re: I'm a Christian minister who's had 2 abortions. Here's how faith informed those decisions.

I'm a Christian minister who's had 2 abortions. Here's how faith informed those decisions.

Rebecca Todd Peters
Sun, October 10, 2021, 11:52 AM·4 min read

I am a Presbyterian minister, a Christian ethicist, a professor of religious studies, a wife and a mother of two.

I have also had two abortions.

I did not make my abortion decisions despite my Christian identity and faith, but rather because of it.

Christian values that support healthy and secure families also require careful, thoughtful and morally rich consideration about the decision to become a parent or not.

The fact that the social, physical and moral well-being of children is primarily the responsibility of parents meant that my husband and I thought carefully and deeply about our decisions to have and not have children.

And I can say, without a doubt, that the two decisions we made to have children were far more morally significant than the decisions to end two pregnancies.
Parenting is a sacred task

Guided by Christian principles that promote abundant life, seek justice and recognize the human dignity of women, the decision to end a pregnancy can be a morally good decision. And in a world where the dominant Christian voices insist that abortion is morally wrong, it is time for those Christians who believe otherwise to say loudly and clearly that abortion can be a moral good.

In 1967, 19 ministers and two rabbis announced formation of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion via a front-page story in The New York Times.

Before Roe v. Wade, when legal access to abortion was almost nonexistent and tens of thousands of women got illegal and often life-threatening abortions annually, clergy across the country courageously began a public campaign to help women secure safe abortions in defiance of the law.

Many of these clergy had been active in civil rights and anti-war organizing, and they saw the need for women to have control over their reproductive health as part of that same drive for social justice.

By the time abortion was decriminalized, more than 3,000 largely white, male clergy had provided counseling and referral to an estimated 450,000 women in 38 states.

More than 50 years later, we are on the precipice of returning to that pre-Roe world. While women like me will continue to find access to abortion care, it is largely poor women, women of color, and young women and their families who will bear the brunt of the burden of abortion bans.

Today’s Christians cannot stay silent while pregnant people in our communities are being harassed, abused and forced to bear children by the state.

Recognizing and affirming that parenting is a sacred responsibility means that we need to recognize the moral wisdom my momma shared with me: “You shouldn't have a baby just because you are pregnant – you should have a baby because you want to be a mother, you want to have a family.”

That is the message that people of faith need to shout from the rooftops. That because parenting is a sacred task, pregnant people must be supported in using their moral agency to know when and whether they are able to embrace that sacred trust of parenting.

Ending a pregnancy when one cannot afford to care for a child (or another child) can be a morally responsible decision.
Ending pregnancy can be a moral good

Ending a pregnancy when one is not emotionally or physically able or ready to parent a child can be a morally responsible decision.

Ending a pregnancy that will interrupt one’s education or career, the tools that enable people in our culture to prepare themselves to live stable and abundant lives, can be a morally responsible decision.

Ending a pregnancy in the midst of an abusive relationship, a failing marriage, a job loss, a health crisis or any number of other reasons can be a morally responsible decision for a woman and her partner who want to be able to provide a stable and healthy family situation for their children.

What is missing in public life today is a nationwide presence of Christian leaders who can give full-throated support to this perspective. It’s not that we aren’t around; it’s just that our voices are not being heard.

We need more people of faith who will stand up and speak out in support of respecting women as full moral agents, created in the image of God, and capable of making the important moral decisions that shape our lives, our families and our futures.

We need more Christians to stand up and testify that abortion can be a morally good decision and women must be trusted to make moral decisions.

Rebecca Todd Peters is a professor of religious studies at Elon University and is the author of "Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice."

Presbyterian minister, a Christian ethicist, a professor of religious studies, a wife and a mother of two.

I have also had two abortions.

I did not make my abortion decisions despite my Christian identity and faith, but rather because of it.

Guided by Christian principles that promote abundant life, seek justice and recognize the human dignity of women, the decision to end a pregnancy can be a morally good decision.