Not all religious sects are anti-abortion
A pro-faith and abortion-rights lecture at north campus on Thursday encouraged students to consider how these two concepts, which are often thought to be at odds, can work together.
Life begins when a fetus is able to live outside the womb, some time in the second trimester, said Frank Yates, a Protestant minister.
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“In most Jewish and Protestant conceptions, breathing is the issue,” he said. “The moment you have viability — that is a breathing, living being — then folks like me say that’s when you really get excited about protecting that life.”
The lecture was organized by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom and Medical Students for Choice.
Lori Lovato, of Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom, said the groups planned to have a Roman Catholic priest speak at the lecture too, but his bishop told him not to attend.
College Republicans spokesman Eric McInteer, who is in the process of joining the Roman Catholic Church, said life begins at conception, so abortion is a form
of murder.
“Let’s say you abort a child one week after the egg was fertilized, and you abort a child one week before the child would be born,” he said. “The result is the same — the child has been murdered.”
Yates said the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant church have different ideas of when life begins.
“How you make a conceptual definition of an act is important in ethics,” he said. “Some would want to simply call it murder, and others would want to say it’s the terminating of an unwanted pregnancy.”
Yates said the difference in these definitions depends on when one believes life begins. He said the Roman Catholic Church believes a soul enters a fetus at the moment of conception, but he believes life develops more gradually.
“Emerging life, for me, is a better definition of what happens from conception to birth,” he said.
McInteer disagreed. He said a mother should care about her child’s life even before he or she is born.
“If a woman has an abortion, she’ll never get to see her child graduate from high school or from college or get married,” he said. “It’s so fundamentally, morally wrong. As a person, I just can’t possibly agree with someone who says abortion should be legal.”
Yates said that many religious groups say abortion is murder, but not all of these are against abortion in all cases.
“Reform Judaism and mainline Protestantism are, I think, pretty much on the same page for this,” he said. “But conservative Christians and the Roman Catholic tradition certainly would not buy my position at all.”
Lovato said many abortion-rights organizations have become less active since President Obama was elected.
“Something kind of happened after the election, where things just kind of fell apart,” she said. “I think everyone kind of feels the issues are taken care of right now, because we have a Democratic president, basically.”
Jill Oldewage, of Medical Students for Choice, said the group has done a faith and choice lecture once before, and they plan to have more events next semester. She said discussion about reproductive freedom is the best way to find common ground on the emotional issue.
“I think the whole point of our group is to encourage tolerance and understanding,” she said. “I’m not necessarily trying to change anyone’s views. I just want people to have all the information they can to make the best decisions and to give patients the best care they can possibly have.”
Yates said that abortion is not a good thing, but he still supports a woman’s right to make reproductive decisions for herself. He said women should not be forced to give birth to an unwanted child.
“The people who share my position are not saying they are pro-abortion,” he said. “What they’re saying is it may be a tragic necessity, and the word ‘unwanted’ says it all.”
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by charles
Isn’t ironic that those who favor abortion rights rely on vague, religious, metaphysical ideas and those who oppose abortion rely on science and objective criteria?
by thomas
It really pains me to see that this subject still NEVER touches on the real problem and how to PREVENT it. If you practice, promote, and educate PREVETION, abortion is no longer a problem and the decision as to when a life begins, can once more be left to the debate of philosophers. But we can’t do that because that would mean that we would be responsible for our own actions, and we wouldn’t be able to legislate an action for the consequences of that behavior. This is my solution to abortion: if you don’t have sex, you don’t have unwanted pregnancies. If you choose to have sex, have protected sex, if you choose to have un-protected sex, do not look to the government or the church to solve your problem. Guys & Gals, before you get into any kind of carnal relationship you better both be on the same page in dealing with the possible outcome.
by Becky
The article in Monday’s paper, “Not all religious sects are anti-abortion” was a gross misrepresentation of the Christian faith. I am saddened that Frank Yates calls himself a Protestant minister when he clearly doesn’t understand the term. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a Protestant as: “a member of any of several church denominations denying the universal authority of the Pope and affirming the Reformation principles of justification by faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, and the primacy of the Bible as the only source of revealed truth.”
The Bible is very clear on abortion. It is not a “choice.” It is the termination of a human life. The choice comes prior to conception. SEX=BABY. If you want to have control over your own body, maintain abstinence or use birth control.
I’d also like to dispel the myth of abortion provide a woman with convenience, the absence of distress or her so-called happiness. Abortion is a major surgical procedure which can result in serious complications – it is not “safe” as we are led to believe. After a legal abortion, a woman faces increased possibility of future miscarriages, tubal pregnancies, premature births, sterility and severe and long-lasting emotional disturbances.
Yates also stated that “life begins when a fetus is able to live outside the womb.” From a Biblical perspective this is totally false, life begins at conception: Jer. 1:5 states, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; ….”
