The mainstream media tends to stereotype pro-lifers as conservative Christians and the right to life as a religious issue. While the pro-life movement has many Christians, it is growing increasingly diverse as more agnostics and atheists identify with the cause.
Meanwhile, some in the pro-abortion movement are claiming the label of Christian. One of the abortion advocates most vocal about it is Mississippi abortionist Willie Parker.
In a new interview with AlterNet, Parker talked about why he calls his abortion practice a “ministry” and how his spirituality motivated him to start doing abortions.
According to the interview:
Trained as an ob-gyn, Parker did not perform abortions during his first 12 years of medical practice. But over and over he witnessed the suffering of low-income women, especially black women, forced to bear children when their own instincts told them that the time and circumstances weren’t right. Finally, Parker asked himself, If not me, then who? And so began the work Esquire magazine called The Abortion Ministry of Dr. Willie Parker.
Parker said he talks to his abortion patients about their faith. Many of the black women who come to have abortions are “deeply religious” and often conflicted and emotional about the decision, he said. Rather than recognize that abortion is wrong, according to Christian teachings, because it kills an innocent human life, Parker tells his patients that they should not feel bad about aborting their unborn child.
“I call it dignity restoration,” Parker said. “I sense when a woman is dealing with guilt and shame and I’m offering a bridging conversation around faith and the sacred decision of whether to end her pregnancy.”
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He continued: “For many women, there is a tremendous amount of relief in not being turned away. … There is relief in no longer being pregnant but also relief in someone seeing that ‘I’m not a bad person.’”
Parker said many of the other abortionists he knows are “theoretical atheists” but he encourages them to be prepared for “God talk” with their patients.
At the end of the interview, Parker all but calls himself a saint, claiming that he is putting his reputation and life at risk to help women through difficult situations.
“In order to do this work in the face of constant opposition and vilification, abortion providers have to be more principled than average,” Parker said. “We’re not superhuman – we are just like you. But to do this work, my colleagues and I draw from a deep conviction that lets us endure the opposition and frank danger.
“Most doctors who refuse to perform abortions are consciously refusing, and the people who insist on providing are conscientiously providing the care. That is the way that the human spirit runs when we have a deep resolve about principles or values or people to which we are deeply committed. That is the only thing that has kept abortion access available for women.”
Parker may claim to be helping women by aborting their unborn babies, but he probably never witnesses the grief and pain that returns for many of them months or years later. And while saying his faith prompts him to protect the vulnerable, Parker is using his so-called “ministry” to destroy the most vulnerable people of all – unborn babies.
