On December 14, Beth Moore, a prominent American theologian, tweeted this:
"I do not believe these are days for mincing words. I’m 63 1/2 years old & I have never seen anything in these United States of America I found more astonishingly seductive & dangerous to the saints of God than Trumpism. This Christian nationalism is not of God. Move back from it.
Fellow leaders, we will be held responsible for remaining passive in this day of seduction to save our own skin while the saints we’ve been entrusted to serve are being seduced, manipulated, USED and stirred up into a lather of zeal devoid of the Holy Spirit for political gain.
And, God help us, we don’t turn from Trumpism to Bidenism. We do not worship flesh and blood. We do not place our faith in mortals. We are the church of the living God. We can’t sanctify idolatry by labeling a leader our Cyrus. We need no Cyrus. We have a king. His name is Jesus."
Note that Moore cautions against placing either Trump OR Biden on a pedestal.
But it's the fact that she is calling out Trump worship that has touched a nerve among American evangelicals.
Such as Johnny Enlow of the "Elijah List", who then wrote:
Response to Beth Moore’s Tweet of Dec 13, 2020 (Twitter@BethMooreLPM)
Beth Moore, I was sent your tweet this morning and you wanted to hear from fellow leaders. Your rebuke was public so therefore this too is public. My goal is that this be an entreaty more than a counter rebuke. Now, I pray you will listen to a fellow leader. To acknowledge and recognize that God’s key governmental instrument is President Trump is not “Trumpism”. Nor is it denying Jesus any preeminent place. The reason God has Cyrus’s and Davids and Esthers and Moses’s and Pauls and Elijahs and Gideons and Joshuas etc. etc. is because He uses human instruments. If I applied your logic to your very ministry I could conclude that you are unnecessary to give a message because Jesus as King will take care of it. You seemingly have faith for Him to handle all governmental matters personally without need of an instrument but not religious or spiritual matters. I think it self-evident He would not call us the "salt" of the earth and the "light" of the world if He as King Jesus would handle everything.
What if King Jesus has Himself sanctioned and raised President Trump as His key instrument at this time? Would it not be an egregious offense before Him for a leader in the Body of Christ such as yourself to not recognize that reality because of some personal wound, grudge, blindness or preference? And worse to then encourage other leaders towards similar mutiny equivalent? What if some leaders in Moses’ day would have reached out to the people and messaged “We have no need to follow Moses! We must only follow God? God will open the Red Sea before us whether we honor or follow Moses or not". Would that “zeal for Jesus” have been looked upon kindly by God? I think not. It would be a zeal devoid of wisdom. Apply that to every Biblical character of renown that God used as His key instrument. Israel repeatedly faced judgment for ignoring who God had sent as His key instrument. That was true all the way into the New Testament. The Pharisees could not receive Jesus Himself because of their “zeal for God”. They disrespected the instrument God sent because He was not in the package they expected- and He was actually God Himself! Would not anyone championing “God” above honoring the leader this very God had chosen-- actually be in rebellion to God?
Beth, I must tell you that as much as I have respected your ministry to the Body of Christ for many years that this is where you find yourself today. You not only are in resistance to God’s instrument of choice of the hour but you are using the very platform God has given you to champion foolishness against God. While there may or may not be “Trumpism” the actual reason there is so much passion in the Body of Christ towards President Trump and what he is fighting for, is because there are millions of believers in this nation discerning God’s will and His instrument of deliverance for our nation. You have done them and the Body of Christ and the general populace itself a great disservice by calling their proper discernment into account. May you back down from your self-righteous stand and properly discern the day and the hour we are in. May the accountability you have projected onto leaders in the Body of Christ be properly felt by you, yourself, as it is serious.
Johnny Enlow
Enlow's daughter has a different perspective:
Please
read this from Promise Joy Enlow. Her father, Johnny Enlow, has
thousands of followers and appears regularly on Elijah List. I have felt
he is the most dangerous of those that prophesied that Trump would be
re-elected because he continues to promote QAnon conspiracy theories and
is inciting violence through the language he uses.
Promise
is not the only preacher's kid speaking out. I am in a closed Facebook
group, started by Anna Jayne Joyner, where other preacher's kids are
expressing concern at the cultish behavior they see in their parents.
Promise's words "You've lost us" is something I've heard a lot.
Promise Joy Enlow's post dated November 12:
"Growing
up, one of my favorite Bible stories was of the prodigal son. I loved
the idea of a child being able to come back freely to his family after
potentially ruining his future, and still finding unconditional love and
zero requirements to receive it. It’s a beautiful picture.
Unfortunately I don’t think the evangelical church will have many “lost
sheep” even attempting a reunion after all that has happened.
Even IF
these Christian leaders/their followers were indeed right about their
ridiculous conspiring they have left ZERO room for any reconciliation
with those they have disagreed with.
The far-right, evangelical church
has officially sealed their position as a Trump cult.
There is no love,
kindness, gentleness, or other “fruits of the spirit” coming from their
camp.
They are so busy with their obsession that they have no time for
relationship.
Anyone who joins them from here on out will have been
forced into it by fear tactics and threats of an angry, judgmental god.
They’ve lost all credibility (Clinton, Obama, etc still not in jail and
the coronavirus is still happening despite their attempted predictions)
and now have taken to extremely weird emotional displays (check out
Kenneth Copeland and Paula White).
The posts of many popular evangelical
leaders that I grew up around break my heart and terrify me.
They are
full of rage, anger, denial, and even borderline incite violence (and at
minimum do nothing to speak against it...at least not from their own).
They are literally referring to anyone who didn’t vote for Trump as
evil, deceived sleepers, pedophile supporters, and worse.
Trump’s
election loss is literally being compared to the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
Their idol worship of Trump is not even attempting to
be subtle anymore.
The
most beautiful parts of the story of Jesus have been completely
abandoned by them, and replaced with the anger, jealousy,
vindictiveness, and inhumanity of the god of the Old Testament.
They
don’t want to love souls anymore (other than those of unborn babies and
missing children that aren’t actually missing...), they just want power
over them.
And to that I say: you’ve lost us.
You’ve drank the Kool-aid
and we’ve thrown our cup on the ground and will not trust anything else
your divisive message has to offer us.
We believe in love, and in each
other, and that is what we live by."
Beth Moore is not the only Christian evangelical warning against Trumpism and Christian nationalism.
C.S. Lewis and Phillip Yancey did:
"I see the confusion of politics and religion as one of the
greatest barriers to grace. C. S. Lewis observed that almost all crimes
of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with
politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures
us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been
unable to resist.
“I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would
disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists
and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion
except to manipulate it."
―
Billy Graham
David French, a conservative Christian political commentator, and senior editor of The Dispatch, also warned us:
"This is a grievous and dangerous time for American Christianity. The
frenzy and the fury of the post-election period has laid bare the sheer
idolatry and fanaticism of Christian Trumpism.
