Comments on: Its So Personal: Anecdotes on Abortion over at The Daily Dish…

By: Pleasantly Eccentric

Pleasantly Eccentric — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:22:38 +0000

Excellent blog post. So well thought out and so sympathetic to women seeking late term abortions.

By: BelovedSpear

BelovedSpear — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:03:56 +0000

It’s a tough issue. I think what is most important is to defy the radical polarization that has separated the two “camps,” and to firmly proclaim that this issue is an area in which considerable greyscale exists. Some thoughts on that are here:

http://www.belovedspear.org/2009/05/abortion.html

Thanks for this post!

By: Drew Tatusko

Drew Tatusko — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:01:38 +0000

The problem I have intellectually is that on the one hand I think we all want to believe that we live in a morally equivalent world. That would be nice. But it is impossible. We make value judgments that have to value some lives more than others. The anti-abortion position smooths out something and turns it into an ideology that does not really fit reality by accounting for all of the factors that are at play. So, what is the goal: do we want to save lives, or criminalize abortion? There is no evidence that criminalization will have nearly the same effect of saving lives as, say, universal healthcare which includes abortion counseling and more robust support structures for women with unintended pregnancies. Part of this needs to be family planning and contraceptive use. yet Christianity has a history of being so paternalistic with sexuality where pre-marital intercourse and it’s moral issue if at odds with the clear research that shows that contraceptive use and abortions are correlated.

The Church needs to decide. Is it more important that your congregation members are having sex out of wedlock and not talking about it so that they are simply not empowered to engage the issue in ways that promote safe sex? Or, is it more important that we find ways to reduce abortions as a top priority which means promoting safe sex and contraceptives – yes, even in Church.

If the church is about saving lives and creating a culture of life, it needs to promote contraceptive use and educate people in ways our social services cannot with regard to safe sex. But if the issue is to focus on abstinence alone it will do nothing to reduce abortions and will reinforce the current no-win situation we have created for ourselves. Time to stop being ideological and time to start being pragmatic and rational. Two things the church has a miserable track record at doing.

By: Melissa DeRosia

Melissa DeRosia — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:40:43 +0000

Thanks for this post! On Saturday I am leading a workshop at the Big Tent in Atlanta on the denominations position on reproductive health care. I also hope to take it a step… well I am not sure what direction it is. I plan to have an interactive conversation about how our traditional language around reproductive health and abortion is a barrier to our finding common ground. I am not an idealist that believes we can find “compromise” but in hopes that we (those who are typcially divided on the area of abortion) can find words that move “beyond bumperstickers” to work towards a common goal of reducing the number of abortions. We spend so much time and energy fighting the rhetoric of “pro-choice” and “pro-life” we end up marginalizing the very women who are agononzing in the midst of their reproductive situations. This includes women who are considering or had abortions, women who experienced miscarriage and infertility… the list goes on.

Invetably, raising this issue will also aggrivate those who feel very passionately on either side… but I believe it is worth the effort to make space for conversation that reaches the heart of those this issue directly affects.