This expression of Christian faith in relation to abortion healthcare was submitted to us.
August 12, 2020
I had two abortions within a year and a half, then I went back to church. I was 37 years old. As a full-time nursing student, single mom to three kids, and a domestic violence survivor, I had no room in my future for babies. I was kidding myself the first abortion thinking I had a good relationship and future, sadly that wasn’t the case. Then the next abortion happened as a one-time accident.
Honestly, as a Christian, I came undone from the first one. I had an awakening or existential crisis if you will, trying to rectify myself to the indoctrination I was subject to my whole life, as the law of Christendom. I tore my religious ideals inside out as a way to understand that my necessary decision carried shame that wasn’t mine!
By Christian logic, God has created or allowed the creation of all things for the people He loves. Abortion services fall into that!
August 26, 2020
Well I didn’t get very far with the above writing piece. But I have something to say because one of my zealous Christian acquaintances posted a false propaganda on Facebook about abortions and it triggered my defense against my choices and my freedom to love Jesus. Sharing her post:
“This is a gorgeous and fully alive unborn baby.
In Canada, (because this child is unborn) It is COMPLETELY legal to abort this baby. I shudder to think of what that would look like....when we know better, we must do better!
You now know better.
Abortion hurts women and children, and I can’t keep silent about that. #truthinlove”
She was talking about an accompanying video of an en caul c-section birth; an amazing phenomenon where a healthy, active baby is born still encased in the amniotic sac. That video used to illustrate her agenda is hugely deceiving and ignorant. It is certainly not the same as abortions performed at 21+ weeks that account for 1.16% of all the Canadian procedures recorded in 2019 (StatsCan).
These abortions are performed in severe, medically necessary circumstances because pregnancy and/or birth can result in maternal morbidity, or the fetus is extremely compromised and/or unlikely to survive. While Canada has no specific law governing abortion, it is not easy or ideal to access a late-term abortion. Physicians have their own moral codes and strict professional guidelines to adhere to, fetal tests must be done confirming abnormalities, and clinics themselves don’t perform late-term procedures so hospital intervention is required.
The worst part about anti-abortion propaganda tied into religion is that it dismisses that it is a choice. Choice is freewill. Freewill was assigned to humans as a gift from God so they may choose Him. Using religious law as fuel to miseducate about what it means to have freedom of choice is against Jesus’ message of love and servitude. You cannot be a servant while also dictating what can and cannot be a choice. Jesus accepted, forgave, suffered, and loved all the sinners and then asked us to emulate His way of being. You cannot be a forgiver and lover while telling someone what they are doing is wrong by a standard you have devised. A relationship with Christ is a personal union and the love He has for us transcends anything comprehensible to man.
Rightly so, I become offended when I see things like that Facebook post propagating misinformation. Religious indoctrination becomes anti-love when faced with the choice of Grace. You discredit the women and men making those choices in the circumstances they are facing and lack compassion for their suffering. You dishonour that these people might have a relationship with Jesus or that He is doing His work in their lives. You show disdain for an incomprehensible and highly individual decision. Your ignorance becomes your religious shield, instead creating barriers and separation for those hurting souls who need Jesus’ love. They need it where He finds them too, in their pain and brokenness, which includes making the choice of abortion.
I’m asking you to reflect on how you are holding space and loving all of God’s people, even the ones doing things you don’t agree with or count as sin. How have you given it Christ and trusted that His plan is greater than yours and it’s not your role to decide who He loves and forgives? How are you showing empathy and openness to the person you judged for committing what you have deemed a sin? How are you honouring that person’s own conscience as their compass to Jesus? Are your actions fostering inaccessibility and exclusivity to your Jesus? Are you aware this isn't about you and your opinions and your beliefs?
What’s amazing and bolstering to my faith is that my freewill, leading to my choices to have abortions, didn’t damage my relationship with Christ, they called me to Him. And Christ doesn’t love me any less, in fact He loves me more for the damaged, broken soul that I am that knows I need Him. I know in my conscience that Jesus didn’t abandon me, and I don’t doubt that He continues to bless my life. I made my choices from necessity, which intertwined with my faith and the path that is my life, which He set forth for me. I made those choices to honour my children on this earth. I made those choices to give my babies to Jesus knowing He will accept and love them better then I could have down here. That I have a choice represents His love for me and no one should judge that or come between that.
And He loves me still.
And He walks with me more.
And it will be Him that meets me in that heavenly place.
And He will already always know all my truth.
And He will love me still.
Dear Sharon,
I am not writing to you to change your mind; I respect everyone’s right to their own opinions. I am writing to you so that you may see a different perspective from the one your own life experiences have given you. You may not care that you offend people who you have a different informed opinion then your own, but I want you to know you offended me, another child of God.
I have spent several days wondering if your post deserves a response or at least some sort of reaction. I also had the realization that it probably doesn’t, because it probably won’t change your beliefs nor will it effectively educate your audience who are there as supporters of your ministry. That is a shame because one of the best things Jesus did was to give his followers space to be themselves and love where they are at.
~ Danielle