortion, this world has much, much bigger problems, like the tremendous poverty that kills children every day. Children that mothers wanted.
I like a Christian who is inspired by the Christ who believed in peace, nonviolence, love and acceptance. A Jew who believes in a G-d who wants us to love each other. A Buddhist who believes that the path to enlightenment is a collective and nonviolent one. But it’s time for everyone to realize that nonviolence against women isn’t just about ending rape and domestic abuse. It’s about finally recognizing and enshrining in our laws what has been ignored for millenia: that we are no one’s property and these are our bodies. Until that happens, women continue to suffer from the violence of institutionalized oppression. I respect an individual’s religious conviction and right to choose not to have an abortion. Let us hope it continues to be a choice, on both sides.
In response to the question of the physical rights of the fetus:
- From a theological point of view, those fetuses have souls. Let them find a body where they will leave the womb loved and wanted. (Here’s a unique Mennonite perspective on this.)
- From a scientific point of view, if one is really going to argue that the lost fetus is the loss of a unique life, then that’s true every time a woman menstruates (a lost egg) and every time a man ejaculates but does not impregnate a sexual partner.
It’s time to recognize that questions of what to do with lives that depend on symbiotic relationships, like most things in life, are rarely black and white, deeply personal, and highly individualized. Let’s teach people how to make the choices that minimize the possibility of ending up having to make such a difficult choice. That means sex education, not abstinence education. Let’s teach people how to make it in a conscious and mindful way. Let’s allow them the freedom to choose.
To read more about abortion in Jesus’s time and early Christianity, check out the following:
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