By Rev. Elizabeth Stevens | FāVS News Columnist
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News.
When I was 15, I was raped by someone who was meant to be a trusted adult. In the aftermath, I feared I might have gotten pregnant. Ashamed and naive, I struggled in isolation to figure out what to do. All of the options seemed terrifying.
I didn’t want to get an abortion. I knew I couldn’t raise a child yet. I found the thought of giving a baby up for adoption utterly gut wrenching, and yet, this was the choice that felt right in my heart, soul and body.
Luckily, it didn’t come to pass, but I’ve never forgotten the feeling of being stuck. Nor have I forgotten the intuitive knowledge that for me, abortion wouldn’t have been the right choice.
So I guess you could say that I am anti-abortion.
However, I know that the potential to choose adoption came from a place of privilege. I had a loving and supportive family who would have cared for me and helped my shattered heart heal.
The privilege of choice and its limits
Alongside the feeling of being stuck was a feeling of absolute clarity; the decision, should I have had to make it, would have been solely between me and God.
I support access to safe and legal abortion for a whole host of reasons. Statistically speaking, abortion bans typically cause the number of abortions to rise, while access to birth control and the availability of comprehensive and accurate sex ed lower the rates. The moral and ethical argument centers on the right to bodily autonomy.
Carrying a baby invariably involves risk and has long-term health consequences; it is morally wrong to force a person to accept them. Organ transplants are always and unquestionably voluntary. We don’t even require people to donate blood — a comparatively risk-free action that we know for sure saves lives.
Then there are the spiritual and religious considerations. Most religions value life; they have different answers to the question of when life begins. Many traditions feel the soul enters the body with the first breath.
Others feel life starts at conception, or when there’s a heart beat. Those are semantics, though. The deeper question emerges around who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong.
My faith encourages and prioritizes direct experience of the divine and the right of individual conscience. Meanwhile, the Bible is abundantly clear: remove the log in your own eye and let he who is without sin cast the first stone. In other words, it’s God’s role to judge, not ours.
These are some of the reasons I am passionately pro-choice.
I am not a physician, but I believe my physician friends when they describe the many complex factors that might lead to an abortion. When a pregnancy is non-viable, or becomes non-viable, or the mother’s life is at risk, abortion is the standard of care.
This is why abortion bans negatively impact maternal health generally. A recent article in Newsweek reported that U.S. abortion bans have increased the risk of people dying in childbirth. Locally in Idaho, we’ve lost nearly half of our OB/GYNs and more than half of our high risk OB’s since the abortion ban went into effect.
I believe abortion is healthcare; I am for abortion rights.
The moral and ethical case for abortion rights
At a candlelight vigil I attended recently to mourn those harassed, abducted, brutalized or murdered by ICE, a small group of “counter-protesters” showed up with blown up photos of fetal tissue.
I understand they are passionate about “protecting the unborn.” Yet Jesus made it pretty clear that our job is to love our neighbor, too. It’s not at all loving to deliberately traumatize and taunt people who are scared and heartbroken about a situation that has nothing to do with reproductive care.
I get it. It’s easier to love potential people than it is to love the actual people who have needs, opinions and differences. Yet there are many, many ways to love the “unborn” and our already-born neighbors at the same time.
Ensuring people have access to birth control and accurate information would be a loving way to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. A person could also donate to organizations that provide prenatal care, or offer to accompany someone carrying an unwanted pregnancy, offering compassion and non-judgemental support.
We have a critical shortage of affordable child care; one could volunteer or donate to a day care center. Or there are also opportunities to serve poor and houseless children and their parents. If we help make the burden of raising a child a little lighter, so the blessing of a new life could shine through.
Come to think of it, I do or have done all of those things. So maybe you could say I am pro-life, too.
FāVS News uses professional journalists and thoughtful commentary to explore faith, values and ethics. Support journalism like this by making a tax-deductible donation. FāVS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
