Photography: Red Rag Campaign (@RedRagCampaign)
As a rule, I don’t blog about religion. Ever. Partly because my relationship with the Church is ambivalent at best, and partly because it lays me open to ridicule from secular feminists and abuse (murderer, baby killer, etc.) from the types of Christians I’m going to write about. But last night, unable to attend the pro-choice protest in London, I sat watching the action on Twitter, feeling hugely inspired and grateful to everyone there fighting for my right to bodily autonomy. But I also felt deeply ashamed because the group on the other side, the anti-choicers so frequently described generically as “Christians”, bear no resemblance to the Christianity I know.
I grew up in a Christian family and, for the first 16 years of my life, went to church every week. Many of the Christians I know are amongst the most loving, compassionate and tolerant people I have ever met. Although it’s no longer such a significant part of my life, it played a huge role in the shaping of who I am, and the forming of my politics – not least my firm believe in equality and justice.
At a relatively young age I realised that the problem with religion – as with so many things – is the politics. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a faith, providing you don’t use it to harm others. But too often people get in the way – a small minority of people, who use their religion to justify their own bigotry and prejudice and to – even, sometimes, with the best of intentions – seriously hurt others. Which brings me to 40 Days For Life…
For me, there’s nothing Christ-like about harassing or intimidating other human beings who are about to undergo a surgical procedure. Honestly, I just can’t imagine Jesus doing or condoning it. This is the guy who befriended the most hated and marginalised members of his society, who was despised by religious leaders because he was less concerned with their laws than with people. The Jesus that I spent 16 years learning about, week in, week out, would be the one escorting women past those bullies. He more than anyone would know their personal situation and understand. He certainly wouldn’t want to watch women die in backstreet abortion clinics, which is what happens when abortion isn’t available safely, legally and on demand.
40 Days For Life have tweeted recently about “turnarounds” at the BPAS clinic where they’ve been holding their vigil. Honestly, is it surprising? I’d turn around and find a clinic where I wouldn’t face the horrible intimidation of anti-choicers with cameras. The Christianity I know is about compassion, not about political point-scoring. Even if you personally believe abortion is wrong and would never have one yourself, you have no right to block others’ access to their human rights. I am enormously grateful to live in a country where abortion is my right; where, should I ever need to, I can access abortion legally and safely. And if I ever need to make that choice, it’ll be between me and God. If you really want to end abortion, try praying to end unwanted pregnancy. Pray to end rape, domestic violence, abusive relationships. Pray for better education about and access to contraception, pray for contraception that’s 100% effective every time. And, while you’re at it, pray about whether it’s really a good idea for a movement about women‘s reproductive choice to be made up of such a high proportion of men. My God trusts women.
***
As an aside, can we rise above this ugly pro-choice rhetoric of religion-bashing please? I saw tweets last night celebrating that there were pro-choice Christians at the protest, that Christians were openly speaking out against the anti-choicers and their attack on abortion rights. I also saw tweets with a tone of “haha your God doesn’t exist.” Let’s not alienate the progressive, pro-choice Christians who are already on our side.
Related posts:
- Sam Ambreen: Why Do We Abort?
- Stavvers: Pro-Choicers have more fun
- HarpyMarx: A woman’s right to choose
- Too Much To Say For Myself: “I asked God: she’s pro-choice”
- A really very excellent pro-choice comic
- New Statesman: The compassionate case for legal abortion
- From Hate to Love: Why “40 Days of Prayer” is Under Attack by the Christian Right
- In Defence of: The 1967 Abortion Act
Great article – very thoughtful. I’m not religious but was raised in a very liberal Christian family where Jesus was the Jesus you describe – someone concerned with compassion and social justice, not hellfire. I wasn’t there either last night and was also watching online, and I think the point you make about being careful not to attack religion is very important..
Thank you 🙂
No problem. Would you mind me adding a link directing to this post to a post I wrote a few days ago about abortion? (this one – http://onehundredmilesfromthesea.tumblr.com/post/19859302445/abortion-cultural-values-of-life-and-choice ) ? Thanks, Rhiannon
Not at all, that’d be great 🙂
Does anyone here. Have any scriptures from the WORD of GOD/Bible, that support abortion?
