I always believed that life was sacred, but having children impacted my view on the value of life. Suddenly life wasn't just sacred, it was priceless. I found myself unable to watch violence on TV and weeping as I heard about deaths on the news - lives ended. Each human life is a single, nearly impossible occurrence. Each of our genetic and experiential combinations is miraculous. If mom had eaten a little more or less that day, if the house had been too messy, if dad had not gotten home from work at that exact second, I wouldn't exist and a different genetic combination would. And that formula of impossibility goes back all the way to the moment it all began.
I believe life is sacred.
In John 10:10 Jesus says, "the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. I come that they may have life and have it abundantly."
I believe abundant life is about more than just being alive.
My husband and I had the opportunity of being financially destitute a couple years ago. We were not homeless because our family supported us. In the financial hell of having no income and no ability to earn income, our stress levels, depression, self-worth, and ability to cope with normal things was transformed. Life was incredibly painful in a way that being tight on money only begins to touch.
During that season I began to realize that quality of life is incredibly important. Abundant life is not just about being alive. It isn't just about having food and a roof. Abundant life is about laughter, festivals, days of feasting, opportunities to be generous. It is about the entire person having the freedom to be alive. When you live in poverty there is so little freedom. The stress of getting through the day prevents the ability to look forward to the future, and hope can dry up and die.
Life.
The abortion issue is probably the most contentious issue in our society right now. The problem is that people who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice are not having the same conversation, and until that happens, we will be violently divided. Politically, pro-lifers are fighting against what they see as mass murdering babies. Pro-choicers are fighting for the lives of women and against what they see as the government being able to invade and violate their bodies. One side is fighting against murder the other against rape. Can such a divide by bridged as long as this is the only way of seeing or thinking of things?
This post is about trying to bridge that gap and to begin having the same conversation.
Pro-life and anti-abortion are not necessarily the same thing. Abortion deals only with the process of being born, but life is lived over decades or even a century.
What does it do if I demand that people have their babies but do not put in place support so that those babies can have life after birth. What is the impact of defunding sexual education, birth control, social programs, and support for the woman and child? How do women, who bear the weight of birth and the life afterward, raise a child when society doesn't support working mothers by providing paid time off, affordable childcare, or jobs with living wages?
Most of the pro-choicers I know are very much pro-life-in-its-entirety. They support programs that help prevent the need for abortions and also that provide for people throughout their lives.
Throughout the past decade, abortion rates have been steadily declining. Access to free women's health care, education, and contraceptives, has been a large part of that. Abortion is not new. As long as women have been getting pregnant, there are women who have ended those pregnancies for many reasons. Many of those methods put their own lives in jeopardy too. Outlawing abortion doesn't make it go away.
Can someone be pro-choice, pro-life, and anti-abortion? I would argue that they can. I would consider myself to be in that camp.
I am anti-abortion because I believe preventing abortion is paramount. I think abortion ends life, causes deep pain and can devastate lives. My children would not exist if a young teenager had decided to have an abortion rather than putting her premature son up for adoption. My husband would not be alive, nor my children, if his 14 year old birth mother had chosen abortion. Reducing the need for abortion, looking at effective methods of protecting the health and safety of women and children, these things are key. Because I care about reducing the abortion rate it is important to me that the abortion rate has been decreasing over the past 30 years and to find out why. I believe in looking at statistics and studies in preventing the need for abortion. This is why I cannot support legislation that reduces the ability for women to get health care, have access to free contraception, or have access to education and support - these things reduce abortions.
I am pro-life because I believe life has value from birth through death. Being pro-life means caring about the whole person from beginning to end. Being pro-life means caring about the quality of people's lives and not subjecting them to a life of impossible pain and suffering. Being pro-life means supporting access to health care as a right, not a privileged. It means supporting free quality public education, supporting teachers and students, so that everyone has access to resources to learn and get ahead. It means supporting measures that value the lives of every human, allowing people to live a life of dignity no matter the color of their skin, their religion, sexual orientation or political associations. It means fighting poverty, which is the root of so many of our problems, and also fighting greed, which builds structures that prevent people from getting out of poverty. It means being grieved by war, by violence, by people losing their homes and becoming refugees. It means fighting policies that dehumanize or demonize a group of people or individuals.
I am pro-choice because I believe the abortion issue is more complicated than simply baby murder and I see the way the "pro-life" legislation does not just ban abortion, but often reduces women's access to care and support. The pro-choice movement is not just a pro-abortion group - it is a group that cares incredibly deeply about women and acknowledges that men do not bear the same weight as women when it comes to sex, reproduction, and raising children. Also the pro-choice movement seems to be much more supportive of life after birth, fighting for the dignity of all people no matter their color or creed.
I am not just someone who believes in Jesus, but I am someone who has dedicated my life to embodying His kingdom as described in Galatians 5:22 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), and to bringing healing and wholeness to the world around me. In Jesus I see someone who ate with the unclean, who lifted people from the dirt and gave them grace over judgement, who touched blind eyes and made them see, who touched lepers and made them well. Who loved so much that he would die so that his enemies might live. He was someone who brought healing and transformation to our sick and broken world.
As someone who seeks to walk closely behind Jesus, to be covered in the "dust of the rabbi," it is important to me that I seek healing and wholeness - the restoration of all things. This is why I felt so strongly that this post needed to be written. We have to stop vilifying people on both sides and figure out what our goal is.
Is the goal to end abortion? If it is then we need to look at how that is effectively accomplished and then put money into those services that reduce the need for abortion and support women and families who chose to have or adopt children.
Is our goal to protect life? If it is then we need to look at ways of protecting the lives of babies, of women, of men, of everyone.
Is our goal to protect Women, whose bodies have been violated since the beginning of history, and to restore dignity and human rights? If it is then we need to look at ways of transforming society's view of women, reducing the blame and weight on women for crimes committed against them, and support women and men in a way that reveals "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).
Let's begin talking about our goals, find the commonalities, and find ways of fighting together. Let's embody abundant life and be a part of the restoration and healing of the world.
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