Posted on 12/03/2002 4:55:18 PM PST by tuna_battle
Article by the fellow who will be on O'Reilly tonight...
THE MORALITY OF ABORTION
By Rev. Mark Bigelow
I believe that we progressive clergy must reshape the debate over abortion to focus on the moral and ethical dimensions of the decision to terminate a pregnancy. Too often we have referred to abortion as a tragic choice or a last resort when it is, in fact, a moral decision, made out of consideration for the needs of the family, the community, and the wider world in which we live.
In the struggle to establish a legal right to abortion, abortion rights activists had a strong moral position. To deny women the right to determine when and whether to have a child was clearly unjust. Once the Supreme Court legalized abortion, nationwide, it became a right, taking its place beside freedom of religion, freedom of the press and the other freedoms that we enjoy.
The problem for us, as clergy, is that the assertion of a right has no moral or ethical dimension. The language of choice is essentially a language of rights. Yet a right is morally neutral. It is the exercise of that right that raises moral and ethical considerations. Hence, the right to have an abortion is essential for women to exercise full moral agency. However, as long as clergy who support reproductive rights continue to focus on the language of rights, we can do very little to enhance understanding about the value of abortion in society. The emphasis on individual choice sounds an awful lot like another form of the preoccupation with self that many religious folk — conservative and progressive alike — decry in contemporary American society.
How do we begin to refocus the discussion? To begin, we can tell the stories of women who have had abortions. Just as the stories of illegal abortions before 1973 convinced many that abortion should be legal, so, too, the stories of women who have had abortions since then demonstrate that they have made decisions that are moral.
Take the case of Claudia Davis, a conservative Evangelical Christian, married to a seminary student, with one child. Faced with a second pregnancy and worried about the strain a second child would place on the family at a very difficult time in their lives, she elected to have an abortion. Reflecting on it later she wrote, "Children need a minimal level of quality of life. When they don't receive it, the result can be violent behavior as adults. Women who choose abortion think about what kind of life their child would have. Thus it grieves me when I hear people call us 'murderers,' especially when they assume that we made our decision lightly with no regard for human life." (See "A Pastor's Wife Faces the Truth," in Abortion: My Choice, God's Grace, ed. Anne Eggebroten, New Paradigm Books, Pasadena CA, 1994, p. 78.)
You know and I know that abortion is a carefully considered act that usually involves many concerns: for children who are already at home, for parents who would need to struggle as premature grandparents, for anxious husbands, for the future contribution that a promising young woman may make, and for the obscene environmental problems associated with population growth and consumption. In short, abortion is a moral decision — an action that considers the need of the larger community — a consideration that the Judeo/Christian tradition celebrates as the highest of human values.
The Planned Parenthood mission embodies these same values. Margaret Sanger's plea that "every child should be a wanted child" is an ethical construct. Even the very name "Planned Parenthood" is an ethical precept for family and community life.
As our movement enters this new millennium, I would like to suggest that we talk more about responsible choices as moral choices. My daughters are two of the major reasons that I am committed to our movement and to Planned Parenthood. I will do all that I can to safeguard the rights they must have if they are to make responsible choices about their lives. But I pray most of all to give them the wisdom and the courage to understand that the choices that they make will affect others so that they will base their choices about every aspect of their reproductive lives on a concern for others and for the environment, as well as their own healthy development. These are the values for which we stand in Planned Parenthood, and they reflect the fundamental teachings of the Judeo/Christian moral tradition.
Rev. Mark Bigelow is the pastor of The Congregational Church of Huntington, United Church of Christ, on Long Island, NY, former board chair of Planned Parenthood Hudson/Peconic, and member, PPFA Clergy Advisory Board.
My guess is that most parents who follow through with an abortion are more concerned and worried about how THEIR lives would change after the child is born -- more so than what kind of life THEIR CHILD would have (as always, though, I could be wrong).
Oh brother. Is this guy for real? Taking a life in the womb is "morally neutral"? Does this guy actually have a congregation that listens to this kind of pap?
He can help out my family, though, by disposing of himself as soon as possible.
Now that's a choice I can live with, eh?!
Somebody in Long Island, please, start a mission near this place.
Agreed. I thought the same thing before posting the article: the big "S" word -- Selfishness. BTW, O'Reilly tore the rev. a new a$$hole, during his interview tonight.
This puke must have gotten his divinity degree from the Costanza School of Theology whose motto is "It's not a lie if you believe it."
Tell that to a mother.
I'm sorry, but this position is simply idiotic.
I'm glad to hear it. I caught the end of the interview and I thought Bill was going easy on him.
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