A significant
segment of the Christian public has fallen for conspiracy theories, has
mixed nationalism with the Christian gospel, has substituted a bizarre
mysticism for reason and evidence, and rages in fear and anger against
their political opponents—all in the name of preserving Donald Trump’s
power."
- David French
It's not lost on me that a woman who has consistently called out the culture of white-washing systemic sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Church is now the one who is being branded a "false teacher", a "sheep in wolves' clothing" and a "Jezebel".
Beth Moore is right.
Christian nationalism is not of God.
The kingdoms of this world are not the Kingdom of God.
The old book says, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
In Amos, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Micah, the Gospels, James, and so on, God's righteousness is expressed as his JUSTICE.
Justice for who?
For widows and orphans and the homeless
For immigrants, refugees and strangers in the land
For Indigenous people and their ancient marker stones
For the abused and the oppressed
For the exploited and those cheated of fair wages
For those deprived of justice and integrity in the courts.
For those considered 'the least of these, my little sisters and brothers".
Seek first HIS Kingdom.
Not
the "kingdom" most likely to secure OUR rights, freedoms, privileges,
comforts, luxuries, customs, culture and preferred way of life, at the
expense of others.
Politicized, popular, performance Christianity is not where it's at.
Amos
5: "You trample on the poor and force them to give you grain while you
live in mansions ... you oppress the righteous and take bribes, and
deprive the poor of justice in the courts. I hate, I despise your
religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies .. away with the noise
of your songs! I will not listen ... But let justice roll on like a
river, righteousness like an ever flowing stream."
American evangelicals
are making a serious error by conflating church with politics and using
venal men like Trump to further their culture war agenda.
That is not
the way to exalt righteousness in a nation.
The people who are supposed
to be about Truth have followed a narcissistic liar; the people who are
supposed to be about Love have become hateful.
It has brought
Christianity into disrepute.
The international community watches in dismay as Christianity is warped much as Islamic fundamentalist extremists warped Islam for their political agendas.
It is time to stop spiritualizing political issues.
It is time to stop inferring that God is on 'your side' and that your political opponents are 'of the devil'.
It is time to wake up to the polarization tactics being deployed against you.
The kingdoms of our God are not the
Kingdoms of this world.
It is not Beth Moore who needs
to repent of self-righteousness.
It is a dreadful thing to watch sincere Christians marching beside "Proud Boys" in their "Jericho Marches", proclaiming the name of Jesus - even as they repeat Qanon disinformation - and conflating conspiracy theories from that nefarious source with false prophecies from false prophets - leading them further out of touch with reality and further into collective delusion.
My American husband told me, after scanning scores of "Stop the Steal" posts and sites, "I feel like a spiritual orphan. I feel I have lost my tribe."
"If
we don’t pump the brakes soon, all of this macho rhetoric and posturing
can only end one way. And it’ll make the whole of 2020 look like a
cakewalk. It may sound and look like far-fetched and alarmist political
theater, but the precedent being set by the GOP leadership should
disturb every American. Because none of this occurs in a vacuum.
According to a recent survey, more than half of Republican voters don’t
believe Biden won the 2020 election (https://bit.ly/37Xwioq). "
and
"Our nation is rapidly approaching a point of no return. It may be time to temporarily set aside our partisan differences. You may have not voted for Biden. You may hate everything the Democrat Party stands for. But in recent weeks, President Donald Trump has proven himself either pathologically unable to admit defeat or mentally ill - perhaps both - and his behavior threatens to push our country to the brink of a crisis of unimaginable consequence.
Make no mistake: As Trump continues to frame himself as the only "righteous" source of truth, authority, and justice, his political movement is rapidly transforming itself into a cult (https://bit.ly/3mfJcmU)."
Dan Hawk commented further on the "Stop the Steal" and "Jericho" marches:
"The
Jericho March and Stop the Steal rally in Washington D.C. on December
12 followed on the heels of three pre-election prayer rallies. It
included many of the same individuals, with the addition of Eric Metaxas
and Alex Jones, Roman Catholic leaders, such as Archbishop Carlo Maria
Vigano (arguably the fiercest critic of Pope Francis), Michael Flynn,
and the My Pillow guy (whose adds at times appeared on split screen with
speakers). The tone this time was stridently militant rather than
penitential. The speakers articulated and reiterated the main points
we’ve been hearing from this group in the weeks since the election:
· Nefarious forces have stolen the election
· The rule of law is at stake
· Most Christian leaders are asleep, have given up, or are on Satan’s side in this battle
· The judges who have ruled against Mr. Trump have no courage
· An attack on Mr. Trump is an attack on the church or the citizens of this nation
· The media are working for the liberal overthrow of the U.S. and are spewing lies
·
God is calling Christians, through his contemporary prophets, to fight
along with the angelic forces that are battling in the spiritual realm
for the United States
·
Perhaps most alarming: Follow your “heart” and not your “head.” Trust
your own inner voice and believe what the prophets and sympathetic
politicians tell you. That is the real truth.
The
last point explains a lot. One cannot reason with such people, because
they have rejected reason altogether. "Truth is what I believe it to be
in my heart and is confirmed by people who share my belief."
We find ourselves, therefore, in a time of significant peril.
The
rule of law is maintained by mediating institutions, like courts, that
adjudicate competing claims and render equitable judgment based on
evidentiary standards. Over fifty judges or panels of judges, many of
them Trump appointees, have repeatedly ruled that there is no evidence
in support of Mr. Trump’s claims of fraud and a stolen election. The
courts are working as the Founders designed them to. To reject their
judgments is to reject the rule of law and to open the door either to
authoritarianism or to civil war.
Christian
faith and practice are rooted in the careful, rigorous interpretation
of Scripture, guided by the intellect and informed by tradition. The
reasonable, critical interpretation of the Bible provides a fundamental
means of evaluating visions, impressions, and convictions. To reject the
intellect and instead to cherry-pick biblical texts to support one’s
subjective belief or putative revelation, is to place one’s experience
above the truth of Scripture.
History
reveals where this leads – to aberrant doctrine and, more seriously, to
a spiral toward violence.
When a group of ardent adherents places
themselves above others of their faith, on the basis of subjective
experience or divine revelations, the result has almost always been a
descent into violence and the justification of brutality against the
perceived enemies of God – that is, ultimately to the same thinking that
justifies flying airliners into skyscrapers and to wiping out
indigenous people as demon worshipers.
The
Jericho March rally looks less like a scene from the book of Joshua and
more like the scene at Mt. Carmel, when the prophets of Baal called on
Baal again and again, and by various devices, to manifest his supremacy
over the nation. The cult of Baal was an abomination, not only because
it presented a rival claimant for Israel’s loyalty, but also because
that cult served the aims of the ruling regime. Elijah – and all the
prophets of Israel – insisted that the Lord was free from and stood
apart from all earthly aspirations for power. Yahweh is no ruler’s
servant.
