Abortion Abolition: Beyond Pro-Life Vs. Pro-Choice Politics
Ebook
Overview
To quote Ruth Wilson Gilmore, "Abolition is not absence, it is presence." It is the creation of new systems and relationships that renders a practice or institution unnecessary. An abolition framework permits Christians to engage people across the current pro-life versus pro-choice divide and more effectively addresses the root causes of why there is abortion. This book is not focused on espousing a particular political position regarding electoral politics. Rather, it seeks to evaluate some assumptions that give rise to people feeling trapped in various political dilemmas. In interrogating these assumptions, we create more political and theological space that might open a more effective way to promote the lives of unborn children, their mothers, and their communities.
“Abortion Abolition goes beyond the pro-choice/pro-life debate that problematically results in single issue voting among Christians. Instead, it wisely and carefully considers how we might create new systems to render abortions unnecessary. It also challenges the assumptions of each camp, particularly the need to criminalize abortion. More importantly, Abortion Abolition points to a better, third way of addressing abortion, where we imagine together a world that reduces the harms and conditions leading women to abort. That seems to be the way of Jesus.”
—Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American studies, San Francisco State University
“Smith calls attention to important but often ignored effects of abortion policies. She calls those who adopt anti-abortion policies to consider how these laws often cause the abortion rate to rise, while criminalization and enforcement are carried out unequally—unacceptably so. She challenges those who adopt pro-choice policies to go far beyond a woman’s right to choose to policies that are pro-woman for all women and not just wealthy women, and pro-flourishing for all families, especially those with disabled children. Smith’s call to consider the law as a strategy for harm-reduction rather than a moral mirror on every issue is very, very welcome.”
—Mako Nagasawa, founder, The Anástasis Center for Christian Education and Ministry