A Christian Pro-Life Position

I don’t typically like to take on politically loaded or controversial “culture war” topics. The reason I avoid these subjects is because, as a psychologist, I know that the psychology of moral conviction tends to be operative. Please read my review of this literature here and here. The point is: When the psychology of conviction is in play charitable conversation goes down the toilet and little is accomplished. I have hopes that this won’t happen to this post.

But then again, I could be a fool for thinking so.

If you haven’t noticed it is a campaign year. And political campaigns always get me thinking about my stance on various issues. A volatile one is the abortion debate. I’d like to take a minute to offer some thoughts on this topic.

All else being equal, I’m pro-life. However, I rarely stand strongly for pro-life platforms because I don’t feel that all things generally are equal. The issue for me is not a simple binary choice: Pro-life versus pro-choice. Abortion is a complicated social phenomena where many sociological and moral pressures are in play. And until the church faces up to the complexity of those cross-pressures as well as confronting how it is contributing to the problem, I'll remain ambivalent about being pro-life.

First, a preliminary point about something that makes me ambivalent which has nothing to do with abortion. Christians should always be hesitant to legislate morality. Legislation is just a euphemism for holding gun to someone’s head. To legislate is to make something a law and laws are enforced via police power. And police carry guns.

The point is, Christians seek moral change via example and persuasion. True, as a Christian I’d vote against violent crimes and robbery. But I’d vote for that as a non-Christian as well. Thus, as a general rule of discernment Christians should be wary, very wary, of deploying political power as Christians.

With that general observation aside, let me get to the heart of my concerns being both a Christian and pro-life.

First of all, let’s say we do pass legislation outlawing abortion. For me to be comfortable with this outcome I’d demand that the Christian community have the following things in place:

#1: Full-blown Sex Education with a Liberal Distribution of Condoms Among Adolescents

If the Christian community demands that all unborn children be born by the rule of law then Christians have to make the prevention of pregnancy MORE IMPORTANT than the reduction of sexual activity. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t enforce pro-life legislation and only deploy half-measures on pregnancy prevention. Abstinence training is not enough. This leads to #2.

#2 The Reduction of Sexual Stigma in Christian Communities

One of the pressures to choose an abortion is the painful stigma the Christian community places on the loss of virginity. The shame is enormous. If you want to prevent abortion then the Christian community has to reduce the stigma. Kids who get pregnant have to be loved and embraced in a way that would dazzle the world. They have to be prized and supported and, this is key, in the public view. Otherwise, kids and their families will seek to hide their shame via abortion.

Again, this pits two tensions against each other within the church: The desire to reduce sexual activity versus pro-life agendas. I think if you want to be pro-life you have to choose. You can’t do both. You can’t demand for these pregnancies to be brought to term while systematically shaming the young girls and their parents during their pregnancy. To do so would be immoral and unchristian.

#3 Economic Support
The number one predictor of poverty in American is being a single female head-of-household. Thus, to demand that all pregnancies be brought to term means that the country must provide for the well-being and future of both the children and their mothers. To refuse to do so would consign millions to poverty, twisting the fates and souls of all those children forced to enter an inhospitable world. This will cost lots of money. Which means Christians will vote, from a moral duty, for higher taxes. A Christian pro-life agenda demands it.

#4 Christian Adoption
Many of these children born into the world due to the pro-life policies will be put up for adoption. If this is the world Christians want they must demonstrate that they are willing to adopt these children at many times the rate of the national average. Again, to demand for these children to enter the world and then refuse them the family we know they need would be immoral. Every Christian voting for pro-life must adopt a child. You can't say you love these children and then close your own home to them. You vote, you adopt.

To summarize. All things being equal, I’m pro-life. But here is what I need to see to feel that a pro-life vote is fully moral and Christian:

1. The Christian community leading the way in pregnancy-prevention, dropping the exclusive focus on abstinence and fully on board with making condoms widely accessible.
2. The reduction of sexual stigma in the church.
3. Economic supports that provide quality health-care, nutrition, and educational opportunities for both the mothers and the children.
4. Every pro-life Christian vote = One Christian adoption.

Until those things are in place I feel very queasy about being pro-life. As a simplistic platform it does not take prevention seriously, it stigmatizes young girls, and, worst of all, forces children to be born into an inhospitable world, a world created by Christians.

Let the debate begin.