For this reason, I don’t expect to see the kindling of the sought-after fire on the Jericho March altar."
"This was truly
extraordinary: the conflation of shedding blood, seizing the government,
and serving God. This was a great gift to the Left, this speech. The
entire day was. A very conservative Christian friend e-mailed me during
all this to say, “My God, this is the kind of stuff that drove me away
from Christianity for 25 years!”
Another speaker, a man wearing a
black cowboy hat, called on Trump to “invoke the Insurrection Act” to
“drop the hammer” on “traitors.” He said that Trump should know that the
“militia” is with him.
“Let’s get it on now, while [Trump] is still the commander in chief,” said the speaker.
But like this? By
putting all your faith in Donald Trump? By believing and proclaiming
things that are false, or at least contestable? By demonizing all those
who doubt or disagree?
This is how you fight for righteousness?
No. No, no, no. No!
Yes,
it is bonkers. All of it. But you would be wrong to make fun of it and
blow it off.
This phenomenon is going to matter. Divinizing MAGA and
Stop The Steal is going to tear churches to bits, and drive people away
from the Christian faith (or keep them from coming in the first place).
Based on what I saw today, the Christians in this movement do not doubt
that Trump is God’s chosen, that they, by following him, are walking in
light, and whatever they do to serve Trump is also serving God. They
have tightly wound apocalyptic religion to conservative politics and
American nationalism.
“We have to align our spirituality to our
politics,” said the speaker today. Notice that she didn’t say “align our
politics to our spirituality.”
"These days, what Metaxas and Ellis have in common — coming from
different backgrounds and two decades apart in age — is a willingness to
bend the present truth into a new kind of historical fiction.
Gerson, of the Washington Post, sees a danger to the witness of Christianity in this denial of reality.
“Dedicating your life to Trump is in the same category. If a
Christian leader believes — honestly and adamantly believes — that Trump
is a fount of truth, a defender of the faithful, a Lincolnian guardian
of liberty and a victim of a nationwide electoral conspiracy, he or she
is likely to fall for anything. People like this — people like Metaxas —
make the critical intelligence of Christians seem limited. And what
these leaders say about religion loses in credibility.”
- discusses the errors of Christian Americanism, End Times conspiracy theories, and the prosperity doctrine - and how these groomed the masses for delusion.
"What we’re witnessing on the national stage right now is disgraceful. In
fact, the only word for it is blasphemy—the sacrilege not of
secularists marching on Washington to take away religious freedom but of
evangelicals marching on Washington to perpetuate a cult. We might have
ignored this as a spectacle, a performance by a handful of voices in
opposition to the Constitutional system of our republic. But I feel
conscience-bound as a minister of the Word to warn against what can only
be considered a heresy—indeed, a cult within a certain segment of
evangelicalism. It has arisen over many decades and will no doubt be
around for many more to come."
We are people of conscience who care about women, babies, families, faith, morality and society.
We have concerns that political moves the purport to be "pro-life" may
have unintended consequences that back-fire and increase abortion rates.
In this blog, we examine strategies proven to actually reduce abortion
rates and discuss how we might replicate those optimal outcomes, or even
improve on them, in our own communities.
- directly and indirectly penalises women for becoming mothers
resulting in:
- thousands of hours of unacknowledged and unpaid caring work
- less superannuation
- even worse penalties if they're abandoned and become "solo" mothers
- a wage gap
- loss of opportunity and promotion; perhaps even job loss
- poor provision of maternity and paternity leave
- impossible child care arrangements and costs
all resulting in mothers being far more vulnerable to financial
inequality, poverty and homelessness - and then, at the same time,
assert that "abortion is wrong" ... do you see the contradiction?
Louder, again, so everyone can hear: if you truly wish to care for our
un-borns better, start with caring for MOTHERS better - including bodily
autonomy and sexual self-determination for potential mothers.
"Abortions are a barometer of how safe women feel about bringing new life into the world."
- Crystal Lutton
At some point, the Christian church, particularly in parts of USA, is
going to have to face up to the fact that patriarchy and systemic gender
inequality do not bring down abortion rates - no matter how much you
escalate control and coercion over child-bearing women.
Percentage of fertilized eggs that do not proceed beyond implantation (naturally): 70%
"Abortion rates are similar in countries where abortion is highly
restricted and where it is broadly legal. The abortion rate is 37 per
1,000 women in countries that prohibit abortion altogether or allow it
only to save a woman’s life, and 34 per 1,000 in countries that allow
abortion without restriction as to reason ..."
Why abortion bans don't work - and may have a counter-productive effect
For people who believe that controlling women and keeping them in their
place is the key to morality and social order, this is going to painful
to hear.
Jesus is a shepherd who GENTLY LEADS THOSE WHO ARE WITH YOUNG (Isaiah 40: 11)
Escalating coercion over women in the child-bearing age group will never
bring down abortion rates, because such coercion is in violation of
God's heart and the spiritual laws set out for us in Scripture.
In Ezekiel 34, we are warned:
"Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them, "See, I myself
will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove
with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns
until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no
longer be plundered .... they will know that I am the Lord, when I break
the bars of their yoke and rescue them from those who enslaved them ...
they will live in safety and no one will make them afraid ... You my
sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am the Lord your God,
declares the Sovereign Lord."
In verse 14 it says, "they will lie down in good grazing land."
"Lie down" may refer to giving birth as well as to sleeping and resting.
As midwives we understand that for a healthy, progressing pregnancy,
safe childbirth and happy adjustment to motherhood, it is vital that
women are well-nourished, nurtured, supported, with minimal stress. This
is true for all female mammals.
The stresses exerted on adult female humans in
the world today are getting worse, if anything. Child-bearing
women are facing unprecedented stress, and even (or especially) in
developed countries, nutritional status is worse than ever, and food and
food production has become increasingly industrialized. Birth trauma
rates are likewise increasing as maternity services have become
depersonalized and profit-based. USA has the highest maternal mortality rate of any industralized country.
Observe what happened in Romania, the only country to ever successfully
implement a 100% total abortion ban.
