Hard Pressed to Find Teachings of Jesus in Anti-abortion Movement’s Messaging
I don’t know what caused me more concern about the highly controversial Dobbs v. Jackson decision issued by the United States Supreme Court on June 24, 2022 — the highly probable reprehensible harm it will cause to women and girls (especially poor women and BIPOC women and girls) OR the influence that religious zealots had on this consequential landmark legal ruling. As an ordained minister, whose sociopolitical ideology is deeply rooted in the conservative theology of the Black church, what is particularly disturbing is how many in the anti-abortion movement — in particular Catholics and conservative Evangelical Christians — are claiming a moral high ground based on their religious beliefs. However, if they are basing their religious beliefs on sacred scriptures e.g., the Bible, abortion is not mentioned — neither figuratively, through parables, which Jesus often used, NOR explicitly in any admonitions or teachings of the prophets or chosen leaders and messengers of the Old Testament.
Religion is one of the most powerful weapons that have been used throughout history to justify manifold forms of oppression and inhumane treatment including slavery, genocide, classism, war, and patriarchy. When I consider that underneath the façade of ruling solely based on legal precedent and tenets, are the strong religious beliefs of the anti-abortion Supreme Court justices, I wish their decision truly reflected the lessons that Jesus actually taught. For example, it would have been prudent for them to consider the story of the woman who was brought by the religious teachers and leaders to Jesus to be stoned and condemned for committing adultery multiple times (read John 8:1–11, NIV). When the scribes and Pharisees (legal experts and religious teachers of Jesus’ day) were calling for Jesus to condemn the woman and allow them to stone her to death, instead of acquiescing to their demands, Jesus first challenged them by saying “you who is without sin cast the first stone” and then knelt and wrote something on the ground which according to scripture, silenced the woman’s accusers. (I joke sometimes and say that what Jesus wrote on the ground was “Mind Your Business!”) The story fails to shine light into the woman’s background; we don’t know why she had multiple husbands or was with multiple men. Like the woman in this biblical story, we don’t know why a woman makes a decision to have an abortion. Most women and girls make this very difficult decision based on their unique circumstances including physical health risks, financial fitness (or lack thereof), social and family support, or mental and emotional wellbeing. For example, women who are in physically or emotionally abusive relationships; young girls who have been molested by a family member or neighbor; mothers who are already exhausted and burdened being single heads of households; college students or young adults who can barely take care of themselves or whose livelihoods are already dependent on financially-strapped parents, grandparents or others are just a few realities that women and girls face that will lead them to terminate an unwanted, unexpected, or risky pregnancy.
The Dobbs decision punishes women and fails to factor in the role and responsibility of men in the equation, just like the woman accused of adultery in the biblical story. In the Dobbs decision or any of the regressive and oppressive state laws coming down the pike, the male factor is not a factor at all. Ironically in the biblical story aforementioned about the woman who was accused of adultery, the woman was brought alone with out her accomplices.
What the SCOTUS did on June 24, 2022, and what many states are doing in its aftermath, is enact laws that are heavily influenced (in an inimical way) by dangerous and paternalistic religious dogma. An NPR Marist poll (May 2022) found that 64% of Americans did not want Roe v. Wade overturned, including Christians like myself. Following the Dobb’s decision, polls show that close to 60% of Americans disapproved of the ruling, again, including many Christians.
Many of the so-called religious protectors of life are the same people who are missing in action when it comes to advocating for child care to support working moms, or the expansion of Medicaid to help prevent people from dying prematurely or getting sick from a chronic health condition or disease because they can’t afford health insurance. And, they tend to be the same people who see nothing wrong with a violent attempt to overthrow the US government and nothing right about people protesting the murdering of unarmed Black men, women, boys, and girls. They want to protect fetuses in the womb but could seemingly care less about infants in the world being neglected, abused, or dying prematurely.
Most Americans clearly understand that abortion, no matter what one’s religious beliefs are on the issue, is none of our business but a personal (not public) decision that should not be litigated in the courts or decided on the floor of state general assemblies. Choosing to have an abortion is a personal and private decision that should be made by a woman (or girl) in consultation with her physician or healthcare provider, and if she believes in God, her God.
