We marked the 49th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade, which legalized abortion in all fifty states, last Friday. We typically would sponsor busses for you to go up to Washington D.C. for the March for Life with hundreds of thousands of other youth to mark the occasion, but Covid concerns when the march was planned this year kept us from doing so. I am glad some of you had the chance to go to other cities with your church youth groups to participate in marches closer by. Your witness as young men and women for life is quite powerful.
There’s big news ahead. The Supreme Court recently heard a case involving abortion restrictions in Mississippi, and most people believe, when it announces its decision this coming summer, the Court will reverse Roe vs. Wade and send the matter back to each state to decide for itself. The end result will surely be that different states will end up with different laws, some with more restrictive laws, some with more permissive laws.
Until now, you could debate abortion all you wanted—and we’ve been doing that for almost 50 years—but none of the debate really mattered. The law wasn’t going to change, because legislatures and politicians couldn’t change it. The Supreme Court had ruled it as the law of the land, and that was that.
But if the predictions turn out to be true, come this summer, for the first time since almost anyone in this gym has been alive, the debates about abortion can influence how our state's laws are fashioned. Our debates can actually make a difference.
That is both a thrilling development, but also a very worrisome one, because we don’t debate important social issues very well. In fact, the abortion “debate” has been more like two deaf people shouting at each other. We don’t give the other side any respect at all. Listen to how we talk to each other: “You’re against women, imposing your views on her, trying to take away her freedom over her own body.” “Oh yeah? Well you’re in favor of infanticide.” Not much room for productive debate if those are our starting points!
Let me suggest, if we’re going to really debate this issue, we begin by listening carefully to what each side is saying.
Yes, pregnancy affects women in deep and profound ways—in ways that we men can never fully understand. I watched my wife through the pregnancies of our four children, saw first hand the physical changes she went through—but more than that, the emotional and psychological impact they had on her. One day, she’d have morning sickness, feeling nauseous much of the day. But on another day, she was radiant with joy, bonding with the life within her, at peace.
Abortion is indeed an important social issue, but let us never forget that pregnancy is first an issue that impacts women and their bodies, as the pro-abortion side likes to remind us. Respect for women, respect for their privacy, respect for the idea that women are in all sorts of different situations at the time they become pregnant—some in loving relationships, some in abusive relationships, some in no relationships at all, left to bear the burden of their pregnancy alone— respecting these realities are a precondition for any sober, serious debate of the issue, and certainly preconditions for any truly Christian debate on abortion. Women have inherent dignity, and that dignity must be honored.
On the other hand, those inclined to support abortion must also listen. The issue is not exclusively one of a woman’s privacy. That which is growing within a mother’s womb is not an appendix, a lung, or some other appendage of the woman, but a distinct human life, with its own DNA different from its mother, with its own heart beat, its own blood type, its own mysterious combination of its mother and father. No just society, no civilization founded on the belief that we possess “unalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” can credibly give anyone else the right to terminate that life, any more than a society can confer on parents the right to abuse their own children after birth. Both the mother AND the child have inherent dignity, and we cannot advance the cause of one at the expense of the other.
Make no mistake. I am against abortion—not because it's my religious belief, but because it does violence to children. In saying so, I know that a significant number of my fellow citizens will disagree with me. So is that where our discussion ends?
I hope not. Perhaps we will always disagree about the legality of abortion, but cannot we agree on building a culture where the idea of abortion is (almost) unthinkable?
Can we insist upon a culture, for example, that truly recognizes the equal dignity of women? That prioritizes equal pay for equal work? That insists upon appropriate maternity leave and family friendly employment policies, so that women who become pregnant are not tempted to consider abortion as a tragic necessity? Can we not prosecute deadbeat fathers who renege on their responsibilities to help raise their children? Can we not reject a porn industry that profits from objectifying women purely to serve men’s pleasure? Can we not muster enough outrage over international sex trafficking, and punish countries through our trade policies that tolerate the buying and selling of women within its borders? Regardless of one’s position on abortion, can we not say, side by side, ENOUGH!
And where women find themselves in crisis pregnancies, can we not pour out resources on her and her child, making sure she receives proper pre-natal care, that she is able to complete her education, that she is supported after her child’s birth, both financially and socially, surrounded by loving communities, rather having to endure the scorn and judgment of others, isolated?
And cannot both sides acknowledge the wonder and beauty of children, and especially babies? There is a reason, after all, that when a mother brings her baby into a room full of people, that everyone in that room stops what they’re doing, and goo-goos and gaga’s with that baby! A child's innocence and beauty remind us that God still has hope for the human race! Can not we regard children this way, as a magnificent gift from God? Can we stop with our insulting comments to parents with many children (Hey, you know how that happens, right? huh huh)? Can we stop joking with expectant parents that their lives are now “over”?
Whatever side of the aisle, anti-abortion or pro-abortion, we can work together on these kinds of social reforms. If we do, we can build a culture in our states where abortion is less and less common, even if we disagree about whether it should be outlawed altogether.
Is it foolish idealism to suggest as much? Well, certainly, there's a lot of insincerity on abortion, particularly from those who profit from it, or political operatives who use it to manipulate votes. I don’t hold out much hope for reconciliation between them! But among the rest of us—those who have sincerely held beliefs about women, about children, about a more just society—I believe these are worthwhile goals we can make progress on.
Come this summer, I think, our work is just beginning.