Observe what happens when the
ability of a government to coerce, control and penalize child-bearing
women is escalated:
Notice how the 8 Recommendations at the end of this report fit with the
concept of reducing oppression of child-bearing women in order to reduce
abortions - and miscarriage - and infant and maternal mortality:
8 RECOMMENDATIONS
Amnesty International urges the Nicaraguan authorities to:
- Repeal Articles 143, 145, 148 and 149 of the Penal Code and decriminalize abortion in
all circumstances. Women and girls must not be subject to criminal sanctions for seeking or
obtaining an abortion under any circumstances;
- Reform legislation to allow for therapeutic abortion in cases of pregnancy resulting from
rape or incest and in circumstances where continuation of pregnancy would put the health or
life of the woman or girl at risk. The reforms must ensure that safe abortion is accessible
without unreasonable restrictions;
- Ensure that medical professionals are not criminally sanctioned for providing safe
abortion services;
- Ensure all institutions promote and strengthen awareness and implementation of the
Obstetric Protocols when treating obstetric complications;
- Remove the legal obligation, and any practical obstacles, that compel women and girls
who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest to continue involuntarily with the pregnancy;
- Undertake immediate law reform to ensure rape victims have access to comprehensive
remedies including counselling, medical care and psycho-social and legal support in line with
World Health Organization guidelines and ensure they are fully supported to make free and
informed decisions on how to manage the consequences of rape, including continuation or
termination of a pregnancy;
- Ensure full investigations into cases of suicide of girls or women of reproductive age to
establish whether unwanted pregnancy was a contributing factor;
- Ensure women and men receive and have access to contraceptive services and
information in order to make informed choices about sex and reproduction, free from
coercion and discrimination;
- Increase the provision of antenatal, maternity and postnatal services and assistance and
support for parenting;
- Ensure human rights defenders and medical professionals campaigning to raise
awareness of the negative impact of the revised law and to promote and defend the human
rights of women and girls are able to carry out their legitimate work without restrictions or
fear of reprisals, in accordance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
Banning abortions is a lazy, quick fix to an issue everyone feels
strongly about. Nobody WANTS to end a pregnancy. But then, nobody WANTS
unwanted or obligatory sexual contact, either. And nobody WANTS to be so
exploited and oppressed that continuing a pregnancy could be the
financial tipping point that turns the whole family onto the street and
into destitution.
"But can't we just ban abortions and just stop those bad girls and evil women from murdering poor innocent babies?"
The slow, hard, tedious, complex, multi-factorial, exhausting way to
reduce abortion right down to a very sadly necessary minimum is the way
proven to be most effective: stop beating the ewes. Address structural
injustice. Establish equality, autonomy and safety for child-bearing
women. Delete porn and end rape culture. Tackle institutional misogyny
and sexism, including within religious creeds and doctrines.
You can try to fix the problem with sweeping laws and righteous sounding
rhetoric and sermons. But it won't work. This is proven by
international example. This is warned against by every international
body of knowledge and experience in child and maternal health.
Most importantly, God shows us in his word that escalating coercion
culture over the birthing population is not his heart and not his will.
The slow, complex, tedious way might be the hard way .... but it's the right way.
Abortion was picked as a political device for far-right American conservatives, with roots deep in patriarchy, when it was deemed that segregation (racism) would no longer serve their political purposes.
It makes me wonder if it was ever about saving babies.
There is no use in being "pro-life" if all that does is drive up abortion rates and increase the morbidity and misery for women and their off-spring.
The Biblical principle is justice.
If you beat the sheep - they will cast their young.
DO. NOT. BEAT. THE. SHEEP.
(Ezekiel 34)
This is how Jesus treats women in their child-bearing years:
"He will lead his flock like a shepherd, he will carry the lambs in his arms, and cradle them close to his bosom, and gently lead those who are with young." - Isaiah 40:11
We must allow the ewes to "lie down in peace and safety, with no one to make them afraid." - Ezekiel 34:15
It is an abomination to subject women to systemic sexism, misogyny, male headship doctrine, complementarianism, patriarchy, pornocracy, rape culture, domestic violence, gender inequity, economic injustice - objectifying them, exploiting them, de-personalising them, sexualising them - and then wonder why abortions occur.
Unwanted abortions come from unwanted pregnancies which come from unwanted sexual contact.
Teen girls report that unwanted sexual contact is the biggest stressor they face.
Where is the global movement to delete porn and eradicate sex-ploitation of girls and women?
The essential tenet of midwifery is that women must be cherished and nurtured in order to reproduce well.
Escalating pressure and mistreatment of women to stop them having abortions - while all the spiritual, cultural, social and economic factors that drive women to such drastic measures remain unaddressed - will only result in what international example has demonstrated: a sharp rise in actual abortions, along with a sharp rise in miscarriages, stillbirths and maternal & infant mortality.
THAT. IS. NOT. PRO-LIFE.
Perhaps we might examine why exactly Holland and Switzerland, with legal, safe, rare abortion services, have the lowest abortion rates in the world: 5:1000 women, compared to UK, Australia and USA, with abortion rates of 13:1000 women.
Or Alabama with 27:1000
Or The Philippines with 30:1000
Or Pakistan with 50:1000
Why do countries with the most draconion abortion ban laws have the highest actual abortion rates? (even if they export all their women to another country to seek abortions, like Ireland and Poland).
What about Romania, with a 100% total abortion ban? How did that pan out?
Could it possibly be that LOVE and JUSTICE is the way to reduce abortion rates to the lowest possible figures?
"If Evangelicals truly cared about abortion
they would be leading the way at having a vision and commitment for
fostering a society in which all women have the information and means
necessary to prevent unintended pregnancies, to carry healthy
pregnancies to term, to raise their children with safety, stability, and
dignity, and to have safe abortions when necessary.
This means providing insurance coverage and public funding for family planning. This means greater access to contraception. This means effective programs that combat domestic violence and sexual abuse.
This means, first and foremost, the valuing of economic justice." - Chris Kratzer
Abortion: The Ultimate Evangelical Cop-out
Commentary from Nicholas Kristof, co-author of Half the Sky, with Sheryl Wu Dunn:
"The fact Alabama is ramping up protections for the unborn while
basically ignoring mothers is troubling to me. Are we not a single unit?
If we're concerned with the well-being of the babies in utero, doesn't
that mean we're required to be concerned with the mother carrying them?
If we make it safer to give birth in Alabama, won't more mothers will be
willing to do so? Perhaps you are not as pro-life as you think you are, Alabama."
"According to their own survey responses, anti-abortion voters are hostile to gender equality in practically every aspect. The goal of abortion opponents is clear: they do not want women to be equal players in society. Defending life, abortion opponents have long claimed, has absolutely nothing to do with opposing rights for women.
Except, of course, that it does. Abortion rights advocates have spent decades pointing out that these self-styled pro-lifers don’t seem to care much about “life” once a baby is born. They want to cut aid to needy children and healthcare to poor mothers and pregnant women. They oppose contraception and sex education – the most effective ways to reduce the abortion rate. Many of them continue to support a president who separates small children from their parents and keeps them in squalid cages. “Life,” it seems, has precious little to do with being “pro-life”.
This survey is another example of how abortion opposition is tied up in a whole knot of misogyny."
Funny how Trump isn't keen on having his mic cut, but this happens:
"White American Christianity seems to hate abortion more than anything else.
