Many people have the mistaken idea that being a person of faith and choosing to terminate a pregnancy are mutually exclusive when in fact, sexuality and spiritually are mutually beneficial forces in our lives. We here at Cherry Hill Women’s Center encourage our patients to bring their faith and spiritual identity into the clinic with them when making the decision about whether or not to continue a pregnancy. The women who are making pregnancy decisions are the same women who go to church, pray and practice their faith as a daily part of life. So, of course, it’s only natural that when making such a life changing and complex decision about whether or not to bring a life into the world would involve considering the faith traditions in your life.
In fact, the Alan Guttmacher Institutes 2009 “Overview of Abortion in the United States” found the following results when polling women choosing abortion:
- When U.S. women having abortions are asked their religion, 43% say they are Protestant. This is a lower proportion than the approximately 51% of women 18–44 in the U.S. population who identify themselves as Protestant, which means that their abortion rate is lower than that of all women.
- The proportion of abortion patients who are Catholic is slightly lower than the Catholic proportion of the population. Thus, the abortion rate of Catholics (abortions per 1,000 female Catholics aged 18–44 in the population) is slightly lower than that of all women.
- Thirteen percent of abortion patients say they are “born-again or evangelical Christians”
Many women who come to CHWC will tell us that they are concerned that God will not forgive them for having an abortion and are concerned about how to reconcile the decision to end a pregnancy with their faith. Sometimes when talking with a woman during a counseling session, we may pray with a patient or talk about the religious rituals that we use in daily life to heal or cope with loss and grief. Often times we’ll recommend that a woman seek guidance from her own clergy, but for women who don’t feel that they can go to someone in their own church or temple, we refer them to Faith Aloud. Faith Aloud is a clergy run organization that promotes reproductive justice through the religious and moral communities and offers counseling and guidance to women of faith as they make their pregnancy decisions.
Here are some videos from some of Faith Aloud’s clergy members that lend some insight into the intersection of faith and moral decision-making:
“ …a choice made for good reasons and in good faith does not separate a human being from God.”– Barb Shelley
