A Christian case for abortion rights?

But interviews with various clergy members and religious scholars indicate that there is far from a consensus that “Christian” = “opposed to abortion.” Rev. Jacqui Lewis, who holds a PhD. in psychology and religion, wrote in an email, “I am a practicing Christian and I am pro-choice. Those are compatible.” She elaborated, “I am a Christian, a pastor, a counselor and I know from counseling that when women make this decision, it is a painful one, often a heart breaking one. But personally, I believe it is their right to decide, in conversation with their partner or spouse, their family, their spiritual leader and their God.”…

Tom Davis (no relation to Wendy) is very clear in his perspective on this. Davis is a former Chaplain and Associate Professor of Religion at Skidmore College. During his time there, Davis counseled students seeking abortions. In some instances he would refer women in need to doctors he knew who performed them before the procedure became legal. In 1967 Davis joined the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, a network of 1,400 members of the clergy who helped women access safe abortions nationwide in the days before Roe v. Wade.

Davis would play a key role in opening the nation’s first legal abortion clinic in New York when the procedure became legal there more than a year before Roe. In a phone interview Davis said there are texts for some religions that address abortion specifically, such as in ancient Babylonia, but this is not the case in Christianity: “There is no law against abortion in the Bible. There is no law about birth control in the Bible. So when you don’t have a specific guidance on something, you look at what is the most human thing to do in a situation, what is most helpful and sometimes abortion is indicated.”