Nowhere in the Bible is there a statement prohibiting abortion

Friday, June 12, 2009

He is the fifth murder victim, while other doctors, nurses and receptionists have "merely" been injured or escaped clinic vandalism and bombings, or been harassed at home, in schools and churches. While respectable pro-life organizations will doubtlessly condemn this act of violence as the work of a lone lunatic, there are many in the pro-life movement who feel that Dr. Tiller received his "just deserts." For them, the "culture war" is a "just war" and the force of violence is accepted as legitimate means in the defense of innocents.

The pro-life movement calls on the state to use coercive force in the form of laws enforced by police, the courts and the prisons. And the more radical sectors of the movement endorse protests and vigilante violence to threaten medical personnel so they won't provide abortions, thereby forcing women to carry unintended pregnancies to term.

I fear that we will see an increase in terrorist violence now that the election of 2008 has dampened hopes of using the state as the primary agent of compulsion. In either case, whether by legal or illegal violence, women are forced to become mothers against their will. We must take the violence inherent in the language and politics of those dedicated to the defense of unborn babies more seriously.

As a religious studies scholar, I am appalled by the inflammatory use of biblical and Christian ethical language. There has never been an absolutist, unqualified "pro-life" position in the history of biblically based religions.

The commandment "Thou shall not kill" was always understood to need careful interpretation and judicious application: When was a person justified to kill in the pursuit of war? When could a court impose the death penalty? When was one allowed to kill in self-defense? Judaism, Christianity and Islam developed elaborate criteria to come to a just application of this commandment. In Judaism, women were always granted the right to self-defense. If a fetus threatened her life and well-being, it was considered an intruder and could be removed up until birth: her right to life superseded the right to life of an unborn. Christian women, alas, were supposed to sacrifice their lives and a staggering 536,000 women do so every year, according to a New York Times article May 23, 2009. Those who survive unwanted pregnancies receive precious little help in raising millions of children in abject poverty.

A biblically based pro-life position is committed to justice for these women in their struggle to care for, feed and educate the children they brought to life. Nowhere in the Bible is there a statement prohibiting abortion, but throughout the Bible one finds fiery calls for justice on behalf of widows and orphans. Where are the pro-life leaders when it comes to defending the precarious lives of poor women and children? Abortion is a violent act performed on the body of a woman; it is never easy. It is a last resort comparable to war or the use of police force. As long as the right to own guns for self-defense is protected by the Constitution, the state should not have the right to imprison women and their doctors in order to enforce pregnancies.

Dr. Tiller dedicated and sacrificed his life to providing abortions. We are grateful that he provided this necessary albeit odious service. Like butchers, soldiers, executioners, judges, police officers and medical researchers, he killed in the service of life. As beneficiaries of such services, we are in their debt. Soldiers kill so that we live in peace. Butchers kill so that we can eat meat. Judges impose the death penalty so that we live in security. Medical doctors terminate pregnancies so that children are cared for in functional families. Life depends upon the sacrifice of life, a knowledge that is at the very heart of Biblical religion.

Katharina von Kellenbach,

St. Mary's City

The writer is a professor of religious studies at St. Mary's College of Maryland.