Editorial: Abortion is not a single issue

CAUTION: For anyone who has had an abortion, for whatever reason, knows someone who has had an abortion or has been harmed sexually, this opinion article may be difficult to read or consider.

Abortion is not a single issue. It is a multifold issue, and we need to address it that way—at every level.

Abortion is a key issue in the current national and state elections. As with so much in politics, abortion is reduced to rhetoric—a soundbite, a talking point, a policy matter—so much so, we may be lulled into thinking we solve abortion with the simple casting of a ballot.

Oh, no. We’re not going to get off that easy. Abortion is not that simple, whatever one’s stance on it may be, whatever a court may say, whatever legislation is passed. It is a multifold issue, and we need to address it that way.

We can begin almost anywhere in addressing abortion. I’m going to begin with the woman or girl sitting next to us at church who’s had an abortion, and we know nothing about it.

It’s likely she hears one of three messages: “You’re a baby killer,” “Your body, your choice” or silence. None of those help her.

It’s likely, being in church, she wants to hear, needs to hear: “We love you. Life is hard, and we are going to live it with you.” And she needs more than our talk. She needs us to walk our talk—including on social media.

Since we don’t know she’s had an abortion, we don’t know any of the circumstances surrounding the abortion. And that’s where I will start.

I use “start” intentionally, because I’m not going to wrap it all up with a bow at the end. I’m not going to do all the work for you by telling you everything you should think and do. You wouldn’t want me to, anyway. But, true to form for me, I will ask a lot of questions.

What are the circumstances?

We don’t know if she had an abortion willingly or under duress, as an active choice or a passive choice.

If willingly, why? Yes, why matters. At least, if we care about a person—a whole person—why matters.

If under duress, did someone force her to get an abortion? If so, who? Boyfriend, husband, parents, pimp or other employer—each is its own set of issues. Is she still with that person? What is that relationship like? Is she safe? Do we care? If we care, how will she ever know? If we care, what will we do about it?

Or maybe it wasn’t a person. Maybe it was finances or health.

If finances: What did she need financially to choose something other than abortion? Are we living our own lives in this world in such a way that our desire for her to give birth is affordable for her? That question is a truckload of issues all by itself.

As a counter, someone might ask: “Why is her being able to afford a baby my responsibility? No one made sure I could afford to have my baby.” Maybe no one did, but the older I get, the more I realize how much of what we have is through the help of other people—past and present—and that we have more responsibility for others’ lives than we often want to take on.

If health: Was the pregnancy ectopic, or was her and/or the baby’s life otherwise at serious risk? Assuming such a situation and that only one life could be saved, which life was more moral to save? I realize that’s the stuff of college ethics classes, but I also know real people who really have wrestled with this question, because it was a live issue, not an academic exercise for them.

Or what if she has a severe health condition—physical or mental—that requires medication to keep her alive that also would endanger or kill the developing baby? Again, whose life was more moral to save? Here again, this is not merely an academic exercise. I know at least one person who wrestled with this choice.

Or did she need more information? What did she know beforehand about abortion, adoption or otherwise? Did she know or feel she had other options? Are you and I to be demonized, too, for what we don’t know?

These are only some of the circumstances that may have affected her having an abortion.

After the questions, then what?

We know abortion is a multifold issue. When we get past the rhetoric, it becomes an all-encompassing and perhaps overwhelming issue. And we know intuitively it requires something from all of us. It’s no wonder we protest so passionately for or against abortion restrictions. What if we gave more of that time and energy to the woman or girl sitting next to us at church—or to another woman or girl who needs it?

Thankfully, there are people and organizations doing just that. They do care for women and girls like her. They are walking their talk about the sacredness of all human life. They often go by the name “Pregnancy Center.”

I said at the beginning I wasn’t going to tell you everything you should think and do, but I will argue there are some things we do need to think and do.

We need to think all life is sacred to such a degree that our thinking about the sacredness of human life affects everything we do related to human life.

For example, we need to train men and boys not to rape women and girls, or otherwise pressure them to have sex. What we have done is train boys with “locker room talk,” pornography, machismo and male entitlement. Maybe you and I haven’t done any of that, but we don’t have to look too far to find who has and who is doing it. What are we doing about it?

After training men and boys to objectify women and girls for their own desires, we blame the women and girls for getting pregnant, and we demonize them if they abort the pregnancy. Again, we don’t have to look too far to find who’s blaming and demonizing the women and girls—or to see who is rewarded for objectifying them. What are we going to do about it?

Remember, the woman or girl sitting next to us at church needs more than our talk and our vote.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at eric.black@baptiststandard.com. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.