Do We Care That Much About Abortion?

You can put me down as one of those crazy evangelicals who believes that human life begins somewhere super close to the conception event, mainly because I can’t think of a reason not to. It’s the beginning of the spaciotemporal progression that will result in something that we all agree is human, and it’s the only thing bearing human DNA whose humanity is in question.

The issue for me is not about choice, or God’s rules. I’m left asking what is the thing that’s being terminated? If it’s human, I think we should, with some exception, let it develop. If not, the issue gets much simpler.

Before I go any further, let me be clear: God didn’t put me on this earth to run around pointing fingers at people who don’t think or act as I think they should, abortion is no exception. You won’t find me ranting on social media about the liberal “baby killers” for whom God is warming up his best lightning bolts.

If you’re not familiar with, or connected to evangelicalism/conservative Christianity, you might think that abortion is one of our most important political issues. We talk about it a lot, and it’s one of the reasons why people from my camp support Donald Trump. It’s a matter of much urgency, and an war that we just can’t seem to win. When a political figure of much influence steps into the ring and vows to fight for us, our hearts soar.

But these days I’m left wondering if the issue of abortion is as urgent as we claim.

I have many conservative, anti abortion, long-time friends, but I can count on one hand how many of those have invested time and resources advocating for the rights of the unborn. I read a ton of social media posts condemning abortion, abortion doctors, liberal politicians, and the idiots who vote for them, but I’m left wondering why money is rarely put to mouth here.

If this is as urgent as we claim, wouldn’t we spend more money, invest more time, take more risks, etc? We don’t. For most anti-abortion evangelicals, our advocacy is limited to voting, and words, mean words most of the time, which might be one of the reasons why nobody wants to listen to us anymore.

I’m not offering this as an opinion about advocacy, I simply think it’s inconsistent for a group of people, who’ve traded so many opportunities for influence over this issue, to not be more invested. If we care so much, we would do much more than condemn, or vote.

Next up for me is the conundrum that is liberal politics. Some politicians on the left are extremely vocal: abortion is a woman’s choice, and everyone should have the right to terminate if that’s what they want to do. Others are less than comfortable with legalized abortion, but not so vocal for whatever reason.

Either way, from where I sit, the data seems clear. Liberal administrations post better abortion numbers than conservative ones. Historically, while liberal administrations are running the show, there have been bigger drops in abortion numbers in the US. Simply put, for those of us who lean conservative, a liberal vote is not a vote for more abortions.

When the next sets of data come out, everyone will be rejoicing, because Trump’s abortion numbers will most likely be “lower than any administration in US history” (which was true for Obama, too), but, had this administration adhered to a more liberal approach to abortion, instead of calling it wrong, and making a bunch of stuff illegal, and telling God’s people what they want to hear, the numbers would have been lower.

But this doesn’t seem to matter, clear as it is.

Why?

Last is the problem of in vitro fertilization (IVF – sorry, I’ve ranted about this before). This is a popular procedure for conservative christians who find themselves in the middle of our country’s fertility crisis. I’ve been in that boat – it’s heartbreaking to learn that biological children won’t be a possibility. Some of us turn to adoption, and some make the very understandable choice to go the IVF route.

The problem for us is that IVF has resulted in millions of embryos abandoned somewhere in a freezer.

My conservative friends tell me that there’s an “ethical” way to do IVF, but I’m left baffled at how someone who believes that human life begins at conception can also rationalize freezing said human, even if great care is taken to protect embryo viability. Either way, nobody’s advocating for this cross-section of humanity, or alarmed by the fact that, each year, more and more frozen embryos are being abandoned.

I don’t see any posts on social media about “evil baby freezers,” or the condemnation of IVF consumers for their disrespect of the unborn. If we do that, we’ll have to condemn people who are close to us, or worse, ourselves. It’s easier to condemn people we don’t know.

Again, while I have my opinions about IVF, I have no judgments here. I’m not writing this to condemn or promote, I just can’t figure out how so many of us can vehemently oppose abortion and simultaneously turn a blind eye to America’s embryo crisis.

All that to say – if you’re wondering why I don’t think or vote “conservatively” when it comes to this issue, I hope I’ve explained myself.

Please stop calling me a baby killer.

And I think you can understand why I’ve come to believe that this issue isn’t as urgent as we claim it to be, which begs the question, why is it so hot? As a southern-born-and-bred-evangelical, I could take some guesses, but I’ll leave that for another post.