Conversion Diary: How I became pro-life
so the above is an interesting blog post about a multidimensional topic. the author expresses quite thoughtfully & eloquently how her mindset was changed.
this is something i’ve been thinking about a great deal lately, because it keeps popping up in conversation (and makes me slightly uncomfortable, as i think it does to many people). i have strong feelings on both sides of the issue of abortion – both the value of human life and the right of women to decide, and myriad other issues factor into my opinions.
sometimes i wish it were possible to not “choose” one side at all, but to just, you know, set some ground rules. say, if a woman had been raped, or if she’s physically incapable of carrying the child, she should be entitled to have an abortion without judgment or repercussion. of course, the ancient issue remains: where do you draw the line? what’s an “acceptable” reason? obviously, it depends on whom you ask.
another reason i’ve been thinking about it is that being pro-choice in any degree puts me at odds with my church. this has been made very clear to me, but to be honest, that is another issue altogether. i have to form my thoughts both within the framework of orthodox christianity and outside of it.
i’m reminded of a story my mother told me, from when she was a young nurse. she had a patient who was around her age at the time, early 20s. this girl was married and already had five children. five children, at 23 (my age now). she was pregnant again. but now she had terminal cancer.
the patient’s father was deeply religious, a sheikh, and refused to allow her to have an abortion. being pregnant, she couldn’t get the cancer therapy she needed. she died, leaving behind her husband and, now, six children.
i understand that ‘each life is valuable’ and that we cannot ‘dehumanize’ fetuses.
but tell me, when making a decision about a full-grown woman’s life, why does the unborn child’s life take precedence over hers? why is it more important to save a baby that has never been born, than to save a woman, a wife, a daughter, a mother?
in a scenario such as that – how can anyone claim to NOT be making value judgments about human life?
February 2, 2009 at 1:01 am
The Orthodox understanding of human sin is far, far more complex than just “Here’s the rules. Follow ‘em.”
For the Orthodox, abortion is always sinful, even if it’s necessary. Sometimes, it’s the only option (e.g., an ectopic pregnancy), but it’s still sinful.
Perhaps some folks live in a world where every choice is always between absolute evil and absolute pure and perfect good. But I don’t think most people live in that world. Sometimes, we really have to choose a lesser evil.
But from the Orthodox point of view, it means we still have to repent. After all, our whole life is one of repentance, so it should be no surprise that choosing a lesser evil should require it, as well. Repentance is simply the whole person turning once more toward God and away from evil, so we really should not be scared to live in such a way that means we accept repentance.
I know of no Orthodox confessor who would tell a woman that she MUST die in order that her child might live. If she wants to choose to do that, it is quite noble and good, but if she cannot, then she will need to repent. Either way, though, she’ll need to repent, because choosing to give her life will probably also hurt people.
As for the question of whether we “ought” to be able to “choose” in most cases (i.e., the vast majority of abortion cases, which are not the result of rape, incest, etc., or threaten the mother’s life), we have to ask ourselves what makes such a “choice” any different from allowing infanticide outside the womb. If a woman can “choose” to kill her as-yet unborn child, why should she not be allowed to choose to kill her 1-month-old? Or 10-year-old? (In Belgium, if the child is “deficient,” it can be killed up to 12 months old, often without parental consent.)
For the Orthodox, human life and identity begins at conception. There is no way around that. And of course, for the Orthodox Christian, there is no time in our lives in which we should say, “Okay, now I must function outside of my faith.” Our faith is a 24/7/366 faith, not a Sunday morning faith.
I can understand how people can conclude that what is inside a pregnant woman is not a person (though I believe they’re wrong on several grounds, including scientific). But from the Orthodox Christian point of view, that isn’t a conclusion that is anything but deeply antithetical to our 2000-year moral tradition.
Anyway, for more of the theology and practical reality on why we as Orthodox believe that humanity begins at conception, see this sermon which was recently preached.