Like right now this second there are children that our nation stole
from their family dying in our custody at the southern border and most
pro-life claiming Christians are simply chillin’ in silence or
proactively supporting American concentration camps. But if a new
Planned Parenthood goes up, then they show up with signs and megaphones
and curse young women going to get a routine Pap, condemning them to
hellfire or whatever."
Sexism, misogyny, pornocracy and patriarchy do not only drive up rates of rape, domestic violence, abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth, maternal mortality, birth trauma and post-partum depression and PTSD and subsequent relationship breakdown.
They also drive up the rates of human trafficking.
"A Sludge
investigation has uncovered the sources of millions of dollars behind
advocacy efforts to pass a slew of state abortion bans this year."
It's clear to see, it's so much easier and more straightforward to simply "ban abortions".
And if we "ban abortions", those of us who would likely never be in the position to even consider such an awful thing, can go back to our safe and privileged lives, and feel content that we've struck a blow for righteousness.
Because we will be largely untouched by the catastrophic and counter-productive effects and unintended consequences of actually criminalizing abortion.
The fact that abortion statistics and the maternal mortality rate will sharply rise among people we hardly ever have anything to do with, is not something that will trouble our conscience at night, as we lie in our warm comfortable beds, musing on the sanctity of life.
"If you want to make abortion “unthinkable,” then start by making it unnecessary.
Instead of targeting women at what for many may be the most
vulnerable, most soul-wrenching moment of their lives, start by
addressing all the reasons abortion exists in the first place.
1. Give all children access to publicly funded sexual health education
2. Give all girls and women universal, no-questions-asked access to birth control.
3. Mandate universal access to health care
4. Require all boys and men, everywhere in the world, to stand up and take
responsibility for their own actions. Make them recognize that
they are as much a cause of unwanted pregnancies as the women who end up
shouldering the burden of those pregnancies.
5. Fund research into birth control alternatives for men. Failing that, just keep it in your pants
6. Make sure there is no sexual assault, rape, incest and no non-consensual sexual
encounters of any kind. Eradicate rape culture and victim blaming.
7. Address poverty: eliminate the wage gap
that sees women earning less than men (75 cents to the dollar, to be
exact), and racialized women earning less than that (67 cents), and
Indigenous women earning less again (65 cents), and women with a
disability coming in at a dismal 54 cents.
8. Eradicate racism. Ensure that Indigenous people and people of colour and
newcomers aren’t treated as second-class citizens by society.
9. Address homelessness. Make sure every person has a living wage, an education and a job that can support their family.
10. Ensure social support for the marginalized, for those who exist on its margins: for those
with addictions, for those with mental illnesses, for those who live on
the streets, for those who spend their teenage years bouncing from
foster home to foster home, for those who face domestic violence or
partner abuse.
11. Make sure every child gets a fair start in life. Mandate publicly
funded, universally accessible, high-quality child care for all. Make tertiary education accessible and affordable.
And if you can stand there and argue that we need to ban abortions
without even attempting to tackle all of those other issues mentioned
above? Well, you’re not pro-life.
You’re pro-fetus. Or maybe just pro-control-of-people-with-uteruses."
I was brought up to be "pro-life" - in the evangelical sense of the
word.
Statistics changed my mind.
I saw that the countries with free,
legal and rare abortions had abortion rates 1/3 of USA's. And that
countries with the most extreme abortion ban legislation had abortion
rates triple that of USA's.
So I started to look into why.
Hillary
Clinton also changed my mind. I randomly happened upon a clip of a
speech in which she said, "Sir, you and I share concerns about the very
high abortion rates and we both want to lower it. But we disagree about
the most effective way to do that." I remember the guy was bristling.
But she made me think. Best international example is 5:1000 USA's is
13:1000 How do we get to 4:1000?
The people who are most likely to claim
that 0:1000 is the only acceptable goal seem unconcerned that their
ideology and proposed legislation backfires and produces rates as high
as 27:1000, like in Alabama.
Where there are high abortion rates, there
are almost always concurrent high rates of infertility, miscarriage,
maternal and infant mortality, birth trauma, post natal depression and
PTSD, rape and sexual abuse, domestic violence, early and forced
marriage, FGM, purity/modesty culture and objectification of and shaming
of women and women's sexuality, porn and sex-politation and other ills
that cause trauma for women in the areas of their sexuality,
reproduction and bodily autonomy. It is ludicrous to
separate the single issue of abortion from all these other issues. It
sends a strong, and misogynistic message to women: the babies matter.
YOU don't. And if your babies die as collateral damage of keeping YOU in
your place ... we don't care. (But we'll still blame YOU.)
Being a
doula and working with midwives altered by perspective, too. For
example, the midwifery maxim is, "to take care of the baby, take care of
the MOTHER." This fits with the animal husbandry model too - and the
Biblical model: if you beat (or stress) the sheep, they will cast their
young. To reproduce well, the ewes need to be able to "lie down in peace
and safety, with no one to make them afraid". Then they will reproduce
successfully, and flocks will increase.
The shepherd's rule is, DO NOT
BEAT THE SHEEP.
Jesus "leads his flock like a shepherd and gently leads
those who are with young." Is 40:11
Abortion ban legislation is too
often steeped in misogyny and escalates coercion, stress and pressure on
women. "Two wrongs don't make a right" reasoning creates a dynamic
where no matter how appallingly society treats women, they may not
terminate a pregnancy to reduce the horrific strain upon themselves.
Escalating prejudice, justice and duress on the "ewes", the
child-bearing cohort of the population, will never yield lower abortion
(or miscarriage) rates. Then they get mad because there are still lots
of abortions ... and decide that beating the sheep EVEN MORE (escalating
even more patriarchal coercion & oppression over women) is the only
way to fix that.
Abortion is a barometer reading of how safe women feel
in the world. It is to do with the wisdom of the feminine and the
wisdom of the masculine. The wisdom of the feminine is NOT "witchcraft"
and it is NOT a "jezebel spirit". It is as much a reflection of God's
heart as the wisdom of the masculine. In most things, we need a mutually
honouring balance of both. In women's health & reproduction, the
wisdom of the feminine must not be quenched or side-lined. The concept
of "reduce stress, fear and duress for women; and increase social
support & economic equity: then you'll see reduced abortion rates"
is an example of applying the Wisdom of the Feminine to the issue of
abortion. The idea of making abortion ban legislation more and more
draconian and punitive is an example of using the more mechanical Wisdom
of the Masculine to the issue of abortion. Like, if a bit of force
doesn't work, why, increase the pressure!
We cannot get around the
Biblical principle. We can excuse and justify our "pro-life" ideology
all we like, and convince ourselves that we're doing God's will. But if
we continue to exploit, oppress and abuse women and make their lives so
crappy and onerous and their child-bearing years and experiences of
sexuality and reproduction so damn traumatic, then we will not see
successful reduction of "sheep casting their young".
- by Julie Bell
We told you and told you that profit-driven industrialized maternity services would result in high rates of birth trauma and maternal death.
