Religion Becoming More Apparent In Abortion-Rights Supporters' Debate, Column Says

Religious groups that support abortion rights are "increasingly active and visible," and "their emphasis on conscience and morality ... has the potential to change the terms of the abortion[-rights] debate," Brooklyn-based journalist Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow writes in a Boston Globe column. Like religious abortion-rights opponents, the religious abortion-rights supporters use the Bible to validate their support of abortion rights, Tuhus-Dubrow writes. She adds, "Instead of rights, the [religious abortion-rights] movement tends to emphasize moral agency and conscience," stressing the "sanctity of life and the obligation to protect the vulnerable," which consists first of women and their children. The acknowledgement of a multifaceted moral view of abortion "historically" has been "taboo in the polarized abortion debate," but the religious abortion-rights movement is "not shy about acknowledging the moral complexity" of the issue, Tuhus-Dubrow writes. Some politicians -- including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who in January 2005 said that abortion "represents a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women" -- have "embraced the idea of moral complexity," according to Tuhus-Dubrow. Despite the reluctance of some abortion-rights supporters to "embrace the approach" of religious groups that support abortion rights, the "influence of religion is increasingly evident throughout the abortion-rights movement," Tuhus-Dubrow writes (Tuhus-Dubrow, Boston Globe, 7/30).

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