Wednesday, June 26, 2013

When I am an Anti-Abortion & Pro-Choice Jesus-Loving Feminist {Thoughts on SB5}

Coat hanger
[photo by ian usher via creative commons]

Tonight it seems that Senate Bill 5, a piece of legislation restricting abortion and women's health services, was [illegally] passed in Texas.

I hate abortion.

I think abortion is violent and tragic, and that it robs children of their lives and wounds the mothers who choose it.  I wish abortion did not happen, and did not have reason to happen.

But.

I do not believe that restricting women's access to safe abortions is the answer.

We've been here before.  Making access to safe abortion illegal or difficult won't stop abortion from happening.  If we restrict access to abortion, babies' lives will not be saved, and women's lives will be lost.  Hearts will be lost.

There has to be a better way.

There is a better way. 

It begins with the heart, I believe.  With the hearts of women and men.  One cannot do this without the other.

It begins with reforming the way our society values women.

It begins with renovating the language we use to speak about and with women.  

It begins with challenging rape culture.

It begins with recognizing feminism as being for more than women alone, and about more than women's issues alone.

It begins with openness and vulnerability and love.

It begins with standing in the pain and offering mercy and help when it would be to let your gaze slide away.

It begins with saying, "I see you."

I do not believe that any good change can begin with, "No, we do not trust you to make choices about your own body and your own family."

We cannot save lives by constricting them.

That's not what Jesus did, and that's not what we should do.

Not ever.

I am going to bed now, and when I wake I hope it's to news that the illegal and manipulative passing of Senate Bill 5 has been rescinded and that eyes are looking and hands are reaching and mouths are crying out for a better way than this.  Because there is one.

10 comments:

  1. Beth, i really think we were separated at birth! Word to everything you said, so much more eloquently than I ever could. xoxo

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    1. Thank you! I was nervous putting this up, so glad you are here with me!

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  2. This is powerful. And this is yes.

    I echo your words so profoundly, though I never know how to rationalize them in my heart. I see the people with their picket signs outside of Planned Parenthood, and I try to reason with them, but they call me accomplice. And it HURTS my heart when I loathe this vileness as much as they do, but women will die in back alleys otherwise.

    What do we do? We slice it at the root.

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  3. Oh how you write my heart friend. So, so brave. Thank you.

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  4. Thank you for putting words to my feelings on this very complicated issue. I've tried to explain it before but it never comes out quite right.

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  5. Dear Beth
    Thank you for speaking about this controversial matter! Yes, I also pray that that law won't go through! As with everything else, Jesus is the only secure and right answer!
    Much love XX
    Mia

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  6. So thankful for all the resources available for those facing this decision and for the brave women who are choosing life when they see that little beating heart. May the hearts of mothers be for their unborn and for Jesus who loves them both.

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  7. You have said so much of what I believe. Growing up, through college and into adulthood, I was always pro-choice, but personally didn't agree with abortions and said I would never get one. That was until I was near losing my own life (and as such, the life of the child) because of a severe, life-threatening illness called Hyperemisis Gravidarum. It was the most heartbreaking decision I have ever made, but I am so grateful that I had that option and could do it safely without obstacles being placed in my way. My own experience has further cemented my beliefs that each individual's situation is unique and no one else knows what goes into her decision. The simple fact is that by changing the law, the only thing that will change is whether or not abortions are done safely.

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  8. I won't pretend to speak for Jesus but I think Jesus hates abortion like Jesus hates sin. Of course it should be illegal. Of course no woman should even make the choice to kill her child. The Bible is not a bag of trail mix, you cannot just pick out the parts you like and leave the rest. Thou shalt not kill. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Using Jesus to justify a woman cutting her child into pieces and vacuuming it out of her body is gross and in my opinion blasphemous.

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts, Elaine. I have a question, though...if it's right to make abortion illegal because abortion is sin and Jesus hates sin, then why haven't we made anger illegal? How about jealousy? How about coveting and idolatry and all the many faces of sin? As you said, we can't just pick out the parts we like and then leave the rest. So why are you choosing to support legislating against only one or two kinds of sin and not all of them? Your logic seems flawed to me, and I don't believe that making anger, etc., illegal would be just as effective as making abortion illegal. It's all a heart issue first, and I believe it should be dealt with as such.

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"I am glad you are here with me."
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King