Melody Green and Last Day Ministries have a fantastic article called “Children . . . Things we Throw Away?” One paragraph of this document addresses “When does life begin?”: “Science tells us that when the 23 chromosomes of the sperm unite with the ovum’s 23 chromosomes, a new 46 chromosome cell is formed. When this process (fertilization) is complete, a new human being exists. This cell is a complete genetic package programmed for development into a mature adult. Nothing will be added except time and nutrition. It’s been medically proven that the baby’s heart starts beating from 14-28 days after conception (usually before the mother even knows she’s pregnant, and by the 30th day almost every organ has started to form! He moves his arms and legs by six weeks and by 43 days his brain waves can be read. By eight weeks the baby has her very own fingerprints, she can urinate, make a strong fist, and she can feel pain.
Bottom line: Protestants acknowledge what the Bible and Science teach: a “fetus” is a human being and abortion is the termination of that perfectly developing little life. Frank Yates, you have done Protestants a huge disfavor in so poorly representing the Bible. Please don’t call it an “unwanted pregnancy” either because there is an extreme shortage of newborn babies available for adoption. Whether or not you want your baby, that child is a wanted child. protestant. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Retrieved November 2, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/protestant ©1979, 2001
by Javi
Why is it that such lines are trying to still be drawn separating when a “fetus” changes into a “human?” Since when does the location of a person (inside the womb or outside the womb) or their level of dependency on another make them any more or less of a human being? It is this same kind of low and uneducated thinking that allowed for the atrocities of partial-birth abortion. A life is a life no matter how you rename it.
by chayal
Thus spake the “religious” left. Just another effort to undermine the traditional foundations of the nation. Disgusting.
by Ed Morrissey
After eight years working at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, including two years as its director, Abby Johnson suddenly decided that she could no longer participate in abortions. What pushed Johnson out was both an ultrasound of an abortion and a renewed emphasis on the cash-generating business in the failing economy. After being told to deemphasize prevention and market for abortions, Johnson finally had enough:
According to Johnson, the non-profit was struggling under the weight of a tough economy, and changing it’s business model from one that pushed prevention, to one that focused on abortion.
“It seemed like maybe that’s not what a lot of people were believing any more because that’s not where the money was. The money wasn’t in family planning, the money wasn’t in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that,” said Johnson.
Johnson said she was told to bring in more women who wanted abortions, something the Episcopalian church goer recently became convicted about. …
Johnson now supports the Coalition For Life, the pro-life group with a building down the street from Planned Parenthood. Coalition volunteers can regularly be seen praying on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood. Johnson has been meeting with the coalition’s executive director, Shawn Carney, and has prayed with volunteers outside Planned Parenthood.
The television station has video of Johnson’s interview at the link, so be sure to watch it.
What was the reaction of Planned Parenthood? They sued Johnson and the Coalition for Life and filed restraining orders against both. They claim that Johnson and the CFL wanted to breach the confidentiality of their clients, but nothing in the KBTX report indicates that Johnson had any such intention. In fact, Johnson was unaware of the suit when KBTX’s report went to air last night.
It doesn’t surprise me to see Planned Parenthood pressure its offices to push abortions harder. That’s their core business, after all, and with less money flowing into the abortion mills, they need to market it more aggressively. It does remove the veneer of “community service” that PP claims while defending themselves, however. They’re in the mass-production abortion business, plain and simple, which Johnson finally discovered
by Jack
What if the babies that would be aborted grow up to be gay terrorists or, even worse, zombies?
The debate is over what a particular religion thinks on the topic or any topic. Arguing religion is a moot point. Should we consult with Harry Potter to see what he says on the topic? No.
There is no God and there never has nor will be one. People instead use religion to try and control others (usually for personal gain). Then they pretend like they are doing it for an all mighty reason.
by Reza Safavi
in response to Thomas: So you think the solution is just not to have sex or if do so, use protection? How about rape victims? Are we supposed to tell a rape victim “you should have used protection when you were getting raped”? How about genetic anomalies? Could they be solved by protection??? If abortion was a birth control method only, then many women would have more than at least 10 abortions during lifetime but they dont. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, one in three women get an abortion before age 45. Do you really think everyone of those women go for abortion only and only for birth control purposes????
by Bill
Aren’t you folks late for your weekly appointment to drop your ‘stupid tax’ into the collection plate? Hurry! The men of god are waiting to save your souls and take your hard earned money.
Suckers.
by johndough
There most certainly is a god, and one day we’ll all stand before him and give a tally of our lives with the most abundant clarity of exactly what we know to be true and how we acted on those truths, including those who take the easy way out of their decisions in life as well as those that sell their souls for your hard earned money.
by Russ
Bill – (Gee, what’s in a name?) The problem with all you liberals is that you want to use someone else’s money to finance your social experiments.
Do us all a favor and finance your “ideals” on your own; Go ahead – Give the gift of abortion on your own $ – but keep your hands off my wallet!