You wouldn't listen.
USA is the best. USA is the greatest. USA doesn't need to be tutored in best practice by any other country.
Now USA has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world.
We told you and told you that sexploitation and your highly profitable Pornocracy would train men's minds in misogyny and create rape culture and sexualized violence in your society.
You wouldn't listen. You ignored the research of pornography scholars the world over. Bible belt regions became the biggest consumers of internet porn.
Now you have the highest rates of sexual assault inside and outside of marriage of any western country.
We warned you over and over again that Christian patriarchy, Quiverful, male headship doctrine, polarized gender roles and "Complementarianism" - the Christianized sexism you taught - was not the Gospel, that it was white-washing prejudice and normalizing misogyny.
Now your evangelical church leadership are rife with cases of sexual immorality, sexual abuse, incest and pedophilia, as bad if not worse than the Catholic church. And coercive control and domestic violence is accepted and excused in "pastoral" counselling.
We warned you and warned you that your glorification of guns and worship of the NRA and insistence on misconstruing the 2nd amendment would result in endemic gun violence.
Now, you just shrug when your children, who HAVE A HEARTBEAT, are gunned down, and act like nothing can be done.
We warned you, repeatedly, in thousands and thousands of articles from all over the world, that Covid & anti-vax disinformation and conspiracy theories from spurious sources like Qanon, were then leveraged by Russian troll farms in cyber warfare against you that was more deadly, more effective, and far easier and cheaper than bombing you or invading you. You ignored our warnings. You consumed the con. The algorithm puppeteers turned you on yourselves. Now one million of you are dead. And you call that "freedom".
America is proud. America is arrogant. You worship a corrupt, sleazy conman who lies to you and tells you you're the "greatest".
You think that you have the answers. But you manufacture the problems in the name of your only true God, profit.
You refuse to learn from best international example.
Your prideful eyes cannot be prised open to LOOK at the evidence and statistics that prove it.
Your fingers are stuck in your ears, you can only hear hubris and ideology and three syllable chants ... you cannot hear the cries of the suffering.
Not only will you have the worst gun violence death statistics, the highest Covid deaths per capita, the worst maternal mortality rate, the worst rates of clergy abuse and pedophilia, the highest rates of porn and rape, the highest numbers of incarcerated people, the most people dead from the opioid scourge, the highest numbers of homeless people and people under the poverty line, and the highest numbers of climate refugees - now you want to go and make sure that you have the highest rates of abortion of any western developed country - all in the name of parading religious self-righteousness and false morality -
- because you will not listen, cannot face facts, only care about partisan politics, your culture wars, your ideology, and cannot humbly learn from other countries who are doing it better.
How is any of that "PRO-LIFE"???
- by Julie Bell
USA: I think if your reason to ban abortions is because you see it as the solution to the Great Replacement Theory, i.e. the 'problem' of people of colour out-breeding people of pallor ... I kinda struggle to see righteous motive or 'pro-life' intent in that.
Especially considering that international example indicates that abortion bans are counterproductive and backfire, driving abortion, miscarriage and maternal mortality rates higher.
But, well, carry on I suppose.
Here's your gun, here's your foot; here's your foot, here's your mouth.
"The unborn" are a convenient group of people to advocate for.
They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn.
It's almost as if, by being born, they have died to you. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone.
They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.
Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible?
YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO, Evangelical Religious Conservatives.
Worldwide
data shows that restricting/criminalizing abortion access DOES NOT
result in fewer abortions (i.e. more babies are not born).
Abortions
happen roughly as frequently in the most restrictive countries as they
do in the least restrictive. Data from US States indicates the same
fact: There is no meaningful statistical change in abortion rates, no
matter how restricted.
Restricting access to abortion actually results in MORE DEATH… but to the mothers who receive unsafe care.
What IS proven to lower abortion rates?
— Access to contraception
— Comprehensive sex education
— Universal healthcare
— Paid family leave
— Welfare funding
— Ending housing insecurity
— Closing the wage gap
— Funded education
We’ve
known this for a long time, so why have we spent 50 years working to
end something that won’t reduce the abortion rate?
Why are Religious
Conservatives actively working against doing the things that WILL affect
abortion rates?
- by Kevin Young
Abortion laws don't reduce abortions.
* Married women are most likely to get abortions
*
Financial and economic injustice, exploitation, oppression and
inequality is a major contributor to abortions across the world.
Louder,
again, so everyone can hear: if you truly wish to care for our un-borns
better, start with caring for MOTHERS better - including bodily
autonomy and sexual self-determination for potential mothers.
"Abortions are a barometer of how safe women feel about bringing new life into the world."
- Crystal Lutton
THE TOTAL ABORTION BAN IN NICARAGUA:
- women's lives and health endangered, medical professionals criminalized.
Notice
how the 8 Recommendations at the end of this report fit with the
concept of reducing oppression of child-bearing women in order to reduce
abortions - and miscarriage - and infant and maternal mortality:
8 RECOMMENDATIONS
Amnesty International urges the Nicaraguan authorities to:
-
Repeal Articles 143, 145, 148 and 149 of the Penal Code and
decriminalize abortion in all circumstances. Women and girls must not be
subject to criminal sanctions for seeking or obtaining an abortion under any circumstances;
- Reform legislation to allow for therapeutic abortion in cases of pregnancy resulting from rape
or incest and in circumstances where continuation of pregnancy would
put the health or life of the woman or girl at risk. The reforms must
ensure that safe abortion is accessible without unreasonable restrictions;
- Ensure that medical professionals are not criminally sanctioned for providing safe abortion services;
-
Ensure all institutions promote and strengthen awareness and
implementation of the Obstetric Protocols when treating obstetric
complications;
-
Remove the legal obligation, and any practical obstacles, that compel
women and girls who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest to
continue involuntarily with the pregnancy;
-
Undertake immediate law reform to ensure rape victims have access to
comprehensive remedies including counselling, medical care and
psycho-social and legal support in line with World Health Organization
guidelines and ensure they are fully supported to make free and informed decisions on how to manage the consequences of rape, including continuation or termination of a pregnancy;
-
Ensure full investigations into cases of suicide of girls or women of
reproductive age to establish whether unwanted pregnancy was a
contributing factor;
-
Ensure women and men receive and have access to contraceptive services
and information in order to make informed choices about sex and
reproduction, free from coercion and discrimination;
- Increase the provision of antenatal, maternity and postnatal services and assistance and support for parenting;
-
Ensure human rights defenders and medical professionals campaigning to
raise awareness of the negative impact of the revised law and to promote
and defend the human rights of women and girls are able to carry out
their legitimate work without restrictions or fear of reprisals, in
accordance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
Banning
abortions is a lazy, quick fix to an issue everyone feels strongly
about. Nobody WANTS to end a pregnancy. But then, nobody WANTS unwanted
or obligatory sexual contact, either.
