The shoe doesn’t fit

When Ohio voters passed the statewide Issue 1 earlier this month, they enshrined in the state Constitution basic reproductive rights for women, including abortion.

Ohio became the seventh state where voters decided to protect abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, and was the only state to consider a statewide abortion rights question this year.

I voted no, because I don’t think social issues should be codified in the Constitution. We should keep the discussion going.

Abortion is not the black-and-white issue that both sides think it is. Abortion is purely political; in its rawest form, it pits unborn babies against women.

There’s more to abortion than that, a lot more.

Women do use abortion as birth control; the far right is correct about that. I do not support that.

But women get abortions for other reasons as well. Rape. Abusive boyfriends/husbands, who sometimes force the woman to get an abortion even if she doesn’t want it. Accidental pregnancies.

Abortion did not become a mainstream political issue until Republicans made it one. Before 2020, the number of abortions was declining significantly in this country.

Abortion had declined dramatically

The Pew Research Center analyzed data from the Guttmacher Institute, which has tracked abortion rates for several decades, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The latest data from both organizations date to 2020, before Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Guttmacher recorded more than 1.5 million abortions in the U.S. in 1991, about two-thirds more than the 930,160 it reported for 2020. The CDC reported just over 1 million abortions in 1991 and 620,327 in 2020, looking at just the District of Columbia and the 47 states that reported figures in both years. 

Guttmacher said that in 2020 there were 14.4 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. Its data showed that the rate of abortions among women has generally been declining in the U.S. since 1981, when it reported there were 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women in that age range.

In the 46 states that reported data to the CDC in 2020, the majority of women who had abortions (57%) were in their 20s, while about three-in-ten (31%) were in their 30s. Teens ages 13 to 19 accounted for 8% of those who had abortions, while women in their 40s accounted for 4%.

The vast majority of women who had abortions in 2020 were unmarried (86%), according to the CDC, which had data on this from 39 states and New York City (but not the rest of New York).

The vast majority of abortions occur during the first trimester of a pregnancy. In 2020, 93% of abortions occurred during the first trimester – that is, at or before 13 weeks of gestation, according to the CDC. An additional 6% occurred between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, and 1% were performed at 21 weeks or more of gestation. These CDC figures include data from 40 states and New York City (but not the rest of New York).

Church and state serve different purposes

There’s another issue at work here that Republicans, especially Christians – who, I’m sure, spearhead the pro-life, anti-abortion movement – aren’t recognizing.

Christianity is not a democracy, nor a republic. The United States is. Christian faith, or any faith for that matter, is a square peg that won’t fit in the round hole of the United States governmental system.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). The United States doesn’t accept that, nor can it. The U.S., by its Constitution, is open to multiple ideas and ideologies. That’s why we have at least two political parties and independents who make their voices heard.

This is why banning abortion in the United States isn’t going to happen. Nor should it.

Of course, Christians can live out their principles, including in public – and we should.

Jesus loved women just as much as He loved unborn babies. There is plenty of evidence for this. Jesus was (and is) an equal opportunity lover of people. He doesn’t choose sides. Not in Israel and Palestine, not in Russia and Ukraine, not in China and Taiwan, not in men, women and unborn babies.

Jesus loves all.

So should we.

If we did, abortion wouldn’t be an issue in the first place.

That’s how we reduce and/or eliminate abortion. We take away the desire for it. We go after the root causes.

Abortion is a heart issue, not a legislative one.

Jesus was not an issues person. He was a people person, 100 percent. He would not march on Washington over abortion, pro or against.

But He would march to support the people involved in abortion. In fact, He did more than that. He died an ugly death on a cross for them.

Abortion is an issue. Let’s turn our attention to the people behind it, and see how our perspective changes.

A feminist whom I follow on Facebook cheered the vote results from earlier this month. In a column posted the day after the election, Connie Schultz printed photos of her four strong granddaughters (she also has four grandsons), with this comment:

Our grandchildren are too young to know or care about how Grandma navigates her days, but someday they might wonder how I spent my time on this earth when they weren’t watching. When they find out, I hope they feel proud.

She missed the irony. If abortion rights were legal, her grandchildren might never have been born.

It’s about the people. It’s about her grandchildren, and their mothers.

And all mothers.

Fathers, too. Feminists tend to think men don’t matter, or don’t matter much.

All people matter. Not in varying degrees, but 100 percent. You and me both. And everyone else.

Everyone.

That’s why abortion should not have been codified in the state Constitution. I hope it becomes irrelevant.

It’s about the people, not the issue itself.

