That explains why they happen to be the main group against abortion. Christians are trying to save other Christians. They need to do that work within the walls of their own churches and leave the rest of the fucking world out of it.
No, they're not. They're trying to control and punish women. Even though 70% of abortions in the US are requested by Christian women, ask any Christian who has abortions and they'll very likely tell you it's all liberals and atheists. The mechanisms that keep them unaware are powerful and run deep. That ignorance and sense of moral superiority make Christians easy to manipulate by telling them about all the BABIES THAT ARE BEING MURDERED BY EVIL LIBERALS.
The thing that's really weird to me, is how much the attitude towards abortion has changed since the 1980s. I worked as a public health nurse for part of that decade and all but one of my Christian coworkers fully supported the right of women to have a safe, legal abortion.
We had a nurse counselor in NC, who spoke to each woman who chose that option to make sure it was her own decision. Abortions were still paid for by the government during the late 70s and early 80s, if the woman had a low income.
The one nurse who was against abortions had raised a Down's syndrome child to adulthood, but even she didn't feel as if her own beliefs should be pushed on all women. She just didn't want to have to get personally involved with abortions. Since we all worked well together, the other nurses covered for her when it was her turn to do the counseling. That was in the late 70s in SC, where I also worked as a public health nurse for a couple of years.
How did we go from there to here? I assume at least some of it had to do with male preachers telling women that they were sinners if they opted for abortions. I assume that conservative politicians also played a part in the growth of the anti-abortion movement.
It wasn't until the early 90s that I realized how quickly these groups were moving to make it more difficult for women to choose what they decided was best for themselves. I had a coworker who opted for an abortion around 1991. She had to deal with hateful protesters screaming at her as she walked into the clinic. That was in Florida. During that period, a doctor in Pensacola who performed abortions was murdered. Strange that some people care more about a fertilized egg or a fetus than they do about a medical professional's life.
Again, what changed the minds of so many women who previously supported the right of other women to have control over their bodies?
It's not at all surprising to me. Zealotry. The Christian paradigm for understanding the world and ourselves is built on mechanisms for controlling people and keeping them as compliant and ignorant as possible. There's only a tiny fraction of Christian sects and denominations that are not based in this paradigm of sheep allowing a master to think for them. Given this kind of conditioning, literally anyone can step in with the right words and personality and hijack any church or group of Christians.
Whoever first thought up abortion as a Christian moral issue hit the jackpot of control through moral outrage! What is more humane and moral than protecting human life? What human life is more conveniently out of reach in terms of actually doing anything to maintain their care? What is more entangled in some of the worst teachings of Christianity (women are cause of original sin, are below men in hierarchy) and the worst of human nature (aggression, rape, social dominance) than pregnancy?
Christians spend a lot of time in cognitive dissonance rationalizing the backward, inhumane nature of their world view. They're aware of this on some level, and so the "moral" pretense of the abortion zealotry is like a lifeline they can grab onto to continue pretending their world view is humane.
All of this makes the abortion zealotry a politically expedient tool for the wolves who try to wield the power of all those sheep for their own gain. Any remedies for this "problem" of abortion all lie in controlling women. Control their sex lives, their wombs, and punish them for non-compliance. Right here in the US, we have law makers calling for execution of women who have abortions. They're law makers in states and in Washington, not some fringe cult.
Because we must protect precious fetuses. They are innocent and women are guilty. Again, what a fucking jackpot of an issue for right wing authoritarians! WOOT.
