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.

Seeking an intelligent discussion on abortion

Ohio is the only state that will have an abortion measure on the ballot in November. That matters because voters rejected Issue 1 in the August primary, which would have basically rendered the November vote moot.

Issue 1 would have tightened the rules significantly to change the state Constitution on any issue, including abortion. Ohio voters opposed that measure, 1,744,094 to 1,315,346 (57 percent to 43 percent).

What would Jesus do?

With that behind us, our eyes turn to the general election in the fall. Because abortion is a highly emotional and politically divisive issue, let’s take a breath before we dive in.

Opponents of the proposed constitutional amendment include several right-to-life and Catholic organizations.

Supporters include the ACLU, several feminist groups and Planned Parenthood.

Because people of faith generally oppose abortion (I consider myself a person of faith), let’s start this discussion there.

The biblical story that, in my opinion, expresses Jesus’ thoughts on social and political issues best is found in John 8: the woman caught in adultery. Caught in the act, there’s no doubt about her guilt. A group of religious leaders (all men) dumps her before Jesus and says, “OK, Jesus, what do you say about this?” (The man caught in adultery is nowhere to be found – it takes two to be adulterous, you know.)

First, Jesus doodles on the ground. Why? To get the emotions out of the moment.

Then, he says they can stone her, according to their law – but whoever is sinless gets to toss the first stone.

They leave. Jesus doesn’t condemn her either, but tells her not to do it again.

Substitute abortion for adultery, and there’s Jesus’ answer.

Making a convincing argument

Abortion should never be the first option. But it’s also not the unpardonable sin; it can be forgiven.

Put those two points together, and that’s why it should not be codified in the state Constitution.

Jesus came not to condemn (we are condemned already), but to offer grace and mercy. This is the approach Christians need to take on abortion.

Since Issue 1 was defeated, Christians now must defend their faith in public – in such a way that they can change minds, and votes, to defeat the November ballot measure.

Don’t just say abortion is killing pre-born infants. That’s a non-starter for many women. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter, actually. The point is to present a convincing argument. Starting with a non-starter is not how that’s done.

How does abortion affect women? How do you respond to feminist groups who feel men don’t have their best interests at heart (while often being married to a man, by the way)? That’s a real issue that must be addressed, because men (of which I am one) have failed women in many, many ways in the past. We’re doing better now (let’s all acknowledge this), but we haven’t arrived.

The fact that some men are trying to become women and vice versa is the more troubling trend. Men and women play different roles in society. Neither sex is irreplaceable; both are vital and necessary. Both sexes are equally important; neither is inferior to the other.

Different does not mean better. Or worse.

This is the mindset we are losing, and if this takes hold, we are doomed as a nation.

Women matter. We have to start there.

Jesus elevated women. Read the gospels. We must do that too.

If we can do that, perhaps abortion wouldn’t be a headline issue anymore.

A political decision is not needed

Abortions in general have declined since they peaked in the early 1990s, according to  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, which have tracked these patterns for several decades. According to the Pew Research Center, 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.

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, abortions already were on the decline. Neither the CDC nor the Guttmacher Institute has updated its abortion research since 2020, so it’s hard to say how overturning Roe v. Wade has changed the landscape in the past year.

The bottom line: Abortions were trending in the right direction before the U.S. Supreme Court got involved. Perhaps the right-to-life and Catholic organizations are further along than they think they are.

By turning abortion into an everyday political issue, they have embittered the feminist and pro-choice movers and shakers. That’s the challenge now. How do we turn down the emotions and figure out what works best for the majority of us?

Not every abortion is the same. Until Christians can acknowledge this, their arguments will fall on deaf ears.

We need to learn how to listen – to apply our Christian principles to this issue, as we do to other issues of the day. The way Jesus did.

Perhaps we need to play in the dirt for a few minutes before we engage with each other. For real. Calm down. Everyone.

The ballot language

Here’s the ballot language that Ohio voters will see on Nov. 7:

According to Ballotpedia.org, the Ohio Right to Make Reproductive Decisions Including Abortion Initiative is on the ballot in Ohio as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 7, 2023.

A “yes” vote supports amending the Ohio Constitution to: establish a state constitutional right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” including decisions about abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and continuing pregnancy; prohibit the state of Ohio from interfering with this constitutional right, except when the state demonstrates “that it is using the least restrictive means to advance the individual’s health in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based standards of care;” allow the state to restrict abortion after fetal viability, defined as “the point in a pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician, the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures;” and prohibit the state of Ohio from banning abortion when, in the professional judgment of a physician, an abortion “is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

A “no” vote opposes amending the Ohio Constitution to establish the constitutional right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions.”

Is there an intelligent discussion out there about this? I hope there is.