In the year since the Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right to abortion, America\u2019s religious leaders and denominations have responded in strikingly diverse ways \u2014 some celebrating the state-level bans that have ensued, others angered that a conservative Christian cause has changed the law of the land in ways they consider oppressive.
The divisions are epitomized in the country\u2019s largest denomination \u2014 the Catholic Church. National polls repeatedly show that a majority of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, yet the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops supports sweeping bans.
Among Protestants, a solid majority of white evangelicals favor outlawing abortion. But most mainline Protestants support the right to abortion, and several of their top leaders have decried the year-old Supreme Court ruling that undermined that right by reversing the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, said he was \u201cdeeply grieved\u201d by that ruling.
The decision \u201cinstitutionalizes inequality because women with access to resources will be able to exercise their moral judgment in ways that women without the same resources will not,\u201d Curry said.
Some religious Americans have gone beyond expressions of dismay, filing lawsuits contending that new abortion bans infringed on their own religious beliefs. Jewish women played roles in such lawsuits in Indiana and Kentucky; in Florida, a synagogue in Boynton Beach \u2014 Congregation L\u2019Dor Va-Dor \u2014 contended in a lawsuit that a state abortion ban violated Jewish teachings.
Dr. Sara Imershein, who performs first-trimester abortions in northern Virginia, said her Reform Judaism beliefs informed her decision to choose that path.
\u201cI looked more at the liturgy of Judaism and found that it really supported my work,\u201d she said. \u201cI studied with my local rabbi.\u201d
Imershein was in college when abortion was legalized nationwide. Now, at 69, she has seen Roe\u2019s demise.
\u201cLaws that restrict abortion \u2026 ignore our Jewish teachings that are very old, and they stomp on our religious freedom,\u201d she said.
In Buddhism, Islam and Sikhism, there also is widespread acceptance of abortion in some circumstances. Most U.S. Hindus are \u201cvery much in support of choice,\u201d said Dheepa Sundaram, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Denver; she cited the concept of karma which holds that each person has the liberty to act and face the consequences of their actions \u2014 good or bad.
Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Dartmouth College, says the abortion debate is so intractable in part because believers in the opposing camps view the Bible \u2014 which doesn\u2019t include the word \u201cabortion\u201d \u2014 as supporting their side.
\u201cIt shows the pliability of Scripture \u2014 the way that each group tries to marshal arguments on its behalf,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Bible can be manipulated.\u201d
\u201cWhat strikes me about both sides is there\u2019s no humility in their position,\u201d Balmer added. \u201cThey stake out what they believe is God\u2019s will, and everybody else is a heretic.\u201d
Even within individual churches, divisions over abortion can flare. Bishop Timothy Clarke, pastor of First Church of God in Columbus, Ohio, frequently exhorts his predominantly African American congregation to respect those with opposing views.
Clarke describes himself as \u201cbiblically pro-life,\u201d yet he criticizes the stringent abortion bans enacted in numerous Republican-led states as \u201cexcessive and extreme.\u201d
Referring to laws that would criminalize abortion-providing doctors and deny abortion to victims of rape, he said many people in his church \u201care saying this is going too far. It\u2019s beyond the pale.\u201d
There is similar sentiment among some U.S. Catholics, says Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American studies and history at the University of Notre Dame and director of its Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.
\u201cThere are some horrific stories coming out of pregnant women with severe issues who are being denied health care,\u201d she said, referring to the consequences of some state abortion bans.
\u201cWe have to have a more human approach,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll see more Catholics saying, \u2018I\u2019m not pro-abortion. But I want mercy. I want health care.\u2019\u201d
As a group, Catholic bishops are unwavering, as conveyed in a statement earlier this year from their conference\u2019s president, Archbishop Timothy Broglio.
\u201cThe Catholic bishops of the United States are united in our commitment to life and will continue to work as one body in Christ to make abortion unthinkable,\u201d he said.
A poll last year from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed a clear gap between the prevalent views of U.S. Catholics, and the anti-abortion positions of the bishops. According to the poll, 63% of Catholic adults said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 68% opposed Roe v. Wade\u2019s reversal.
\u201cOn every issue having to do with sexuality or reproductive health, there\u2019s a huge gap between the way lay Catholics think and what the hierarchy is teaching,\u201d said Jamie Manson, president of Catholics for Choice.
\u201cWhat\u2019s challenging,\u201d she said, \u201cis that even though most Catholics believe abortion should be legal, they don\u2019t speak about it publicly because of the taboo \u2026 the fear of being ostracized by their community.\u201d
Manson noted that a 2014 survey by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, found that nearly one-fourth of U.S. abortion patients identify as Catholic.
\u201cThere\u2019s an all-male hierarchy telling them they\u2019re complicit in murder,\u201d Manson said. \u201cI wish what bishops and priests would do is listen to these women, listen to their stories of why they choose abortion.\u201d
Among mainline Protestant denominations, there have been official statements acknowledging that abortion is a complex issue, but prevailing sentiment is that last year\u2019s Supreme Court ruling was an injustice to women, particularly those already facing economic hardships and racial discrimination.
\u201cThis decision further complicates the struggle and creates division, anger, and chaos in an already divided and conflicted country,\u201d wrote Bishop Thomas Bickerton, president of the United Methodist Church\u2019s Council of Bishops.
Some Protestant pastors have emerged as outspoken advocates of abortion rights; among them is Jacqui Lewis, the first African American and first woman to serve as a senior minister in New York City\u2019s historic Middle Collegiate Church.
She evoked the fear and heartache felt by many of the women affected by the new abortion bans.
\u201cThese are the poorest of us, the most disenfranchised and they\u2019re struggling more because some portion of Christianity feels they have the right to decide for other people what is moral,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt breaks my soul to see religion weaponized this way \u2026 it\u2019s the opposite of what religion should be.\u201d
Among the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, by far the largest evangelical denomination, there\u2019s unified opposition to abortion. However, there has been sharp disagreement over whether to impose criminal penalties on women who get abortions.
The SBC\u2019s president, Bart Barber, opposes criminalization of women in such cases and has sparred verbally with Baptist pastors who argue that such women. in some instances, should be considered murderers.
\u201cI think it is unjust, unnecessary, and unwise to include in abortion laws the prosecution of women who seek or obtain an abortion,\u201d Barber writes in a lengthy article. \u201cThe abortionist is the murderer, and any law banning abortion should identify the abortionist uniquely as such.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n