The Un-reality of Abortion
Jason at Post-Methodist has a post up titled, The Reality of Abortion. The point of the post is to point out links to a video on YouTube called “The Silent Scream.” It is a video that shows the abortion of a 12 week-old fetus (though in a document here, Planned Parenthood questions the fetal age).
Personally, I think any abortion is a tragedy. As a matter of public policy, I think we ought to do whatever we can to prevent abortion. By that I mean encourage and facilitate adoption, fund sex education and contraception, guarantee that every pregnant woman in the United States has access to prenatal care, and that every child has health insurance. As a policy practitioner, I don’t believe banning abortion would be an effective strategy. There is a fundamental supply and demand problem that proponents of abortion bans ignore. But anyway, abortion is a tragedy in my mind.
The problem I have this post is twofold (not that anyone cares about my opinion). First, this is exactly the type of scare tactic that has worked so well with the war on drugs. The problem is that pregnant women (and then men who got them there) who are in the situation of considering abortion aren’t there typically because they excellent support systems, financial stability, and community support. They are alone, scared, desperate, and probably feeling trapped. I don’t think the remedy in this situation is more pressure and pain. I don’t see this an effective tool to help people make good decisions. I think it just reinforces the idea in my head that many abortion opponents care more about the bigger policy goal than the women and men who are hurting.
My other problem is that I wonder if Jason is doing himself (and potentially his congregation) a disservice by posting something like this. As I commented at his blog, would a woman in his congregation who had perhaps gone through an abortion and who was seeking pastoral counseling want to talk to him after seeing something like that? I think it potentially creates an expectation of condemnation. I’m not suggesting that pastors shouldn’t be hold opinions contrary to those in their congregation, but I wonder if there is some wisdom in softening them in order to preserve the possibilty for relationship?
I don’t know what the answer is. I do think that videos like this aren’t the answer. If the faith community was serious about showing care for women, children, and unborn children, we’d stop spending money trying to change the law and we’d start spending it on healthcare for pregnant women and children, housing for the homeless, subsidies for adoption, and more.
November 17th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Thanks for the thoughtful feedback Brian. Good to have the conversation about this important topic.
November 18th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Brian,
This is a very thoughtful post. It drives me nuts when an issue is inappropriately simplified into an either/or proposition. I love your list of things we should be doing to prevent abortion - right on target!
November 19th, 2006 at 7:49 am
andy, i appreciate your honesty about what drives you nuts. but aren’t some things either/or? it may not be postmodernally correct. but the bible is full of very either/or statements and prescriptions for living.
and aren’t you employing either/or thinking yourself, when you say, “This is the right way to talk about an issue,” and “This is the wrong way to talk about an issue”?
November 19th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Jason - The Bible certainly offers a lot of either/or statements, but it can often be fuzzy on the details, especially when we think about the complications modern life throws in.
I think one of the major challenges in talking about abortion is that if we start the conversation by saying “abortion is murder” it is pretty difficult to create an environment of civility. I think what Andy is suggesting is that there are ways we can try to talk about issues like abortion that aren’t immediately polarizing.
Personally, I think that’s a good goal. I don’t think we’ll ever get anywhere in the public discourse on abortion if we can’t get past an argument that has essentially become “abortion is murder” vs. “women have the right to choose.”
November 19th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Here’s the thing. You take Bernard Nathanson, a man who made an incredible living performing abortions, who helped get pro-abortion legislation through, and then was overwhelmed with remorse when he saw that he had actually taken countless human lives. Why would someone in his position want to make up evidence to make himself look terrible?
If abortion is taking a human life, what would be a more positive spin we could put on it? Is homocide better?
What I will say is that countless women have been persuaded by companies that make their livings supplying abortions that it is not killing a human life and that there is no remorse.
Those women who have been baited by pro-abortion groups should be given sympathy. But those who are making millions of dollars by lying to women have guilty of a very grave sin.
Thanks for the conversation.
November 19th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Jason - I don’t believe he’s making up evidence, or that his testimony is invalid. My point is simply that I don’t think his video is a helpful tool to get women to stop having abortions. I think a lot of the women get into the situation where they’re considering abortions because they feel like they’re out of other options. Reminding them that abortion is murder isn’t exactly the path to a good decision, in my mind.
Like I said in my post, I think the real answer to the abortion problem is providing women with REAL choice. I don’t think real issue is whether abortion kills something that is alive - I think most people believe that. But a lot of people are willing to say that that life is less valuable than the trouble it will/can cause. Changing how people value life is a long process - but people facing an abortion don’t have time for a long process. The short term answer is giving women real choices. Making a women feel like a murderer without being given any other decent alternative is just cruel in my mind.
And we don’t have good systems in place to guarantee that pregnant women have access to health care and support. And we’re even worse at guaranteeing that children will have health insurance and a good home to grow up in.
November 20th, 2006 at 6:02 am
good points. as far as the kids go, there are lots of great families crying out to God day and night for a baby will come available for adoption.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
That’s certainly true - especially if the babies are caucasian. There’s a lot less demand for african-american or hispanic infants. A sad fact, but unfortunately true.
We also need to remember that for women that want to keep their babies, there aren’t a lot of easy solutions for them. The cost of just delivering the baby in the hospital is incredible. If you don’t have insurance, you’re starting off in a pretty big hole.
December 16th, 2006 at 8:49 am
We have adopted a child - we’re one of those families Jason spoke of above. I’ve also told my congregation that they have no right to claim that they are anti-abortion (or pro-life) if they aren’t doing something to promote adoption or to help mothers who want to (but don’t think they can afford to) keep their babies.