ShareThisOnly two days after the inauguration of Barack Obama as president, Washington welcomed yet another assembly of citizens, protesting the new chief executive's lifting of restrictions on public funding for abortion.
It was the annual March for Life, held on the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States. By 1997, abortions soared to 1,186,039, declining slightly since then.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, women who obtain abortions are predominantly 24 years of age or under, white, and unmarried. Slightly more than half are obtaining an abortion for the first time. Over 60 percent of the terminations are performed within the first eight weeks of pregnancy. Nearly 9 of 10 take place during the first 12 weeks of gestation.
The debate over abortion remains the most divisive issue in America, with only a slight majority recognizing it as acceptable. Over the years since Roe v. Wade, Pro Life and Pro Choice positions have hardened. Attempts at compromise or accommodation have largely failed.
President Obama is openly Pro Choice. However, he promotes access to sex education and contraceptives in an effort to make abortion a woman's rare last resort.
Pro Choice advocates insist that they do not favor abortion, but only include it among women's rights. To be sure, abortion makes no one happy, least of all the desperate woman who seeks it. Pro Life forces complain that abortion, like divorce, has been made too easy, and is chosen by some women for convenience.
The nation's churches approach the termination of pregnancy as a moral issue, because they affirm God as the true author of life. The Catholic Church alone unconditionally condemns abortion. Its rejection of artificial contraception makes it difficult to find a way to reduce unwanted pregnancies.
As for other churches, American Baptists oppose abortion as a primary means of birth control, but do not oppose abortion outright. Southern Baptists oppose abortion except in cases placing the mother's life in danger. Episcopalians condone abortion only in cases of rape, incest, danger to the mother, or fetal abnormalities. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America condones abortion prior to the viability of the fetus but forbids it later except for danger to the mother or fetal abnormality. Missouri Synod Lutherans oppose abortion except to prevent the mother's death.
Presbyterians disapprove of abortion as a means of birth control or convenience but believe the termination of pregnancy is a personal decision. Unitarians accept abortion as "a legitimate expression of our constitutional rights." The United Church of Christ supports the right to a safe abortion. Methodists oppose abortion except when the life or wellbeing of the mother is in jeopardy.
For more detail consult http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=351.
(David Yount's new book is "How the Quakers Invented America" (Rowman & Littlefield). He answers readers at P.O. Box 2758, Woodbridge, VA 22195 and dyount(at)erols.com.)
AMAZING GRACE
