The Chapter About Abortion....

I've written a couple of posts about the Sunday School Class that I am attending...Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White.  Well, the herd has thinned out a bit.  Some people are just not into gray, I guess. One of the couples has been MIA for the past three weeks.  The other couple for the past two weeks.  That leaves the three college students,the two leaders and me.  There is another women who will be in and out because of her job.

I'm hoping that other obligations have kept the couples away, but I am thinking that's probably not the case.  It's not a class for everyone.  Not at all.  Today, one of the leaders was preaching all three Sunday services, so the herd was even thinner today with only the younger leader, Robin and the three college kids....whose names I cannot remember.  I like them all.  There are two guys.  One is very talkative, very articulate and very likeable.  The other one is shy...more traditional and very conservative.  He is a history and religion major.  And the girl doesn't say too much...but I enjoy hearing their perspective. I am very comfortable in the class.  I am also not the most liberal one there...which is kind of nice.  Robin is.  Today the topic was abortion.  After hearing our views she told us hers...she is pro-choice. 

The class was based on Chapter 18 of the book by Adam Hamilton.  And it had some surprising statistics.  46% of the women who have abortions in the United States are not using birth control when they become pregnant.  70% of all women having abortions in this country identify themselves as Christians! The major focus of this chapter is that those on both sides of the issue can and should work together to decrease the number of abortions.

His message is to the moderates. Not to those who bomb abortion clinics or hunt down abortion doctors and shoot them...in cold blood....at church.  And probably not to those who refuse to see a fetus as anything more than a kind of parasite sucking its life from the mother...with no rights and no humanity and no need for protection at any stage of gestation.  His suggestions are for the moderates. 

Roe v Wade has been in effect for over thirty years.  Abortion does not seem to be going anywhere so it might behoove those pro-lifers to work with those pro-choicers to reduce the number of abortions that are performed.  He points out the following

1) Pro-choice advocates and pro-life advocates each have legitimate concerns.

2) Abortion is both "not ideal" and yet, occasionally "necessary" (at the very least, most pro-life advocates would allow abortion to save the life of the mother)

3) Decreasing the number of abortions in America would be desirable.

4) Adequate information about and access to birth control can reduce abortions.

5) The longer a pregnancy progresses the more morally problematic an abortion becomes.

6) No one should be pressured into having an abortion. 

7) If an abortion occurs it should be safe. 

I think I pretty much agree with his list. 

One thing I really liked about the class was that even though there was great diversity of opinion, the conversation was very respectful.  Josh (I remembered one name) believes that abortions should never be performed even to save the life of the mother.  Robin is pro-choice...the other end of the spectrum. The rest of us were somewhere in between.  There is a vast difference in our ages.  The students are probably under 20...Robin will be 30...and I am in my fifties.  I really enjoyed the class. 

After church, Keith and I went to Denny's for lunch.  While we were sitting there we noticed a few people passing by with lawn chairs.  Then later, a few more passed by...carrying signs.  It turned out that there was a protest planned.  People stood all along the Golden Strip (the shopping district) on both sides of the street, holding anti-abortion signs.  We drove by many of them on our way to Staples.  The signs expressed several sentiments

• Abortion Hurts Women
• Abortion Kills Children
• Adoption: The Loving Option
• Life: The First Inalienable Right
• Lord Forgive Us and Our Nation

There were even a few signs that supported the other side of the issue, "Keep Abortion Legal."

And there were several signs with a sentiment that transcends both sides of the issue. 

Jesus Forgives and Heals. 

Indeed, he does....

Something for BOTH sides to remember....

For more in depth reading on the topic, the blog Blue Christian on a Red Background has the following detailed posts on abortion from a political perspective. 

Supreme Court's Ban on "Partial-Birth" Abortion: A Pro-Life Liberal's Take

Getting Personal: Why this Pro-lifer is voting for Barack Obama, Part 1

Getting Personal: Why this Pro-lifer is voting for Barack Obama, Part 2

For a long list of pro-life websites and organizations...some radical, others not so much check out this link