On Abortion

I saw this post on Facebook yesterday, sharing the letter from ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton on the abortion controversy going on in the American Southeast just now. I immediately clicked the “Share” button. Within two minutes, it occurred to me that sharing it to my friends on the same day as the birth of my new nephew was probably in pretty poor taste. But on further thought…

Maybe a little more personal than necessary, but if Katie or Adam object (and they’re certainly welcome to!) I’ll get rid of it: Little S—— was born on May 31st because that’s the day it was scheduled. His older brother E—— was a caesarean section, so one was planned for this time as well. Even with all our medical advances, a C-section is still major surgery, so there was of course some worry over it. But not much. Our doctors handle these things pretty well.

Without this particular procedure, however, S—— might not exist. His mother might have died during the birth of her first child, who also might not have survived. There could be a lot of sadness in my family, instead of the correctly outsized joy we all feel right now. (My joy will, of course, increase, as I watch, from afar, Adam and Katie struggle to deal with their infant and their four year old at the same time. I will think of them every evening when I go to bed; they will never sleep again. Insert Evil Laugh Here.)

My beloved brother and sister-in-law chose to have this beautiful little child. They mostly chose to conceive him in the first place, though of course that decision can only be given a “best try.” Katie, with Adam’s help of course, chose to carry her second child to term. The medical community made all its resources available to her to ensure that her pregnancy was as safe and healthy as possible. When it was time to deliver her child, a major medical intervention was specifically planned to ensure the best chances for mother and baby to both safely arrive on the other side. In this story, she rightly had the ability to choose what would be happening with her own body, and how.

Most people who oppose the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy seem to think that frivolous abortions are an everyday occurrence. They don’t understand that it, too, is a major medical procedure; that although it can be done in an outpatient sort of manner, it takes much time to physically heal, and is a considerably more significant surgical procedure than, say, cataract replacement. They also don’t understand the mental, emotional, and spiritual trauma most people go through on having an abortion. Losing a baby, even by choice, is a sorrow-filled, grief-laden event. And in this case, there are few people with whom to talk, counsel, and process. I have, on occasion, offered basic counseling to people in the challenges of life in my role as a pastor. I cannot imagine, even as publicly as I make my own moral views known, anyone ever coming to me, their pastor, for help after an abortion. And this breaks my heart.

But most of all, those who oppose the right to choose also do not seem to realize that a person who wants to have an abortion badly enough is going to terminate the pregnancy. Period. If they are not able to go to a clinic where a medical professional will help them do it safely, they will find another way to do it, one that may injure them badly or even kill them.

My Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, sometimes seems wishy-washy on social issues, even to my ears. But this is because we recognize that no issue, period, is ever black-and-white. There are only ever gray areas, always. There is always a both/and present in all things. Which is no surprise; if God has woven this world together, the One who is always Both/And must have made it in God’s own image. God is One and Three. God is transcendent and immanent, Word and Flesh. Jesus is human and God. Christ is historical and eternal. Human is saint and sinner. Eucharist is bread and flesh, wine and blood, many individual people and one Body of Christ. Everything in, with, and under God is both/and.

And so with our social issues. Abortion is a great evil, and to be completely rejected. Abortion is also sometimes the healthiest and most faithful—and therefore holiest—of a limited set of options, and therefore must be embraced, though with fear and trembling. Both/And. Both of these things are true. To pretend—from either extreme of the moral positions available—that this is a black and white issue is to both be unrealistic, and to be unfaithful to the truth of the world and people God made and loves. And the truth, as we know, sets us free.

“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into the city of Galilee that is named Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, from the house of David. And the name of the virgin was Mary.” The angel announced the birth of a son to her, which amazed her, since she was a virgin. The angel said that the Holy Spirit would come to her, and that nothing was impossible for God. “And Mary said, ‘Behold the servant of the Lord. Let it be for me just as your word is.'”

Mary said. Mary chose to have this crazy, wonderful, holy child (or at least gave her consent, even though it wasn’t asked for). And frankly, I think the best person to decide about a child’s well-being is usually its mother. Just as my sister-in-law and brother chose to safely have their child. The medical community made all its resources available to her to ensure that her pregnancy came to completion as safely and healthily as possible.

Advocating in favor of abortion and advocating in favor of people’s right to decide about abortion for themselves are two different things. Like it or not, legal right or not, people will choose. I, personally, wish there were never again any reason for someone to choose to terminate their pregnancy, but the evils of our world will make that choice necessary for some. No matter what you or I think about abortion, shouldn’t the medical community make all its resources available to everyone to ensure that every pregnancy comes to its end—whatever that end is—as safely and healthily as possible? Perhaps that would be a good way to honor and celebrate the arrival of all those healthy, new, wonderful babies that do make it to term.