Christians and the Overturning of Roe v Wade
Many Christians are rejoicing over the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v Wade and what that means for the availability of abortion. I am not going to go into the legal ramifications and what this will mean for abortion access in each of the states. That is not my area. I’m not even American.
How should Christians respond? For pro-life Christians, it is a reason to rejoice. Many people have worked hard to get to this point and it is a goal that has been achieved.
But believe it or not, not all Christians are rejoicing. There are pro-choice Christians and many of them are grieving. Pro-life Christians may not understand how this could be, but it is the truth.
Can a person be a Christian and pro-choice? Many think not but the New Testament says that all that call upon the Lord Jesus are saved. Salvation is based on our relationship to Jesus and not our view of abortion.
I will put my cards on the table and say that I am pro-life. That is not because I am a Christian but it is a position I adopted when I was an atheist.
While I think every abortion is a tragedy, I also understand that many women are grieving right now. They are seeing this not as an opportunity for babies to be born but as a loss of rights and bodily autonomy. Whatever pro-life arguments one might have, those feelings matter.
One can be happy with this court decision and not get nasty toward those who hold a pro-choice position. I have seen some ugly remarks, as if every pro-choice person wants as many babies aborted as possible. The “Molech worship” trope is an example of something that is not helpful.
And for pro-choice Christians, try not to paint every pro-life Christian as a hate-filled, misogynistic bigot. There are people, like myself, whose goal is to value the life of the unborn rather than to be anti-woman.
I also hope that Christians on both sides, will make efforts to provide real and tangible support for mothers who will find pregnancy particularly challenging from a financial or otherwise perspective. Also, consider becoming involved in a adoption or fostering.
I have had my own little bit of grief over this decision, but not because I want more abortions. I fear this decision will greatly widen the chasm between the right and the left, conservative and liberal, both in the church and society.
This is a time for us to listen to one another, to try and be respectful, and take on the posture of a student rather than an angry critic.
One last thing, there is the danger that this taste of victory will lead to attempts to impose (a certain form of) Christian morality on the larger society by legal action. While it is important for Christians to vote according to their conscience, the goal of the church should not be to make everyone else live like us. There is simply no biblical foundation for this.
you are pro-control, nothing more. Christians who want to force women to have children are now responsible for those children. You should be forced to pay all of their needs for their childhood. But you won’t, you’ll make up excuses why, just like any absentee father. Such hypocrisy.
You have a god that has no problem in killing children, declaring pregnancies less than human and women as property or at best second class citizens. You are indeed hatefilled and misogynistic and you will be revealed as such.
The loss of abortion rights in any country is a loss to the human rights of women. Unfortunately there are many men whose view is that they should have a right to control women, but women are individuals in their own right and should not be controlled by anyone, especially when it is their wish not to be controlled.
By withdrawing abortion rights is a means of controlling women and thereby should not be withdrawn, especially in the case of rape, incest and any other forms of control of women.
I am not saying that there should be no rules on obtaining an abortion for there needs to be. Anyone who is considering having an abortion should be counselled and given all the necessary facts both for and against, for having an abortion is not easy for anyone and will lead to some form of grief occurring. However, being forced by no rights to abortion will also cause grief, mental issues and maybe other health issues, so by having no abortion rights could lead to a death, not that of the yet unborn child but the women who is pregnant. Also with no abortion rights this will lead to a vast increase of illegal abortions, in some instances being done by persons who have no real qualifications or maybe the correct means to undertake the abortion, causing much injury to the woman and to the be born child and maybe death of one or both. So withdrawing abortion rights may not lead to less deaths, but many more and certainly a vast increase of other health issues.
Religion and politics should not be a factor in this, only the issue of human rights for both individuals concerned.
Unfortunately it is only women who can give birth, while it takes two to create signs of life. If, the male in this creation could be substituted so that he undertakes the birth, then maybe not allowing abortion could be so, but as it is not, then it should not be so that the rights to abortions should be withdrawn.