When does life begin? religions disagree

In a bill introduced last week, a Louisiana lawmaker describes human life as “created in the image of God” and seeks to make abortion a homicide from the time of fertilization – raising concerns among reproductive rights advocates that such a law would also jeopardize access to contraceptive and fertility treatment.

Debates surrounding abortion often center on the question of when life begins and adjacent religious and moral issues. It came up during oral arguments last year in Dobbsv. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a major abortion case currently before the Supreme Court.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor asked Mississippi’s attorney general to explain her view that the state should be allowed to ban abortions, calling it a religious issue that has been debated since the dawn of time.

“It’s still debated in religions,” he said. “So when you say that this is the only right that takes away from the state the ability to protect a life, that’s a religious view, isn’t it?”

a religious question

Kaitlyn didn’t want an abortion, she wanted a baby.

But last year, when she was around 16 weeks pregnant, doctors told her there was a fatal problem with the fetus. His options were to finish or wait for him to be born dead.

Throughout the process, Kaitlyn was guided and comforted by her faith.

“In Judaism, life and breath are essentially the same thing,” he said. “So in Judaism, life begins when you take your first breath.”

Kaitlyn lives in Kentucky, one of about two dozen states where most abortions could soon become illegal, if the Supreme Court issues a decision in line with a leaked draft opinion Monday that would strike down the 1973 law. Roe. wade precedent that guarantees the right to abortion.

She asked that we only use her first name because she is concerned that her job may be affected if it becomes known that she had an abortion. In her understanding of her Judaism, she said, her decision was fundamentally hers.

“God has offered me a solution to my suffering, which is that you have medical options available to you to end this pregnancy. I didn’t need to suffer any more than I was already suffering,” Kaitlyn said.

Her husband supported her decision, but fought in his own way.

“My husband’s faith is different from mine,” she said. “He’s not against the choice at all, but this was hard for him, one because of course he wanted this kid too, but also because his faith feels different about it. It gave him a different set of struggles. , a different set of questions with God.”

A variety of views

Polls suggest that while most Americans support abortion rights and oppose repealing Roeviews on abortion are often closely tied to religion.

Jewish, Buddhist, Unitarian, and nonreligious Americans express some of the strongest support for the right to abortion in the polls. Within Christianity, there is a wide variety of views.

Ryan Anderson, president of the Center for Ethics and Public Policy, a conservative think tank, opposes abortion. As a Catholic, Anderson believes that human life begins at conception.

“All human beings matter from the moment they begin to exist,” Anderson said. “No human being should be denied equal protection under the law; no human being should have life destroyed.”

But most American Catholics, along with black Protestants and traditional white Protestants, say abortion should be allowed in most or all cases. That’s according to a just out survey of the Pew Research Center.

White evangelical Christians express the strongest opposition to abortion, with more than 70% saying it should always or mostly be illegal.

margaret kamitsuka, professor emeritus of religion at Oberlin College, argues that there is significant ambiguity about abortion in the Christian tradition. She notes that it is never mentioned in the Bible.

“Which is pretty amazing,” he said, “because pretty much every other moral issue is talked about, from divorce to gluttony to theft and so on.”

More than half of American Muslims support legal access to abortion, according to Pew.

Zahra Ayubian associate professor of religion at Dartmouth, said historically defining the beginning of life has been less important to many Muslim thinkers than questions about how to preserve it.

“And the preservation of life is often understood as the life of the mother, because that is the life that exists,” he said.

Questions without answer

amicus briefs in it dobbs case before the Supreme Court come from a wide variety of religious groups, with very diverse positions. A report by the Freedom from Religion Foundation and other groups argues that religion is “at the heart” of anti-abortion laws and that “government need not require citizens to abide by the religious beliefs of those in the can”.

For Kaitlyn in Kentucky, her Jewish faith was essential in helping her through the difficult decision to terminate her pregnancy after learning the baby she was expecting would never survive.

It was very clear to me in the role that faith played in my life and my decisions that, even though I didn’t understand it, God didn’t want me to have this baby,” she said. go to the long list of unanswered questions”.