In his recent column on the politics of abortion, Dr. Jay Fleitman asserts that fetuses can be viable well into the second trimester of gestation now. He may be unaware of it, but such intensively medically assisted viability poses ethical concerns, where babies born extremely early are lacking in brain development and must subsist, profoundly and permanently disabled, for their entire lives.
Dr. Fleitman struggles, where he wants to maintain a woman’s right to do as she wills with her own body, but wonders at what point does life within her womb come to have its own rights, too. He might benefit from reading the Rev. Rebecca Todd Peters’ book, “Trust Women,” which counsels us to do just that: to trust women to know when they may safely carry a pregnancy, and when they may not.
Peters says there must be a covenantal relationship between a woman and a nascent life within her. Unless that covenant can be held and affirmed, there will not be full support for a baby-to-be.
And Peters gives reasons for those rare, late-term abortions that should move anyone who does not absolutize The Unborn.
I think it could be troubling for any who love Scripture that a verse like Psalm 139:13 might suggest that God has a kind of covenant with each human from the very beginnings of life. However, if there should be such a divine-human relationship, it must be mediated through the person of the mother.
Her consent cannot be presumed. To me, the very New Testament hymn, the “Song of Mary,” that celebrates the choice of Jesus’ mother to accept and embrace her pregnancy with him, is an empty celebration unless she could have done otherwise.
I have thought, a woman has a right to self-defense if a pregnancy is in some way a danger to her. I suppose my reasoning could be an invitation for the state to get involved, to determine if self-defense is warranted. And meanwhile, the gestational clock would be ticking.
Where any of us would like to attend to vulnerable life, I suggest a constructive thing is to nurture women in being careful about exposing themselves to the risk of becoming pregnant, but also to protect their right to know when a pregnancy must end. In this way, I consider we may best uphold the value of a woman’s life, and also may best cherish any potential child she might bring into the world.
Mary Hall
South Hadley
