Christian Attitudes Toward Abortion
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Since the Supreme Court decision in the case Roe v. Wade in 1973, the issue of medical (induced) abortion has so polarized much of the religious and secular segments of American society that the reclamation of any common ground between the factions which have come to be known as "pro-life" and "pro-choice" may be impossible. While neither advocating a position in favor of a woman's free-will choice to seek and obtain an induced abortion nor one which advocates the total ban on such a procedure, this paper will, in effect, play "Devil's advocate" and challenge the conventional Christian attitudes toward abortion, in an attempt to create a "middle ground" upon which pro-life and pro-choice advocates may meet and rationally seek a resolution of the issues which have so painfully divided the American nation. The theme "Abortion and the Sacredness of Life" presupposes that life is sacred, and seems to imply that abortion is a "sinful" act. In a singularly religious world, these two premises might be correct, and no further discussion would be necessary. However, God's created world, and subsequently His Church, has devolved from the perfection entrusted to Adam and Eve, and has suffered through periods of religious extremism and secular reaction, religious intolerance and secular repression. Since its foundation, the Christian "Church" has repeatedly been split into a variety of "factions" (i.e., denominations) which offer assorted stylistic, moralistic, philosophical, or
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tity--for as the apostle Paul wrote: "the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there violation" (Romans 4:15, NAS). The best such a focus can expect to accomplish is create some sort of "guilt" feelings within the mind of the already distressed pregnant woman. The Church has a long history of heaping guilt upon its own and others. But it was just this sort of "guilt thing" which led Martin Luther to begin nailing his "editorials" to the churchhouse door, and gave rise to Protestantism.
Whitmore (1993) observed that "the way one construes a moral problem methodologically shapes one's response to the problem." In this sense, the "pro-life" movement has construed the "problem" of abortion in monolithic, sinful, terms. At least three separate modes of moral reasoning have been identified as being utilized by traditional Christianity: deductive moral reasoning--"that abortion violates the sanctity of life and is a rebellion against God's design" (the Bible says it is a sin); authoritative moral reasoning--the "appeal to Catholic dogma" (the Pope says it is a sin); and, consequentialist moral reasoning--"as a means of control over sexuality and as a means of confining women's activity to the home" (sexu
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Approximate Word count = 2810
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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