Behold The Man*

Ending in Love?

From an interview I had with an Edinburgh GP and a counsellor with Lifeline, a pro-life organisation.

As a counsellor I can't stand in front of a woman and insist that she go through with a pregnancy, however it may have come about. I am not that person. I haven't gone through her experience. As a Christian, of course it is my hope that she will go on and have her baby. But I've got to love her as she is not the way I want her to be. If we only love people when they are doing what we want, then we don't really love them at all.

It was responses such as this from Sarah that prompted Jack to remark that though they disagreed on the fundamental issue of when life begins, in practice they were both talking much the same language.

Jack had explained to me why, as a commissioner to the 1985 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, he had objected to the report of the Board of Social Responsibility which had called for abortion to be limited to when the mother's life was at risk. I attacked the Board's deliverance because it was so absolute, he said. I thought it was a very insecurely argued report, and that there were certain difficulties that they had not been faced up to. What worried me was the underlying implication that there was a single Christian and Biblical viewpoint. And it is quite clear that there is not. The Bible has nothing directly to say about abortion.

I see religion as being fundamentally about relationships, Jack continued, and principally about love. And I'm not clear that an embryo is an object of love. A miscarriage is very different to say a stillbirth or a neonatal death there is surely a gradation.

Sarah, however saw this differently. I can only speak for myself, she said. I do believe that that is life. All it needs is time, because it really has a life in the womb. It's got to be treated with respect and treasured. And the great danger is that we don't treasure.

I see abortion as an evil that we must sometimes tolerate, she continued, but I don't really think that we can contribute to it especially as Christians. If a girl says to me that she knows that her doctor won't give her an abortion and asks me for the name of a clinic that will do it, I don't see that I should be forced to tell her. Not at all. If she decides to go and have the abortion and is in distress afterwards then I will do everything possible to help her. But I don't want to have a part in her abortion.

I have great sympathy for the doctors who have to make the final decision, Sarah went on, because I know how manipulative sometimes a girl can be. Before they go in they are thinking what they can say that will get them what they want. I would hate to be in the position of having to go along with it, or else to say no. It must be a dreadful situation.

It's not quite like that, Jack replied. Of course it's never a pleasant business, but one can often make a positive, and if you like a Christian contribution, by being prepared to take the time to counsel carefully. it's quite hard work, but it's important. This is part of the value of the 1967 Abortion Act. It gives the opportunity for counselling. Before then a woman with the money could go and buy an abortion, and the others would often go to a back-street abortionist. In the early 1960's we had seen the effects of such abortions, which were sometimes quite horrifying. You speak of some girls being quite manipulative and determined to get what they want, but prior to 1967 this is where such girls would have gone. This is the reality of the situation. However if I took your position on the absolute value of the embryo, then I would indeed be in a very difficult position. But I don't. It's not that I agree with abortion on demand, but I do think that there are times when termination is the lesser evil.

Sarah acknowledged the dilemma for doctors who shared her view, but felt strongly that they should not withdraw from this area of work because of it. Christianity is not up on pinnacles or in ivory towers, she insisted. It's got to be there in the market place. My Christian faith should make me a more sympathetic person. I'm not talking about just being religious. When a girl says to me that her parents are very religious, my heart goes right into my boots. because she isn't talking about them being Christian. Usually they are very condemning.

A sign of Christ's love in the world. Isn't that what Christians are really meant to be?, Sarah asked. The girl who comes for counselling needs someone to love her, because often she doesn't love herself at that moment. It comes down again to loving people as they are, not as you want them to be.

Both Sarah and Jack saw major problems in suggesting adoption as a solution. I find that most of the girls don't think of adoption, Sarah said because they said that they couldn't carry the child for nine months and then give it away. They would rather abort, much rather. And Jack said adoption can rarely be seen as an ideal solution. One often sees problems with illegitimate children adopted in even very good circumstances. There are all sorts of psychological troubles and families can even disintegrate.

Jack agreed with Sarah that the time seems right for a review of the working of the Abortion Act and related legislation. There are certain technical points which the medical profession as a whole would like looked at, he said. There is now a good case for reducing the upper age limit for legal abortion from the present 28 weeks to 24 weeks. in fact something like 90% of all terminations are within the first two months, so it's not a major thing. Personally I would welcome informed debate about reducing the limit to 20 weeks, but account would need to be taken of the difficulty in detecting serious handicap early enough. This is a difficult moral area, but I do think it's right that a woman should be allowed to make an informed choice.

When I asked about the role Christians could play, Sarah replied that there are all sorts of Christians putting their beliefs into action. Some open their homes to the pregnant girls. We have quite a few like that. Also for a girl who is a single parent it can make all the difference to have someone who will look after the baby for a few hours, or even just talk to her for a while. Sometimes she has to be shown how to play with her children and talk to them. I think Churches can do tremendous work here, though you need to find a way of channelling it. Perhaps it might be better not to do it directly through a church. You also have to be careful of the motives of the people who would do this.

I see Lifeline almost in a way like the good Samaritan, Sarah concluded. I mean he didn't get up a petition to make the road to Jericho safer. He attended to the man in front of him. He bound up his wounds. I think that's the whole thing.

That's a very good summing up, was Jack's final comment, as I thanked them both.