God's will and the question of choice

There are plenty of arguments going on about the recent severe abortion restrictions becoming law in states like Alabama and Missouri. My fellow pro-choice activists have made important points which are eloquent and well reasoned. Many are more knowledgeable than I am about the science and data around who is most at risk by this new legislation, and a potential reversal of Roe v. Wade from the U.S. Supreme Court.

I am particularly upset by the lack of exceptions for rape and incest in the Alabama bill, and this is what I'd like us to carefully consider. Proponents of such ideas may argue their point by appealing to the resulting pregnancy as God's will, or God's way of making something good out of a terrible circumstance. But if you believe God willed that woman or child to get pregnant in such a circumstance, what does that say about the God you believe in? That's not a God I want any part of.

I believe God is good, and God shows up most visibly in acts of compassion and justice. When humans do things to each other that are hurtful, God weeps. When a woman is raped, when a girl is violated by a family member in an act of incest, that does not happen because God willed it. That woman or child should not be forced by the government to bring a child into the world.

In other words, not everything happens for a reason. But we do have to reason with the pain of the world, and it's not easy. Some of it is really awful. How to respond to whatever pain may have brought someone to consider an abortion is going to vary from one individual's circumstance to another's.

None of us, least of all the government, is qualified to recommend one blanket approach to all of these circumstances. This is why the only rational policy on abortion is for it to be legal, available, and safe.

If you still think everything happens according to God's will, what do you do when things change? Some might say God is present if the Supreme Court affirms their position to ban abortion, but does that mean God wasn't present when the SCOTUS affirmed Roe v. Wade? There are so many ways that events in life contradict other things that happen. We simply cannot appropriate God's will to force another person to do something against their own.

If you want to protect life,however, I am with you. Let's work together to increase access to health care. Let's improve sex education for our young people, including honest and practical conversations about contraception. Let's increase wages for those in poverty, and increase access to affordable child care.

I guarantee abortion rates will go down. In that work, I know God will be present. Because the community will be working together to support each other, and treat the least among us with dignity and compassion.

The Rev. Mark Winters, of Naperville, is pastor for the First Congregational United Church of Christ of Naperville.