First, thanks to everyone who’s subscribed to this adventure, I appreciate you a whole lot.
Last week, we looked at the false idea that people of faith don’t support abortion, a result of both Christian nationalist propaganda and the Left’s general hostility towards religion and religious identity. Now, let’s examine something true, after a photo of a peculiar gathering on the Upper West Side.
“People of faith don’t have abortions.”
Some context, according to Guttmacher’s Abortion Patient Survey (2014):
17% of patients reporting identified as mainline Protestants. 13% as evangelical Protestants, and 24% as Roman Catholic.
The abortion rate of Catholic women was nearly the same as for all women, at 1/1%.
8% of those surveyed about abortion reported other religious affiliations.
In total, 62% of women who have abortions identify as being of faith.
So there it is, rather starkly. People of faith do have abortions. If we don’t hear about them, it’s likely because people are afraid to speak openly, because of overall abortion stigma, and judgement from their communities.
I used to be a clinic escort in the Bronx, and one Saturday morning, a bus full of teenagers, accompanied by a pastor and some other adults, unloaded and they spent the rest of my shift praying in front of the clinic while patients entered. (They also performed an exorcism, which I know because I have seen a lot of horror movies.)
“They probably have to do this so their parents will take them to the M&M Store,” one of the other escorts said.
I watched the group, the girls in it, and thought about what their lives might be like in the future, how they’d look back at that afternoon, remember how they kneeled on the sidewalk, wondered if they’d ever walk into a clinic themselves to end a pregnancy, (statistically, they will), and if they would have to go alone.
The faces you see in the media for the March for Life, or protesting at the Supreme Court, or behind a Students for Life table on a college campus, are the ones we are supposed to believe will never have abortions (and they probably believe it too), or will certainly never admit to having one (or more), unless they’re letting everyone know that they regret it one hundred percent, and assuring us that we will regret ours, too.
Our goal as abortion positive people should be that no one is silenced or shamed for having an abortion, no matter who they are or what they believe, and they should know that there are folks who will support them. Untangling our own abortion stigma about people of faith and abortion care can move us all forward.
Next week: the stigma around that word.
See you then!