Surprisingly, last time I checked the Bible doesn’t contain a single mention of the word “abortion”, either for or against – nor, for that matter, does it mention contraception, organ donation, IVF, cloning, or any other issue of modern medical ethics. As a 2000 year old document, it inevitably requires some interpretation concerning issues that are relevant today. It does, however, contain plenty of the things I’ve talked about in this post. I don’t really have time to debate this fully at the moment, so I’m going to refer you to my latest blog post about the realities of abortion (http://sarah-graham.co.uk/2012/04/28/in-defence-of-the-1967-abortion-act/) in the hope that you’ll appreciate why it’s often the most compassionate choice for women in unfortunate circumstances.
As an aside, I’m really tired of only ever having this debate with Christian men. If an issue entirely concerned with WOMEN’s bodies is being led (as it so often seems to be) predominantly by men – either at a religious or political level – then something is definitely wrong. Radical as this idea might sound, maybe it would be more wise to stop and listen to what the women involved have to say.
I’m an Atheist, but I like and respect what you’ve written here. I’ve always said that a truly compassionate god would be pro-choice, and it’s nice to hear from believers who agree.
Good article: not religious myself because of this very issue – people using their faith to bully others. I would have much more respect for the anti-choice movement if it was putting its energies into advocating for emotional and financial support for women post-birth. At the moment the choice to not carry a pregnancy to full term is based, largely, on the lack of adequate support in my view. Imagine a world where women could make a choice based on the knowledge that if they choose to have a baby they could access a full support package for at least 18 years? And, if they chose to not have the baby, they would be respected as making an informed choice? That might change things a lot. So, anti-choicers – why not devote your energies to this? Instead of which you are trying to get women to have babies that they are not emotionally or financially equipped to deal with and then ignoring them completely. Some choice huh? Or as a quote following this article (http://alturl.com/p7thb) puts it:
‘if there was a real choice for women when they became pregnant, then I am sure the abortion rate would drop dramatically – as it stands it is not good enough to say to women – who are often already mothers – you have to have this child because abortion is BAD and we are not going to let you.
So you have to have this baby even if it means you cannot afford to feed it or look after it properly and never mind if you lose your job because you cannot afford childcare or you are too knackered to go to work when you have two or more children to look after and the logistics are horrendous, so then you become homeless because you have lost your job and oh, don’t bother coming to us (Life? Social Services? Who?) because we haven’t got any money to help you but we will take your kids into care and give them an awful, awful life but hey they can become Big Issue sellers when they grow up if they stay out of prison and you – well, you can doss on the street, sell your body, become a drug addict – we don’t care because IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT BECAUSE YOU HAD CHILDREN WHEN YOU COULDN’T AFFORD THEM.’
I do blog about religion but I find that it gets me nowhere and that it’s upsetting. I have, more than once, been accused of being a bitter lapsed Catholic who carries too much baggage to really understand the problems with religion. My retort is usually along the lines that I wouldn’t be so lapsed to begin with if I didn’t have a very good understanding indeed of the problems with religion.
In any case, this protest was fantastic. I am so proud of my pro-choice sisters.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the lack of pro-life trolls on this post so far *touches all the wood she can lay her hands on*. Perhaps because I preempted it so it would look a bit silly to call me a baby-killer now.
And yes, I was super, super, super proud of everyone there on Friday night – wished I could have been there myself though, looked like so much fun!
Didn’t it just. I really enjoyed the tweets from it – our side really did seem to been having a blast. 🙂
The Guardian has a video of the “US-style harrassment of women” that 40 Days for Life use:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/apr/02/abortion-protests-mum-fought-video
Here is the dialogue:
Reporter: Is this the Wiston Clinic ?
Demonstrator: Yes can I give you some information before you go in
R: What is it ?
D: We’re here to offer help and support if you feel you would like to reconsider. I don’t know what you’re going in for but; we’re standing here [inaudible] options.
R: Do you work with the Clinic
D: No No. We don’t work with the Clinic. We’re 40 Days for Life. Some people come because they feel they have no other option. We’re here to say if we can help or support you come and speak to us. Are you going to have a scan this morning ?
[end of segment]
I would suggest this approach is fully compatible with Christianity.
That’s one part of a much wider and frankly alarming picture of what’s going on – including reports of campaigners handing out misleading information and filming patients leaving and entering the clinic. Even simply approaching someone who’s about to undergo a medical procedure is at best insensitive and at worst intimidating. There are other ways to be supportive whilst still trusting and respecting women’s right to make decisions about their own bodies.