Download Women, Abortion, and the Church: Responsibilities and Rights
A woman in the Lutheran Church of Brazil tells the story of a rabbi known for his piety. One day he was confronted by a youthful disciple. In a burst of feeling, the devoted young man exclaimed, “My master, I love you!”
The ancient teacher looked up from his books and asked his fervent disciple, “Son, do you know what hurts me?” The young man was puzzled. Composing himself, he stuttered, “I don’t understand your question, Rabbi. I am trying to tell you how much you mean to me, and you confront me with an irrelevant question.”
“My question is not irrelevant,” responded the rabbi, “for if you do not know what hurts me, how can you truly love me?” “So, too,” asked the Lutheran woman from Brazil, “how can the Church truly love us when it doesn’t care enough to find out what hurts us?”
That question is particularly true in connection with the abortion issue. The pro-life resolutions of various Lutheran church bodies are among the strongest statements in the world. However, while such theological statements are important for guidance and witness, they are, in essence, statements of concern, and those do not necessarily translate into action. Yet it is action that distinguishes compassion from concern.
Webster’s Dictionary defines compassion as “sorrow for the distress of misfortunes of another, with the desire to help … ”. How quickly church members would rush to help if they could see into the souls of women tormented by the memory of their children who might have been. These women are often suffer agonizing distress, for while abortion leaves a woman’s conscience alive, it often destroys her spirit.
The refusal of the media to report the truth about the devastating effects of abortion on women is all the more reason why followers of Christ ought to respond with action. We must be willing to ask (and to tell!) what it is that hurts women when they have an abortion.
Unfortunately, there are many well-meaning Christians who support an abortion choice for those with an unplanned pregnancy based primarily on circumstances. She is too young, too old, too poor, too bright, too mentally limited, too popular, too potentially successful, and on and on.
Using situational ethics, some Christians even conclude that abortion is the compassionate solution—the lesser of two evils. Why should we offer a woman an evil of any sort? We are the Church, after all, and we ought to follow the One who demonstrated by His life and death what it means to be truly compassionate.
We read in the Bible that when Jesus “saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion” (Matthew 9:36 KJV). That is not the “moved” involved in passing resolutions but rather “moved” to action.
All this is preliminary to saying, first, that it is the responsibility of the Church to learn what it is that hurts women who choose abortion.
Secondly, the Church has a responsibility to be encouragers of counselors and caregivers who struggle with women through an unwanted pregnancy or with women suffering post-abortion pain.
Organizations can’t love. Organizations can’t hug. They can’t comfort, and they certainly can’t enter into the tortured world of hurting women. But organizations can enable. They can promote. They can encourage.
Women and men serving in crisis pregnancy and post-abortion ministries should be able to count on help from their congregations and church body so that the words adopted in convention resolutions are translated into deeds and a practical, supportive response.
People serving in caring ministries have a right to expect encouragement and prayer support from church members and church leaders. “But exhort one another every day,” we are told, “as long as it is called ‘today,’ …” (Hebrews 3:13).
Thirdly, women have a right to be given the full message of Scripture as it relates to abortion. If that were to happen, churchgoing could get uncomfortable for some people, which is why so many clergy say they do not raise the issue.
A popular Jewish author, Harry Golden, once wrote of how some Jews during the Nazi Holocaust became Christians in order to save their lives.
He then noted the following:
If I were faced today with the decision my ancestors faced—become a Christian or die—I would pick a church fast. There is nothing to offend me in the modern church. In some, the minister gives a talk on juvenile delinquency, another reviews a violent movie, and another promotes the weekly bingo game as a fund-raiser.
The first part of a church they build nowadays is the kitchen, and five hundred years from now, people will dig up these churches, find the steam tables, and wonder what kind of sacrifices were performed.
The issue raised by his remarks is a serious one. Is it the role of the Christian Church to perform in such a way that nobody is offended? Ironically, that is the most common excuse given by church leaders for not preaching and teaching that abortion is a sin. They don’t want to offend people in the pew who might have had an abortion or who support a woman’s right to choose.
Fourthly, women have a right to know the truth about what happens to an aborted child. Some believe it is helping women to have them imagine Jesus with their aborted child in His arms, giving them assurance that those children are safe and happy in heaven. Such a message has been characterized as a new gospel: salvation by “youth alone.”
Billy Graham is said to have used this new gospel when he preached at a memorial service for those killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He said, “Someday there will be a glorious reunion in Heaven with those innocent children that were lost. They are not lost from God because any child that young is automatically in heaven and in God’s arms.”
Compassion for women who consider having an abortion or who are suffering the aftereffects of abortion must always center around the truth as revealed in the Scriptures.
What does happen to aborted babies? Scripture doesn’t tell us, but it does tell us of a merciful God with whom all things are possible. We, His creatures, are bound to Word and Sacrament, but God is not bound.
Fifthly, women need to hear that there is forgiveness for the sin of abortion. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).
It is to the redeeming work of Christ that suffering women ought to be directed. Imagining their aborted child in Jesus’ arms does not suffice when real guilt enlivens their conscience. They have been led to believe that in having an abortion they did the right thing, so guilt comes as an unexpected and destructive assault and, often, aborted women cannot forgive themselves.
The Christian Church holds the secret of real freedom, the freedom which comes from the release of sin. Not wanting to deal with the issue of abortion because it offends has often led some pastors to respond with silence. In so doing they condemn aborted women to the terror of conscience.
The work done by volunteers and professionals who provide support to girls and women through unplanned pregnancies or post-abortion trauma is the Lord’s way of intervening in the lives of ordinary people experiencing extraordinary situations. In the words of Mother Teresa: We are just a pencil in God’s hands.
Even so, it is easy to get discouraged. So few seem to care, fewer than even a decade ago. Any shame connected with abortion has long since disappeared. But as I look to the future, I am reminded of a true story about a four-year-old’s retelling of the Ascension story.
It was a simple but accurate accounting, until she came to the end. “Then,” said the little girl, “Jesus took His disciples up the hill. He raised His hands and blessed them and said, ‘Good luck!’”
We would be justified in becoming discouraged if what we had to depend on was “luck.” Happily, what Jesus actually said was, “I am with you always,” through the next election and the next church convention, through the turbulence, terrorism, and temptations of this century, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b).
Let our prayer then be: Even so, Lord Jesus, come! Soon!
Dr. Jean Garton was a co-founder of Lutherans For Life and served as president for 17 years.