Can Christians be Pro-Life and Pro-Obama?

That is the question proposed by www.prolifeproobama.com

The website was created by the Matthew25 Network, and I think it is important for any open-minded Christian to hear what they have to say. For years we’ve been bombarded by they Religious Right’s views on what it means to “pro-life,” so I think it is only right to also listen to what the Christian Left has to say. It can be dangerous when we think one political party or one denomination thinks it is entitled to be sole owner and arbiter of divine truth. I am thankful for, and encourage civil discourse on the issue.

A letter from Doug Kmiec:

We are all called to build a culture of life - but there's more to it than just hoping that the next Supreme Court justice somehow deals with Roe v. Wade. A bad economy is threatening to human life. Women facing the moral tragedy of abortion - are facing it, now, today - and they need a supportive community and tangible help, not condemnation.

As Ronald Reagan's legal counsel and as a dean and professor at Catholic University and Notre Dame, I have worked to put the law on the side of life where it belongs.

But after 35 years, a new approach is needed. Too many unborn lives are being lost as we wait for judges to get it right. Barack Obama's strengthening of support for prenatal care, health care, maternity leave, and adoption will make the difference. Studies confirm it.

Do you think overturning Roe v. Wade will end abortion in the United States? Consider this:

• Overturning Roe Vs. Wade, a long time goal of the pro-life movement, would not end abortion in the United States, it would simply send the decision to the states.
• If states with more than 45% "pro-life" sentiment chose to outlaw abortion, this would only impact 16 states accounting for 10% of abortions nationwide, or less than 100,000 abortions a year.
• Women in these 16 states would still be able to travel to seek an abortion in another state, or seek an illegal abortion, making the impact likely less than a 10% reduction in abortions nation-wide.
• States with the highest abortion rates in the country, like California and New York, would be unlikely to outlaw abortion in their states.
• Nearly half of all abortions in the world are performed in countries that have made abortion illegal.
• The lowest abortion rates in the world - less than 10 per 1,000 women of reproductive age - are in Europe, where abortion is legal and available.
• By contrast, in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, where abortion law is most restrictive, the regional rates are 29 and 31 per 1,000 women, respectively.
• These countries are also much poorer than the U.S. and provide fewer social services; and a larger proportion of their population lives in poverty.
• In Western European countries, in contrast, where more social services are provided and fewer women live in poverty, the abortion rates are consistently the lowest rates in the world.

The Pro-Life Myth

I would like to challenge fellow Christians to take an objective, and Biblical, look at what is known as the "pro-life" movement. The origin of the "pro-life" movement has been the the right wing Christian extremists who seek to use fear and scare tactics in their culture war to drive a wedge between evangelicals and their political rivals. Which party is truly the "pro-life" party? The party that symbolically says it is "pro-life" yet does nothing to reduce abortions? Consider this article; Abortion on rise under Bush's economic policy:

Under President Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed," said Glen Stassen, Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical divinity school.
Using data from the Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the Guttmacher Institute, and reporting by individual states, Stassen found that U.S. abortion rates declined 17.4 per cent in the 1990s to a 24-year low when Bush took office. Many expected that downward trend to continue under the conservative president, but Stassen found the opposite: 52,000 more abortions occurred in 2002 than would have been expected under the pre-2000 conditions.

Responding to Stassen's study, Sojourners magazine editor Jim Wallis stated, "We have seen once again in this campaign the issue of abortion used as a partisan wedge rather than having a serious discussion on how to act to reduce the number of abortions."

Stassen's study found credible linkages between economic hardship and abortion. Two-thirds of women who abort say they cannot afford a child; half of women who abort say they do not have a reliable mate and co-breadwinner; and women of childbearing age are over represented in the 5.2 million additional persons without health coverage since 2000.

"If we are to be truly pro-life, we must focus on real people and the conditions that lead women to seek abortions," said Wallis. "Jobs, healthcare, and a living income must be part of a pro-life agenda."

I often debate fellow Christians on the issue of Abortion. Here are a few issues I have:

You want to outlaw abortion? Okay, how many unwanted children have you adopted? Exactly how much money have you donated to struggling and impoverished mothers raising children? Why are you not handing out contraceptives in schools and elsewhere; a PROVEN way of reducing unwanted pregnancies? Care to put your money where your mouth is?

You call yourself “pro-life” yet many so-called pro-lifers support the death penalty, or the pro-death wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and what have you done to end genocide in Darfur? Or do you just think life begins and conception and ends at birth?

You think abortion is murder? Even though God doesn’t? According to Old Testament law the penalty for causing a miscarriage is not equal to that of murdering somebody. Why do you believe this un-Biblical idea? Because the right wing extremists told you so?

Why do you support candidates who do NOTHING to reduce abortions, like George W. Bush and his good buddy John McSame? Fact: abortions have been UP under Bush. Obama has shown more compassion on the issue, and has a plan to reduce unwanted pregnancies and help struggling mothers.

We won’t see a major decline in abortions, regardless if it is legalized or not, until the church offers a better solution. I think too much emphasis is put on banning abortion (and we see how well banning something worked out with Prohibition and the War on Drugs). Not enough emphasis is places on contraceptive, adoption, financial support for struggling mothers, etc. Some of the right wing extremist Christians seem to just want to outlaw abortions and dump a few boxes of free coat hangers in the inner city and smugly walk away. To paraphrase what somebody mentioned on another blog:

We need to stop asking ourselves IF girls SHOULD get abortions, and start asking ourselves WHY women feel like they NEED abortions. We need solidarity with the struggling and broken, we need to be a community of hope the offers Christ's love to the low and despised. We do not need to be a partisan attack group who protests the actions of the struggling and broken. We need to rethink what it means to be "pro-life" by putting the love of Jesus first in our actions.

As a Bible-believing Christian, I am pro-life. To me, that means I am against war, against the death penalty, against discrimination, against destroying Creation through pollution and oil addiction, in favor of welcoming the alien, reducing unwanted pregnancies, and against policies that lead to violence and poverty around the world. Life doesn’t begin at conception and end at birth. (Matthew Chapters 5 & 25, Luke Chapter 6, Deuteronomy 10:18, etc.)