We Affirm - National Religious Organizations' Statements on Reproductive Choice
Diverse religious denominations and traditions compassionately affirm a woman's moral right to make reproductive decisions according to her own conscience and religious principles. Major faith organizations representing millions of Americans have long supported a woman's right to choose. In keeping with our nation's constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, they oppose civil laws that would impose specific religious views about abortion on all Americans...
Christian
Abortion: A Christian Ethical Perspective
Dr. John M. Swomley
Roman Catholic and Protestant doctrines differ in, among other things, the degree to which they are legalistic. The Catholic Church would have us obey the rules formulated by the Vatican, but Protestants believe that we are free by grace and justified by faith. The phrase “the sacredness of life” means one thing to Catholic bishops—that the life of the fetus is all-important—but to most people of other Christian denominations it means that there is a presumptive right to life that is not absolute but is conditioned by the claims of others. For us the right to life and the sacredness of life mean that there should be no absolute or unbreakable rules that take precedence over the lives of existing human persons.
The pro-life position is really a pro-fetus position, and the pro-choice position is really pro-woman. Those who take the pro-fetus position define the woman in relation to the fetus. They assert the rights of the fetus over the right of the woman to be a moral agent or decision maker with respect to her life, health, and family security.
Catholic
Pro-Choice Catholicism 101
By Jon O'Brien and Sara Morello
Jon O’Brien is the president and Sara Morello is the vice president of Catholics for Choice.
We strive to be an expression of Catholicism as it is lived by ordinary people. We are part of the great majority of the faithful in the Catholic church who disagree with the dictates of the Vatican on matters related to sexuality, contraception and abortion.
In all parts of the world, women, men and their families suffer and some die because they lack the resources to plan their families and the comprehensive information and education to keep themselves safe and healthy. The Catholic hierarchy’s role in influencing public policy affects everyone—Catholic and non-Catholic—by limiting the availability of reproductive health services worldwide. The Catholic hierarchy’s lobbying against contraception and abortion has disastrous effects on women’s lives both in the United States and abroad and especially on the lives of poor women.
Jewish
Abortion: Perspectives from Jewish Traditions
by Rabbi Raymond A. Zwerin & Rabbi Richard J. Shapiro
Whatever their opinions on abortion in any given situation, a vast majority of Jewish thinkers agree that decision-making with respect to abortion must be left in the hands of the woman involved, who may consult her husband, her physician, and her rabbi.
These, then, become the guiding principles on abortion in Jewish tradition: a woman's life, her pain, and her concerns take precedence over those of the fetus; existing life is always sacred and takes precedence over a potential life; and a woman has the personal freedom to apply the principles of her tradition unfettered by the legal imposition of moral standards other than her own.
The Tears That Are Not Murder: Judaism and Abortion
by Rabbi Michael Feshbach
They have blood on their hands, when the rhetoric of hate and anger fans the flame of direct attack, and real murder. It was late on a Friday night, in the fall of 1998. Synagogue was hours past, I was already in bed. The first we heard of anything unusual was the sound of helicopters hovering almost overhead. Then the phone rang. I knew something was wrong the minute I answered the phone, as the voice on the other end was that of a shomer shabbat Conservative colleague: “One of your congregants has just been shot,” Bob Eisen told me. Which is how I found myself, fifteen minutes later, less than a mile away, near the home of Dr. Barnett Slepian.
Muslim
Islam and Reproductive Choice
By Khaleel Mohammed
Normative Islam relies on two main sources: the Qur’an and the Hadith. The Qur’an is defined as the actual words of God as revealed to Muhammad. The Hadith is known as the oral tradition and is basically the alleged words, deeds and tacit approvals of Muhammad as reported by his companions. These two sources, while seen by most Muslims as complementing each other, actually present vastly different views on reproductive choice.
While mentioning that marriage, sex and procreation go hand in hand, the Qur’an NEVER orders marriage with procreation as the goal, but rather states that marriage is one of the ways that God has ordained for humans in order to foster emotional and physical intimacy (Q30: 21, Q2: 223). The Qur’an promises such intimacy even in heaven, and the consensus among Muslims that there will be no children from such relations underline the fact that procreation is not the only goal of sexual relations.
Unitarian Universalist
Unitarian Universalism
by Reverend Dr. Rebecca Edmiston-Lange
Rev. Edmiston-Lange is a Unitarian Universalist minister in Houston, Texas.
Unitarian Universalism, as part of the free religious tradition, has historically and consistently stressed the inherent worth and dignity of every person and the right of individual conscience in matters of religious faith and practice. While Unitarian Universalists draw religious wisdom from many and varied sources, we believe that the test of any religious position is an individual's own direct experience of the good, the holy and the true. Because of that starting point, Unitarian Universalism supports a woman's right of choice in reproductive matters, including the right to choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
Unitarian Universalists have a deep and abiding reverence for life. But we recognize, also, that life is always lived in relationship. Thus, we maintain that moral decisions can never be made in a vacuum but are, instead, always made in the context of competing claims for attention to the quality of life. Women's choices in reproductive matters are morally complex. Such choices can be very difficult, even the occasion for grieving and a profound sense of loss. Nonetheless, the difficulty of such choices does not mean that they cannot also be a faithful and morally affirmative response to what a woman perceives to be holy and just. Women are, inherently, moral agents, as are all people, and they are capable of subtle and sensitive moral discernment.
Hindu
The Continuum of Choice in Sanatana Dharma
by Swami Abhipadananda & Swami Jyotirvakyananda
Life is ubiquitous and eternal, neither beginning with birth nor ending with death. The ultimate goal of your life is liberation from all limiting and constrictive forces. The life you are now living and the decisions you are now facing are the arena in which you develop your human capacities. Living life consciously by actively choosing the experiences that you will inscribe on your memory is the basis of wisdom, learning and human development.
This paper is especially pertinent to young women and men of the Hindu diaspora who must live bi-culturally—both in their traditional cultural milieu and in eclectic Western arenas. As a bi-cultural person, you are often faced with the need to integrate the social problems you face in the West, and the mores of your cultural and familial background, in a way that will be harmonious for you.
Pagan
Choice, Care, and Responcibility: How Pagans Cope With Pregnancy Decisions
By High Priestess Judy Harrow
Sex is good, and it is also good for us. All consensual sex is good, even when it is simply a pleasure shared between friends. As part of an intimate and loving relationship, sex is even better – from a Pagan perspective, it is sacred. Through shared acts of love and pleasure, we create and sustain heart connections that are essential for our inner growth, and for our emotional and spiritual health.
When sex is heterosexual – and most is – it opens the possibility of conception. People who don’t feel ready to raise a child take responsible precautions, of course, but no contraceptive works perfectly. Unplanned pregnancies can and do sometimes happen. Even with planned and wanted pregnancies, circumstances sometimes change dramatically. When either of these happens, we have very little time to make decisions that will inevitably affect the rest of our lives.
