It's Time To Stop Treating Abortion As a Religious Issue

Too often, we see people, either on the political right or left, make abortion out to be a religious issue. It's something I've grown tired of hearing about, that is, that "my faith informs me that abortion is wrong". Yea, it does. But so does reason. My Catholic faith informs me that rape is morally wrong. Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines this heinous act as an "intrinsically evil act." Since this is a tenet of my religious faith, would it be wrong to "impose my morality" and hope that the state declares this action to be a criminal offense? 

Well, if we follow the logic of many politicians, and really, many people all over the Western world, it would be wrong since this is the argument they give to continue defending such legislation as Roe v. Wade. But of course, we all know that our reason also informs us that abortion and rape are intrinsically evil acts, and the victims of both crimes (because they are crimes against humanity whether or not they are recognized as such by law) should be protected under the law.I think a case study in this unfair punting of the issue of abortion to the realm of only religious belief would be the Vice Presidential debate last year between Senator Tim Kaine and Vice President Mike Pence. Both politicians decided to make abortion strictly a religious issue, and I remember the whole time, as I watched, I could only pound my head on the wall as Pence had horrible arguments to counter Kaine's horrible arguments. Kaine played the "personally pro-life but politically pro-choice card"; a position that is so contradictory that anyone who subscribes to it should be ashamed of themselves; especially Kaine who remarked in the debate that "I try to practice my religion in a very devout way and follow the teachings of my church in my own personal life. But I don’t believe in this nation, a First Amendment nation, where we don’t raise any religion over the other, and we allow people to worship as they please, that the doctrines of any one religion should be mandated for everyone."

Let the Little Children Come Unto Jesus- Carl Bloch

How Kaine can claim to try to practice his religion devoutly, when he has a perfect voting record with NARAL, is beyond me. He needs our prayers to give him the strength to vote with his conscience, and if it's not a well-formed conscience, we can only pray that he comes to a conversion that allows the veil to be lifted from his eyes. As the Gospel reminds us, we can't serve two masters. Either abortion is evil and inhumane and should be prohibited just as murder is in the United States, or you totally buy into the secular agenda that rejects God and has no problem sacrificing children in the name of sexual "rights". There is no in between.

Kaine had said the above in response to a question from the moderator: "You have both been open about the role that faith has played in your lives. Can you discuss in detail a time when you struggled to balance your personal faith and a public policy position?"

Kaine didn't say anything about abortion. Instead, it was Pence who brought up the subject, and it was he, a politician on the right, that turned the issue of abortion into a religious issue instead of something that can be argued against from reason alone. Pence answered the moderator's question thusly:

"Well, it’s a wonderful question. And my Christian faith is at the very heart of who I am. 

"...I would tell you that for me the sanctity of life proceeds out of the belief that — that ancient principle that — where God says before you were formed in the womb, I knew you, and so for my first time in public life, I sought to stand with great compassion for the sanctity of life. 

"The state of Indiana has also sought to make sure that we expand alternatives in health care counseling for women, non-abortion alternatives."

It's great what Pence did during his time as governor of Indiana, but here, he confirms what many pro-choice people believe: the only people that are pro-life are religious. I was really hoping that this could be a moment for a pro-life politician to show that protecting the unborn was far more than some kind of religious obligation. Instead, Pence trotted out the same Bible verse that gets eye rolls from every pro-choicer. He didn't make any compelling arguments on a big stage; it was a total let down.

But Kaine, a Catholic who should be a witness on such a large level, completely dropped the ball when he said this:

"Governor, why don’t you trust women to make this choice for themselves? We can encourage people to support life. Of course we can. But why don’t you trust women? Why doesn’t Donald Trump trust women to make this choice for themselves? 

"...on fundamental issues of morality, we should let women make their own decisions."

I think this is really condescending. This has nothing to do with "trusting in women". This has to do with being consistent in our laws. If the law protects all innocent human beings from being killed, and if men like Kaine acknowledge that the unborn are human beings, then why should we not have laws that protect those human beings from being killed in the womb? Do we "trust" women in crisis situations to make the choice to murder their 1 month old? Their 1 year old? The question that Kaine asks is nothing but a deflection. Pence could have answered in such a better way, but he didn't.

Jesus and John the Baptist as Children- Guido Cagnacci 

I think this is something that Christian pro-lifers need to learn from. Trent Horn is really good at making logical, reasonable arguments as to why abortion should be illegal. And he's a devout Catholic. We need to use secular arguments, and that's because most pro-choice people are secular. Now, I am not in any way denying that our faith in Jesus Christ and in His Church should not play an important role in informing us. But just as it's possible to know that rape or stealing is morally wrong from right reason, it's also possible to know this about abortion.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the CCC calls both abortion and rape intrinsic evils. Why is it that when the latter is denounced by religious people, no one is accused of pushing their religious beliefs or morals on to someone else? Our faith informs us about many things in life, yet abortion seems to be the one thing that becomes a religious issue instead of something that can be discussed on a natural level. As Catholics, let's not make the same mistakes that Vice President Pence did. Let's give the best arguments for defending life. As Horn points out in his book, Persuasive Pro-Life:

"Although pro-choice advocates may twist Scripture to mean something it does not, it’s important for pro-life advocates not to do the same thing. Two passages frequently cited by pro-life advocates lack conclusive pro-life evidence. The first is Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Taken literally, this passage would mean God knew Jeremiah in some kind of preexisting state before he was conceived. 

"Clearly this passage is saying that before Jeremiah existed, God foreknew that he would be a prophet, not that he knew Jeremiah personally during that time."

There are better, more convincing arguments out there. Even though we may be religious, we need to use arguments from natural reason and cater our answers to our audience. If we going to be persuasive, we must utilize the best arguments so that the issue of abortion will stop being seen as solely a religious issue.