I was not surprised at the reaction of some of my pro-abortion friends when they learned of my metamorphosis. Many shook their heads, sighed, and asked pleadingly why I did not “get it:” the fetus was alive, but not a human life. One of the more unsettling arguments heard was that since a fetus did not have a social security number it certainly could not be counted as a person. I expect this response from the pro-abortionists. I was floored, however, when I heard this argument put forth by “pro-abortion Christians.” I wondered if anyone could be genuinely Christian and pro-abortion? I decided to find out.
Unhappily, I soon discovered a web of Christian, pro-abortion groups. Like a tapeworm, these groups are multi-segmented, larger than one might think, and feeding voraciously on the unwary. Some of these organizations were born with Roe v. Wade. Others, sadly, predate it. One such group is Howard Moody’s Clergy Consultation Service.
In 1956, when Howard Moody was a Southern Baptist minister of Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, NY, a mother of three contacted him seeking an abortion. Unable to “help” this woman Moody resolved to do better for others in the future. In 1967, Moody and twenty-five other “Christian ministers” founded the Clergy Consultation Service. By 1970, when New York State’s abortion laws were being toppled, CCS had some 1,400 members from New York to California. Its purpose was, in Moody’s words, “to steer women toward safe abortions.”
Commenting on the early impact of his efforts, Moody noted that “Women who were seen as criminals were suddenly associated with the clergy. The impact this had on people’s attitudes towards abortion cannot be overestimated. We brought the word ‘abortion’ out of the closet and into the church.” Indeed, his efforts also brought thousands of women to New York’s abortion mills. Dr. Bernard Nathanson notes that thanks to Moody’s network, abortions at the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health in Manhattan (which Moody helped establish) multiplied in the last six months of 1970 from 10 to 120 per day.
Moody’s coalition may have even influenced Justice Blackmun’s Roe v. Wade decision. Noting that many did not believe that life begins before birth, Blackmun wrote that this position “may be taken to represent also the position of a large segment of the Protestant community, insofar as that can be ascertained; organized groups that have taken a formal position on the abortion issue have generally regarded abortion as a matter for the conscience of the individual and her family” (Roe v. Wade, section Nine).
Moody’s Clergy Consultation Service was just the beginning of the pro-abortion Christian movement. Surpassing Moody’s work in size and reach is today’s monstrous Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Born in 1973, the RCRC claims 40 organizations from 18 denominations and faith groups including the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Conservative, Humanist, Reconstructionist, and Reform movements of Judaism.
The RCRC produces great quantities of dangerous tracts, each baited with the “I’m okay, you’re okay” moral relativism of the abortion movement. According to their online fact sheet, the RCRC’s mission is the “ensuring [of] reproductive choice through the moral power of religious communities.” They claim to represent the “mainstream views of people of faith in responding to the religiously based arguments of the opposition.” The coalition’s stated goal is to ensure “safe, legal, and affordable abortion services.”
One of the rationales for this objective is, they say, that the bible nowhere explicitly prohibits abortion. This argument is as flimsy as it is false. First, the bible, like any book, cannot interpret itself. Interpretation of any work must come from an outside authority. Hence the Magisterial function of the Catholic Church. Second, many Christian doctrines and beliefs are not found explicitly in the bible. Is the doctrine of the Trinity explicitly found in the bible? Does the bible explicitly prohibit behaviors like drunk driving or heroin use? Myopic is the RCRC’s claim that “anti-choice Christians” deny a woman the exercise of her moral agency, rendering her “a slave to biological process rather than the responsible moral agent she was created to be.” Nowhere does the RCRC consider the exercise of one’s moral agency in matters of sexual behavior. Sex is designed for procreation. Full moral agency is the acceptance of all the consequences of one’s behavior. The RCRC ignores this fact.
If we know any Christians who support abortion, we as Christians must humbly and lovingly correct them. Despite all the rhetoric, pro-abortion has never been an authentic Christian position. Sacred Tradition and the Scriptures clearly state that we are who we are from conception, not birth. More importantly, to convert Christians and all others to the pro-life position, we must consider our own attitudes towards children, conceived or not. Spouses should ask themselves whether they’re living out the Church's teachings concerning artificial contraception and respect for all life. Careful study of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae is a good place to start. For couples who find this encyclical too erudite, try a recording of Dr. Janet Smith's talk “Contraception: Why Not?” available free from One More Soul at 1-800-307-7685.
Until Christians, particularly Catholics, lead the way in accepting children for what they really are — God’s gift to us all — we will likely not be rid of the scourge of abortion any time soon. Until then, the fact that any Christian played a role in legalizing abortion is a cross that all Christians must bear.
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