And
nobody WANTS to be so exploited and oppressed that continuing a
pregnancy could be the financial tipping point that turns the whole
family onto the street and into destitution.
"But can't we just ban abortions and just stop those bad girls and evil women from murdering poor innocent babies?"
The
slow, hard, tedious, complex, multi-factorial, exhausting way to reduce
abortion right down to a very sadly necessary minimum is the way proven
to be most effective:
stop beating the ewes.
Address structural injustice.
Establish equality, autonomy and safety for child-bearing women.
Delete porn and end rape culture.
Tackle institutional misogyny and sexism, including within religious creeds and doctrines.
You can try to fix the problem with sweeping laws and righteous sounding rhetoric and sermons.
But it won't work.
This is proven by international example.
This is warned against by every international body of knowledge and experience in child and maternal health.
Most
importantly, God shows us in his word that escalating coercion culture
over the birthing population is not his heart and not his will.
The slow, complex, tedious way might be the hard way .... but it's the right way.
THIS DOES NOT EQUAL PRO-LIFE:
What happens if you "criminalize" abortion -
+ have rampant porn which feeds into -
+ human trafficking being the biggest industry under-pinning a corrupt 'democracy' of extreme, immoral capitalism
+ patriarchal culture normalizing objectification and de-personalization and sexploitation of women
+ rampant domestic violence
+ the greatest risk factor for pregnancy not being illness or accident, but murder by an intimate partner
+ for mothers and babies who survive pregnancy, shaming around birth, their placenta, their "mom bodies", breastfeeding and hyper-policing of their bodies and their mothering continues, with rising incidence of birth trauma and post natal PTSD; and maternal suicide being the leading cause of maternal mortality post-natally.
+ rape culture and the impossibility of successfully prosecuting for rape, with a fraction of reported rapes resulting in conviction, and a cultural issue with believing women and blaming victims
+ no exceptions for abortions in the case of incest and rape
+ eradication of contraception and family planning counselling and advice
+ modesty/purity culture & abstinence teaching, further objectifying and de-personalizing girls and women by depicting them as commodities for male consumption, thus having a counter-productive effect to what was intended
+ toxic masculinity aversion to vasectomy
+ no will or funding for male contraception
+ no teaching and mentoring of young men (by older men) on consent culture
+ fundamentalist preaching on "women must be silent" and "women must submit to men"
+ abortion becomes a felony and felons can't vote
+ destruction of the midwifery model of care as an alternative to total patriarchal obstetric monopoly over maternity care; criminalization of midwifery
+ the rich and privileged can still afford their sneaky abortions and they can afford the travel and the favours and the bribes and they can afford the lawyers, and the people least able to afford all that are the same ones who can least afford a child. (For example, Donald Trump who tried to pressure one of his wives into an abortion because her pregnancy was inconvenient to his career at the time.)
+ corrupt multi-national neo-liberalism destroying the environment and the economy resulting in millions being thrust into poverty and homelessness, with crushing student debt and untenable mortgages
+ a culture of male sexual entitlement and female sexual obligation, fed by the twin forces of porn and fundamentalism, resulting in unwanted sexual contact being the biggest problem high school girls report in their lives
+ revoking of common sense and plain justice in the law/justice/penal system, trying to legislate morality, setting up a police state ...
... This does not equal "pro-life".
How could any rational thinking person of conscience, comparing all this with the Nordic model, believe that THIS is going to result in less deaths for mothers, potential mothers and babies, born and unborn???
People: this is NOT PRO-LIFE. It's pro-patriarchy, it's pro-misogyny, it's pro-the-capitalist-elite, it's pro-poverty and economic oppression, it's pro-neo-liberalist control of multi-nationals over entire populations ... but "pro-life" it is NOT.
I pray for the day that people will finally understand what nature, midwives, the WHO, NGOs and the heart of God has revealed loud and clear through the ages: taking care of babies (born and unborn, conceived already or not yet) starts, and ends, with taking care of women. Violent oppression of women and their bodily autonomy and their reproductive rights and their right to exist safely and to occupy space on this planet will never, never result in "saving more babies" and it is Not. Pro. Life.
Pro-Life needs to expand far beyond the religious self-righteousness and political posturing and virtue-signalling, beyond the ducking and hiding and the "this-won't-affect-me because-*I*-would-never-have-an-abortion" (and I am so afraid of all this furore that I caught myself thinking this, and shrinking down behind the parapets; then died of shame as I realized just how much that reveals my personal privilege).
Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. "Pro-life" is far broader than the rhetoric we're hearing. And the heart of God is so much bigger than what we're being told.
- By Julie Bell
COERCION CULTURE DOESN'T WORK
We
also need to consider the issue of coercion culture.
In the west, the
power to coerce is conflated with authority, and even success.
If you
have the power to coerce an individual or group, you are considered to
be more successful that those who are subject to that coercion.
If you
are coercive in a relationship, in a business, you are considered to be
the 'winner'. These are very warped values that are normalized in our
western cultures.
Coercion never, never works in sexual intimacy.
It
does not lead to nurturing, safe, mutually satisfying relationships, in
which the life of the woman as child-bearer is honoured, and the
potential life of a possible child resulting from the partnership is
likewise honoured and nurtured.
Coercion in sexual dynamics leads to
unwanted sexual contact and unplanned pregnancies. So when we set up a
culture of male sexual entitlement and female sexual obligation - this
dynamic is even taught in Christian marriage in some circles - and
certainly porn teaches these values - this is also coercion.
People say
"it was consensual!" but if there are social and economic structures of
disadvantage and inequality driving women to "consent" to sexual contact
as a means to survive or protect living children or avoid worse harm
... that's not consensual. That's still coercive.
Obviously, coercive
culture results in more unwanted, unplanned, uncontrolled pregnancies
because it over-rides womens' ability to monitor and control their
fertility and sexuality and own bodies. Then, because coercive culture
doesn't work, there is a tendency to escalate the coercion. "It doesn't
work! Do it more! Do it worse! Do it harder!"
Draconian abortion laws
apply yet more coercion to a situation that was caused by coercion
culture in the first place.
The solution is not worse coercion.
The
solution is nurturance culture (as modelled by Jesus). If we look at the
cultures and countries with the lowest abortion rates, we will see that
they are consistently the countries with the best tract records for
nurturing women through their child-bearing years: with protections such
as gender equality, opposing systemic sexism, strict rape and sex
trafficking laws, anti-porn measures, access to sexual counselling and
contraception, teaching of equal and respectful relationships and sexual
self-responsibility, strong domestic violence and rape crisis services,
a strong maternity care system with an autonomous midwifery model,
strong maternity and paternity leave provisions, adequate welfare for
the poor, especially single mothers, effective child care options, equal
wages and abolition of the gender wage gap designed to consign women to
comparative poverty, etc.
