I am very disturbed by the popularity of "pro-life" politics in many Christian churches in the US.
To my mind, there are several serious problems with this state of affairs:
  • Religious freedom: Even if Christian theology really clearly indicated that abortion is never allowed (it doesn't, see the points below), we are supposed to have religious freedom in this country. Citizens who are not Christian should not be made criminals for doing things that (might) violate Christian morals.
  • Bad theology: If you are going to universally ban something, with no exceptions (even just for Christians), you should have a very solid basis for your theological claims. There is no clear basis for outlawing abortion.
  • The Bible's silence: I have the odd notion that Christian theology should be based on what's in the Bible. You can have your own opinions about things not covered in the Bible, but I don't think you can even demand that other members of your own church agree with you on them. Jesus said nothing about abortion. The Hebrew bible has two oblique mentions: paying a fee for causing a miscarriage (versus capital punishment for actual murder) [Exodus 21:22], and an odd passage about giving a pregnant woman something to drink to test her for infidelity [Numbers 5:11-31]. That's all. If this was really murder, you'd think God would have told us.
  • "Pro-life" as a deceptive term: In thinking about writing this, I was struck by the clever slight-of-hand in the slogan "Life begins at conception". But "life" isn't the right question. Carrots and cows are both "alive", but the majority of Christians are fine with eating both. The correct question is when does personhood start. By talking about the question of when "life" begins, they make the answer "conception" pretty plausible. Christians shouldn't win arguments by deception. But it is clever, I have to admit, and has worked pretty well to deceive people.
  • Traditional theology: The real question is when does personhood start. In Christian terms, when did I acquire my immortal soul/spirit? Since the Bible isn't clear on this, there have been many different ideas. One I prefer indicates that there are three stages, corresponding to body, soul, and spirit:
  • Body: A fertilized egg has a living body, the same way a carrot does. But it is not a person in this theory.
  • Soul: Some theology considers animals to have souls, and people to have souls plus immortal spirits. One traditional notion regards quickening, or discernible fetal movement, as important. Typically this happens about 16-20 weeks. Some theologians have thought this was when your human spirit has entered the body; some have thought this is when you get an animal soul, just like a cow. Maybe still not a person.
  • Spirit: Finally we have your immortal spirit. There's a reasonable argument that the spirit enters your body at birth, when you start to breath. Breath and spirit have a lot in common in various places in the Bible. For example, God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul" [Genesis 2:7]. Definitely a person at this point; at least I think we all agree on that.
    • I'm not saying this three-way distinction is certainly right. But it's plausible, and the other versions are also not certain. I think it's funny that some people are bringing up "implantation" now as maybe when personhood begins. It seems to me they're adjusting their theory to get the result they want (birth control okay, abortion never okay).
    • I do think that abortion is a serious moral decision, which is sometimes not justified, but there are tragic situations where it's certainly the best of a set of really bad options, and there are other cases where it's at least plausibly the right thing to do. But I really do not think a fertilized egg is a person.