Heaven is a bonus

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:12

As a young teenager, my parents moved my sister and me out of state before I began ninth grade. I knew nobody there. I was afraid, insecure, unsure of myself, and had no idea who my future friends would be and who I could or couldn’t trust.

I reached out for something to lean on, to sustain me. I found nothing but empty air.

I kept to myself, eating lunch alone in the school cafeteria until December, when a group of peers invited me to join them. I still kept quiet, didn’t expose my fear and insecurity.

The school year passed. I was a good student, so I survived somehow. Emotionally, I remained distant.

That first touch from God

In July, our parents signed us up for summer camp. As I stepped out of our car, I felt something different about this place. I was intrigued.

I found out right away what was different. This was a Christian summer camp, a place that practiced what it preached. Despite my fears and loneliness, the counselors – and, especially, many of the other campers – noticed me.

I did nothing to get recognized. The camp had sports themes. I have always enjoyed sports, not that I’ve ever been an athlete. The two-week camp included a track meet and a swim meet.

I remember running the 50-yard dash. I finished in a third-place tie with a teammate; the camp handed out only three ribbons. We flipped a coin to see who would receive the ribbon. I won.

“Way to go! Nice run! Good job!” My teammate praised me.

I just looked at him. That’s not a normal response when a teenager loses a coin flip, a ribbon and points for his team.

What is going on here?

Jesus. That’s what was going on.

Seriously. I was experiencing unconditional love for the first time. Love I did not earn, nor did I deserve.

The campers and counselors noticed me just because I was there.

Because that’s what Jesus does. He notices people. The campers cared, because they were passing along the love that Jesus had for them.

I was sold.

The last night before our parents came to take us home, every camper and counselor gathered around a campfire, and got to share publicly what the camp experience meant to them. I don’t remember what I said that night, but I knew I wanted Jesus to heal the inner hurts that I had.

The next morning, I woke up with a light heart. The sunshine was brighter than it ever had been. The leaves on the trees were a deeper green than I ever knew them to be.

On the way to breakfast, I told my counselor that I accepted Jesus into my heart last night.

He pulled me out of line and we went into the nearest building, the camp office. He prayed for me and encouraged me to grow the faith that had begun in me.

We arrived late to breakfast, but I didn’t care. Angels in heaven were rejoicing over me.

Sometimes, I walk away from that touch

Restore to me the joy of your salvation …

That’s what joy is. And it comes with salvation.

That event took place a long time ago. July 24, 1975, to be exact.

In the 40-plus years since then, I’ve struggled to find joy. I still have bouts of loneliness. I see the pains of this world, the anger, the fighting and wars, the hatred, the selfishness of everyday life …

Where is joy, God?

I run an inner-city food pantry, so I see hopelessness and struggle all the time. I don’t see many victories. It’s hard, this life.

I had a great career, but it ended with a thump.

I’ve had great health my entire life, and I don’t take that for granted. I’m grateful to the living God for that, because I know many people who don’t have the health that I do. That doesn’t make me better than anyone else, only different in some ways. Others have skills, talents and circumstances different than I do.

I read Ecclesiastes which, like the Psalms, is in the Old Testament.

All things are wearisome;
more than one can express. …
there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:8,9

Where is joy in that?

Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, searched for meaning everywhere in life, and never found it. Until he turned to God at the end of his life.

David, his father and the author of Psalm 51, understood the heart of God much earlier than that.

After he was crowned king and blundered terribly, he recalled the time when he first met the living God, probably as a shepherd in the fields before he became famous by defeating the giant Goliath.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation …

David had lost the joy in his life too. But he knew where to find it.

In his salvation. In his first encounter with the living God.

Restoration

When I get burdened by the cares of this world, or caught up in its follies and struggles, I need to remember where I came from. Go back to the beginning.

Yes, I’ve learned a lot in the past 40-plus years. I’m not the same person I was at 15 years old, when I first met Jesus.

And yet …

I don’t want to forget joy. I don’t want to bury it in the stresses and struggles of 21^st century America, or the world.

But I do bury it.

I must intentionally go back to joy. Remember that morning when I woke up with a new spirit, refreshed, free, light, unburdened.

The day’s problems remained, but now I had someone alongside me to help me through them. That’s the difference. And it’s a huge difference.

Heaven will be a bonus one day. Joy begins right here, right now.

This isn’t happiness, which is a feeling that comes and goes depending on our circumstances. Joy remains. It’s solid. It’s contentment.

It’s knowing I’m not alone. And the One with me will never leave. Even if I screw up this life royally.

David proves this.

Because joy can be restored. All we have to do is ask.