Oh boy. I know it's a huge can of worms talking about religion, but this isn't about your religion or religions. Yes, some people actually follow multiple "religions" or religious beliefs and in the United States of America, this is supposed to be fine, perfectly acceptable--thanks to a thing that we call the First Amendment. No, I'm not trying to get you to give up your religion. I'm just trying to point out that your religion, even the interpretation of your own religion, isn't always the same as others that practice your religion.
The far religious right has made the arguments against abortion. Often these conversations, when I have been willing to venture into them with someone, have ended with them wanting to "save babies". Do you realize how many unwanted children are out there? Needing real homes? Are these "babies" that need saving going to end up as those unwanted children? Let's skip the religious arguments. Look up how often women died of "unknown" abdominal bleeding in the early 1900s through the 1960s. The counts were actually massive. Yet, after Roe v. Wade, those numbers dropped drastically. That's why Nancy Reagan, my Grams and others of their generation were pro-choice. My Grams had explained to me how one of her college sorority sisters died from a back room, coat hanger abortion because she didn't want to tell her family she had gotten pregnant. Grams explained to me that her friend could've gotten an abortion in a hospital, money talked, if she had told her family. They had the money. But she was so ashamed and she ended up bleeding to death because of the botched effort made by some scam artist in a backroom. Now, I have heard the far right religious argument here. She deserved to die. Seriously. Sometimes, these people blow my mind. No one deserves to die for a mistake. These people cast stones like its going out of style, and yet one of the primary tenements of all the Abrahamics is to cast no judgement unless you want to be judged yourself. The far Christian right actually offends almost all other Christian beliefs when it really comes down to it. The majority of American Christians, regardless of which sect, do not believe it's okay to kill a woman that is thinking about getting an abortion, blowing up the Atlanta Olympics or killing a doctor or nurse. Most Christians are totally mortified by this, but they let the far Christian right be their voice. Even more eerily, they allow the far right arguments to win them over without all their own religion's facts.
The next argument that I get is that God says or God tells you or God says it in the Bible. Well, no, there's actually nothing about abortion in the Bible. Nothing. Not a single word. What does the Bible actually say? It doesn't actually say anything about conception. That's actually a falsehood. Some man added that to a sermon and it's a lie that took on a life of its own. He probably added it because backroom abortions have been taking place for centuries prior to this argument that takes place now. What does the Bible say? It actually tells the story of the beginning of life in Genesis and it says is that life began when God breathed the living breath into the first being (human being). By that, then life begins when you take your first breath. Control of the churches up until the last 100 years has been primarily by men. Female ministers are only a more recent--last 50 years or so--anomaly. Men have dominated the religious make up for the Abrahamics and still continue to. And that's fine, but it's not going to change that the Bible doesn't say anything for or against being pro-choice. What it does say gives most Christians a reason to be pro-choice. Life begins at your first breath.
That's not to say that any of Christians need to change what their beliefs are. Just a reason to analyze what a minister told you may or may not be a reason to believe what you believe. Which always brings me to my most amazed discovery over the years. How many Christians have never read the Bible. In recent studies trying to reduce Islamic extremists in the Middle East and Africa, they have discovered that many of the extremists cannot read, so they have never read the Quran for themselves. They have listened to someone else, someone else's interpretation and often have been mislead as to what a section means or even what it actually says. This is called Brainwashing. We have seen it over and over and over. Neo-nazi recruiters in the 80s used it. Charlie Manson used it. I'm not saying that a minister is intentionally misleading his or her flock if they teach that abortion is wrong, but there's really not an idea in the Bible that conception is where life begins. So Christians are free to decide what they believe, and not have someone dictate to them what they should or shouldn't believe.
What's even more important is that it means no Christians, far right or otherwise, should be cramming their own personal belief down anyone else's throat. Using myself as an example, I believe life begins before a baby take its first breath. While I was raised Christian and I follow many of Christ's teachings, I am Taoist. I follow many Buddhist beliefs. Most Buddhists believe that life begins when the soul enters the body, so at that point, the fetus becomes a baby to me. When the soul enters the body is all debatable. However, science has proven that a fetus cannot survive outside of the womb prior to a heartbeat and there are no brain waves until a couple of weeks after the heartbeat begins. Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, this suggests that once the brain waves start, the fetus becomes able to respond and begins developing as its own entity, separate of the mother. Most religions believe as Christians do in a soul or something similar, some greater energy than just our body. I believe after some undetermined amount of time after the brain is capable of working a soul enters the body of the fetus, transforming it from a fetus to a baby. At this point, abortion to me is no longer viable. However, this is my belief. Intentional baby responses, such as kicking when the mother pushes the baby's foot, take an additional couple of months after. I'm sure it could be debated that the soul waits until a certain amount of brain capacity has been developed. Not sure. I have a scientific based point in time that helps substantiate my belief.
So I know some people would disagree with my opinion, because it's an opinion. I have no proof one way or the other when the "soul" enters the body. But in an interview, the Dalai Lama was once asked "what if science could prove there's no such thing as reincarnation?". His response was "we (Buddhists and Hindus) would simply stop believing in it, but how will they prove it?". Some things we simply go on faith. I have faith that there is reincarnation and that there is karma. We could be wrong, but science cannot prove we are wrong.... At least not yet. My opinion is based on that faith. Science has proven when a fetus's heartbeat starts, when the brainwaves start, but how would they prove when a soul is present? There's no definite God's word. Each of us is free to form our own opinion based on our faith and other sources. But it's time we start respecting that each of us forms our own opinions based on something none of us can ever know for sure. I am loathe to have the audacity to tell anyone that they have to live by my belief, so I am equally loathe of people that would tell me that I have to live by their religious based, personal faith based, opinion.
The fact is that over 80% of Americans do not have an issue with abortion during the first trimester. And while my timeline is a little shorter, I think what most of us can agree we need to leave this issue and move on. The Founding Fathers thought Freedom of Religion was so important that they included it right away as part of the First Amendment. My opinion based on my faith should not dictate what anyone else can or cannot do, and neither should yours. It really is just that simple. It's the zealots that have to make it so complicated.
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