Some See Red, I Just See Grey

One of the best parts of my life is being at the intersection of so many thoughtful and interesting people.  Really, it is great.  Facebook posts, Tweets, emails and even the occasional book length text message bring with them such a wonderful array of positions, ideas and insights.  That has been especially true since the Susan G. Komen Foundation announced its plans to withdraw funding from Planned Parenthood.  The stated reason was a policy that dictates that funding be withheld from organizations under Federal investigation.  The consensus beyond the press release is that SGKF has been under pressure from anti-abortion groups and has “caved” to that pressure.

I have nothing to do with SGKF other than being an occasional donor, so I can offer no insights to their motives.  What the conversation about this controversy has done is bring to the forefront yet again the great unsettled social question of the last half-century; abortion.

In many of the emails, tweets, etc. that have come my way about the SGKF/Planned Parenthood issue has also come the abortion question.  Are you pro-life or pro-choice?

Yes.

That is the only answer I can give to that question.  I am a pro-life pro-choicer.  I am that person who makes the true believers on either side of this issue see red.  If in life there is ever a black or white issue that begs to be treated in shades of grey, it is the question of abortion.

My own thinking on abortion has been shaped and formed by a number of factors.  First, I am a Christian and do have a theological belief in the importance and primacy of life (not sanctity, that is another issue altogether.) Second, I have walked the path of abortion with many parishioners and I know that for those directly involved these are not easy or quick decisions.  Finally, and very importantly, in the end I do not have a uterus and therefore do not get a vote.

Theologically abortion is a complicated issue.  I believe that live begins at conception.  Whether that is human life or not is a metaphysical question of existence and consciousness that goes beyond the basic question of life.   A fertilized egg is life and as a Christian I believe it is both inappropriate and ethically questionable to speak flippantly about life.   That life has value and dignity and should not be dismissed as though it is merely a byproduct in a laboratory.

Yet that life is not a life alone in the universe.  It exists in a very real relationship to another life.  And that life has to be taken into consideration as well.  Abortion abolitionists would sacrifice the life, in its fullest physical, psychological and spiritual form, of a mother for the life of even a fertilized egg.  This position lacks even the most basic sense of human decency and dignity.  If, theologically, human life begins at conception, it certainly does not end after birth.  And the life of the mother must be of great importance.  A hard cast rule that neglects the dignity and life of the mother as much as if not more than the life of the fertilized egg in her womb is not and cannot be a theologically sustainable ethical rule.  If life is valuable, then all life is valuable.

My own inclination is to argue on the side of very strict regulation of abortion.  To allow abortion to be something spoken of as casually as any other thing in the medical world has a tendency to coarsen our public discourse and blind us to the very real ethical issues involved.  My inclination is tempered, however, by bitter experience.   I knew a couple (not parishioners) who learned that their unborn child suffered from a number of severe genetic issues.  Alone none was so severe as to prevent a healthy pregnancy.  Together, however, they were termed “incompatible with life” and the doctors recommended that they abort.  The reasons for the procedure were to prevent an almost certain complicated late term miscarriage that may have impaired their ability to have another child. 

I think about them whenever I read about some of the popular anti-abortion legislation floating around today.  Had she been forced to watch an ultrasound or had to sit through a graphic depiction of the procedure or forced to go home and wait for 72 or 96 hours, what was already a devastating experience would have been made hell.  She was not there to “get rid” of something.  She was there so that those medical professionals could walk with her through what is one of the most horrific things a family can endure. 

I believe we need to have a serious conversation in this country about the issue of abortion and how it can be properly regulated so that we do not devolve to a place where abortion is looked upon as birth control or brushed off as no big deal.  But we need to do that in a way that recognizes that this complicated issue will not have a simple solution and the wellbeing of the mothers and, yes, fathers involved must be a part of that conversation.

Finally, I believe that my voice in this issue is one on the periphery.  As a Christian, I have a place at the table in the church’s conversation about abortion.  As a citizen, I have a place at the table in the nation’s conversation about abortion.  But when it comes to deciding whether or not an individual woman may or should have an abortion, I just don’t get a vote because I don’t have a uterus.