What Stops a Beating Heart


                                  "pregnant" by summerbl4ck is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 


I need to start this post with a clear statement: I am pro-life. So that means that, yes, I am opposed to abortion. I believe that an abortion ends an innocent person's life, so therefore, I don't believe it should be a legal option included in reproductive rights.  

BUT-- I am pro-LIFE, not simply anti-abortion. According to the American Anglican statement of faith, this dedication to the sanctity of life means, "All human life is a sacred gift from God and is to be protected and defended from conception to natural death. We will uphold the sanctity of life and bring the grace and compassion of Christ to those who face the realities of previous abortion, unwanted pregnancy, and end-of-life illness." This is where I believe Christians' commitment to fighting abortion is incomplete if they fight abortion while being at best complacent and at worst actively supportive of policies that end lives before natural death.

I often hear that abortion is wrong because it stops a beating heart. That's true, and one of the many reasons I believe it is wrong. But let's not stop at that point. Let's be people willing to embrace the complexities of believing all people are created in God's image. Let's talk about what it looks like to really believe we are called to protect life from conception to natural death. Here are other things that stop a beating heart that should call us to action as much as abortion does: 


1. Driving a car into a crowd of protestors

2. Armed militias encouraging teenage boys to go "protect" an area against looting/protests

3. Neighbors chasing down a man jogging down the street

4. School shootings

5. The death penalty

6. Lack of medical care and sanitary conditions in ICE holding areas

7. Lack of equity in access to medical care (especially in post-partum care for women)

8. Generational poverty that makes it harder to get access to fresh/healthy foods and preventative care 

8. Police shooting unarmed citizens

There are, obviously, many other things that prematurely end lives.  I just wanted to highlight the loss of life that doesn't seem to be met with the same passion to pass legislation to address it. 

My pro-life stance is an important part of how I vote. Since I believe abortions take innocent lives, I'd be immoral and unethical if it didn't play a major role. A candidate's pro-life stance doesn't guarantee that person my vote, but up until this year, being pro-choice did eliminate many candidates from my consideration. But as this presidential election came around, and as the importance of it became more and more obvious, I had to decide what to do with my vote. When I really thought about what I mean by pro-life, I kept coming back to the idea of the imago Dei. The idea that people are made in the image of God and therefore have inherent dignity. For the longest time, I really only thought about this in terms of abortion. But there are so many other places where government policies, laws, and the ways they are enforced either honor human dignity, dismiss it, or actively work to undercut it. This year as reports that ICE was forcing women to have hysterectomies came out and as statistics clearly show that People of Color are so much more likely to die during this pandemic, human dignity isn't just about abortion. 

I'm not saying that you aren't pro-life if you vote a certain way, but I am saying that there is room within the pro-life community for people to consider how to best honor all parts of protecting life from conception to natural death. 

Final Note: There is quite a bit of good reading material that explains how voting for pro-life candidates doesn't always lead to a more pro-life world. I would argue that this is even more true now in the era of Trump and his complete disregard for people's inherent value. The way he talks about women, immigrants, and...really anyone who disagrees with him...makes it clear that while he claims to care about abortion, he is not someone who operates out of an understanding of the value of individual lives. 

Here are a few things I recommend reading: David French's analysis of how politics affects abortion rates 

Snopes overview of the mixed impacts of the president on abortion rates





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