On Her Moral Grounds

Congratulations Aurora Planned Parenthood!! http://ppaurora.blogspot.com/
Today is your official first day open. I was thrilled and relieved to hear that you finally received your occupancy permit from the City of Aurora. Most significantly, you have given all women the right to spiritual, intellectual and moral discernment.

After reading an essay by Chloe Breyer entitled Women, Childbearing, and Justice, I understand that the issue of abortion is not simply relegated to the debate about life and death, the definition of personhood, and whether the health of the fetus or mother take priority, but it is also about the way in which many Christians (and non-Christians) still view women and their ability, or lack thereof, to make a right moral decision. Perhaps the pro-life advocate would argue that when the life of a fetus is concerned there is no right or wrong option, just the position to carry to full term. Ironically, this position is one based on false notions of a perfect morality. As Breyer points out, there is criteria upon which the pregnant woman can weigh her decision (for it is her decision and not the decision of the state or the community) whether or not to obtain an abortion. Criteria that includes analysis of historical and religious perceptions of women as deviants from the norm, (seductress while at the same time nurturer, “domestic creature”), just cause (abortion as just due to quality of life for self and others in family), and last resort (is abortion the most logical solution in her particular case?) applications.

Controlling a woman’s reproductive function is in effect controlling their lives. If a woman has little or no access to birth control then she is often at the mercy of males who, if not welcome by the woman, easily make demands on their own terms due to their physical and psychological domination. A woman must have the right of choice when in many other areas of her life she may not. Unwanted pregnancies can tether a woman and her family to despair.

I have read that the AIDS epidemic in Africa is proliferating in part because large percentages of women don’t feel they have the right or the ability (due to fear of repercussions) to insist a male “suitor” use a condom. If a woman is raped or has voluntary intercourse with an infected man who refuses to use protection then the woman is exposed, her children are exposed, her family, her community is threatened. The ripple affect of her status as male comforter, provider of services, creates a complex web of suffering.

I recall a conversation I had with a woman at a food shelter a number of years ago. She was volunteering there so her son could attend a local camp for free. She was a petite woman with a small voice and gentle demeanor. One day she told me the story about the time when her ex-husband had followed her to another state and upon entering her home he raped her. I imagine that this scenario is not that uncommon, appearing in various forms, contexts. If a pregnancy were to result, it is the prerogative of this qualified moral agent to make the decision or not to give birth. I now there is disagreement about what constitutes a person and when a soul enters a body but the sin here is to let this woman lose herself, her right to be safe and free from her own personal death. This example is of course in the case of rape. The right to reflection and the choice of whether or not to remain pregnant is inherent in every woman, in every circumstance.

What is the pregnancy prevention agenda for the majority of pro-life advocates? (In a culture as diverse as ours, politically, religiously, ethnically, I really don’t think the sole prevention agenda of abstinence is at all realistic. Perhaps a component but not adequate in itself.) Where are their health centers and hot lines that provide education, support, and the ability to develop greater moral discernment that treats the woman equal to man based on the doctrine of imagio dei, that all humans are made in the image of God? In the words of Planned Parenthood of Chicago President, Steve Trombley, “we know that the preventative services offered by Planned Parenthood do more to prevent the need for abortion than our opponents will do in a lifetime of protesting.”
Thank you for your efforts PP and supporters to provide all women with the right to be active moral agents in their own lives.

Amen.