In other words: the more sexist a country is -
the higher the rates of rape, domestic violence, abortion and maternal
mortality.
The less sexist a country is, the lower the rates of these
ills.
To me, this is a HUGE hint from God: "To take care of my babies:
take care of my GIRLS! Take care of the mothers, take care of those who
may become mothers."
This is a basic principle of animal husbandry. We
cannot take better care of potential babies, unborn babies and born
babies by persecuting and oppressing women more.
And yet - that is
exactly what these extreme laws do.
WHAT ABOUT THE BOYS??
Are
there any programmes where men go into high schools and talk to boys
about porn-proofing themselves and treating women as EQUALS, challenging
the false male-entitlement, female-obligation notions around sex? Where
they talk to them about how not having any PIV sex after each birth,
for about 3-6 months, is perfectly normal, and how her lactating breasts
will be tender, and how she'll be sleep deprived and have a sore bum
and will need him to bring her food and drinks and keep up the hugs
while she recovers and figures out how to keep the baby alive?
As a
birth professional, I'm really tired of the increasing incidence of men
bashing their pregnant partners and leaving them, usually at some point
in the first post-natal year, because they are so appalled and affronted
that their partner is no longer playing the role of "eternally
up-for-it, insatiable sex-ho" and their sense of entitlement is
mortified when she's no longer scurrying around keeping the house nice
and serving HIM food and drink.
I think men need to talk to boys about
what it's like to only ever have sex with one woman ever again in your
whole life (unless she dies, and no, that doesn't mean kill her) and how
it's necessary to have the maturity and long-term view to know that
going without sex when your wife is recovering from a major incident
like childbirth is a normal part of marriage and you have to be patient
and understanding - not demanding.
I am always bemused at how the people
who want the strictest "abortion bans" look at me like I'm an alien
speaking Aramaic when I talk this way, on the subject of what being
"pro-life" really entails.
DO WE REALLY WANT 4:1000?
I
have noticed that pro-choice Christians wish to see abortion rates
reduced to the lowest possible levels according to best international
example, evidence and practice.
The world over, abortion bans have produced the highest rates of abortion and maternal mortality.
The
countries who have been most successful in reducing abortions to barely
a third of what we see here, are the nations with legal, safe abortion,
accessible contraception, comprehensive consent-based sex ed and proper
social welfare. There may be a difference of perspective as to what is
the best way to effectively reduce abortions and support childbearing
women.
We
need to understand that pro-choice people aren't "murderers", they just
understand the evidence regarding effective reduction of abortions.
If
a country imposes strict abortion bans without first establishing
social welfare, gender equality, universal health care, maternity leave,
funded homebirth and midwifery, affordable childcare, wage equality,
affordable housing and without addressing rape culture, porn and sex
trafficking (yes, even in the church), it is a recipe for disaster and
much higher rates of abortion ... and maternal mortality and morbidity.
The
Guttmacher Institute observes that abortion rates are highest when
abortion laws are very draconian and also very permissive.
Free,
accessible, safe, legal and rare abortion services, in a context of
proper social support and gender equality enshrined in law, along with
reasonable abortion regulation and restrictions, yields the very lowest
abortion rates.
5:1000 is the best so far.
USA'S abortion rates have declined steadily since Roe V Wade, and are now at 13:1000 - except in Alabama which has 27:1000.
Wouldn't it be great to get to 4:1000.
Rather
than ask "are you pro-life" (in the ideological sense), a better
question might be, "what do you believe are the best and most effective
ways to reduce abortions to the lowest possible levels?"
I
think that could reduce a lot of unnecessary judgementalism and focus
our attention on how we really can improve reproductive outcomes among
our population of childbearing women.
DO YOU JUST LOVE ABORTION AS A BIG STICK TO WIELD?
I think conservative America just loves abortion.
They
seem hell-bent on doing everything proven by international example and
study to escalate abortion rates and sabotage any efforts to reduce
abortion rates to a sad and necessary minimum - as modelled by nations
with the lowest rates.
It seems to me they go for a lot of deathly things over there. It's so far from "pro-life".
I don't think they genuinely care about the sanctity of life and saving babies.
I
think they care more about controlling women, no matter how much that
escalates abortion rates, miscarriage rates and maternal mortality.
It's awful and sad and misguided - but please Australia ... don't hold this up as the example to follow.
WHAT WOULD A "PRO-LIFE" AMERICA BE LIKE?
Imagine.
You're 24.
You have a huge student debt.
There is no debt forgiveness.
Your mother died of Covid.
Your father lost the family home as a result of a combination of Covid, climate change disaster and unaffordable insurance.
You're working three minimum wage jobs because you can't get a job in the field you got your degree in.
You can barely afford a bedsit.
You know friends - professionals with degrees - who can't make rent.
No one will rent to single mothers. You know of mothers with kids sleeping in their cars.
It is visibly worse for women of colour. This scares and horrifies you.
Abortion is illegal.
It
is much harder, and extremely expensive, to procure effective
contraception to see you safely through to age 50 and menopause.
Some churches are preaching that using contraception is a sin.
Some conservatives are spreading disinformation that certain forms of contraception are "abortifacient".
Your
friend tried to get a tubal ligation, but they wouldn't "let" her,
because they said she was too young, and she 'might want children one
day', and what if she marries?
You
used to use a period tracking app, as a safe form of contraception, but
you're seeing reports of the data being used to build a case against
women accused of trying to get an abortion.
Another
friend got questioned when she had a miscarriage and was left to bleed
for hours, running the risk of haemorrhage and sepsis, while doctors and
lawyers argued over legalities.
Theobros
and incels have been emboldened, threatening impregnation is standard
across social media, and men in general seem more rapey and predatory.
It seems like more men are raping and fewer men are fathering.
You
are noticing a lot of your friends "gratefully" accepting the relative
protection of marriage to a Good Man, but it seems like they are
expending a lot of energy on putting positive spin on being baby-making
machines.
Those
married friends of yours having baby after baby have no maternity
leave, no affordable childcare, no breastfeeding or pumping breaks or
facilities at work, and no ability to take time off if their child is
sick.
You've
noticed that it is now much harder for women to advance and win
promotions at work, even if they are childless, because they "might" get
pregnant. This is significantly contributing to financial disadvantage
for women over their life time, compared to their male professional
counterparts.
You
know of women impoverished by medical debt associated with the costs
involved in having babies and getting treatment for miscarriages.
Your ex didn't like feeling "pressured" into "having" to wear a condom.
You
notice that local churches aren't embracing single and unwed mothers
and praising them for "choosing life" instead of having abortions. They
are lectured on the immorality of sex before marriage. They are told God
hates divorce. They are told that being in single parent families
from"broken" homes messes up their children.
You notice more news reports of domestic violence situations where pregnant women end up dead.
And more reports of post-partum women committing suicide.
