From Mind N Magick (Canadian):
So why should a pagan be pro-life?
Because all of the aforementioned ought to be irrelevant, if we are serious in our beliefs.
While there are many, many pagan paths, the vast majority hold nature, and the natural order, and life itself to be sacred. We teach personal responsibility, not because we'll be tossed into hell for disobedience, but because we see that there will be real-world, practical consequences if we don't live carefully, thoughtfully, and respectfully on the Earth and among our fellow human beings. Many of us worship Goddesses, and hold fertility and sexuality to be sacred. We see all things interconnected and hold in reverence the cycles of the seasons, of light and dark, growth and death and rebirth. Some of us follow the Wiccan Rede, which tells us to "harm hone". We're given the admonition that whatever you do in this world, it will come back to you three-fold.
How, then, can we possibly justify abortion?
Abortion takes a human life; this is not a matter of ideology or dogma, but simple scientific fact. It causes irreparable harm to one who is entirely innocent and helpless, one of the greatest injuries one person can possibly inflict on another. It denies the gift of fertility and treats pregnancy as a disease and a weakness in women, rather than a strength and blessing. It says women themselves are weak, unable to cope with financial difficulty, unwilling to sacrifice for their children, victims of their society and their biology. Rather that respecting pregnancy as part of the cycle of human existence and the natural continuation of human sexuality, abortion reduces gestation to the level of a sexual hangover, an unwelcome side-effect, "getting caught". It treats life as disposable, not inherently sacred and possessed of its own immeasurable value, but inherently useless and worth preserving only if someone wants it. Rather than acknowledging that every living thing, from the smallest and simplest to the greatest and most complex, has a unique and irreplaceable role in the natural balance of our world, it says that those who cannot fend for themselves can be tossed aside without consequence.
If we're going to be honest with ourselves, we should admit we know the ideology behind abortion is at best disrespectful of women's bodies and fertility, scornful of nature, immature in its view of responsibility. The best you can say of abortion rights, really, is that they allow free will - but the powerful always have the freedom to exercise their will, by virtue of their power. There is no question that in a pregnancy, the mother is the powerful one, with a natural responsibility to nature and protects the dependent fetus. Why should the government ignore the natural bond and responsibility of mother to child, and instead proclaim that the mother may kill her child because of its dependency? If the government exists only to assert the so-called rights of the powerful, why do we need government at all?
We ought to encourage the government to see the fetus in the same way we would like the government to see religious minorities, or endangered species - as valuable and vulnerable and in need of protection. Because at its worst, the mentality behind legal abortion is no more or less than the same simple bigotry which is responsible for everything from the pillaging of our environment to the harassment of minority religions - the simple inability to recognize a life unlike your own as actually being a real and valuable life.
Yes, standing up for the rights of the unborn can be quite inconvenient for us. It can even be frightening to be faced with the bigotry that, unfortunately, pervades the pro-life movement. It can be frustrating to lack leaders who will support all our causes, who will see the unifying thread of respect for life and responsibility. It can be hurtful to be rejected and misunderstood even by friends, to be the odd one out even among the outcasts. Being pro-life can leave us politically homeless, rejected and ridiculed.
But then, so can being pagan.
I think that one possible reason why pagans might feel excluded has to do with social conservative cultural insecurity in Canada.
What kind of culture do so-cons have in Canada? Almost none. I mean really. We don't get together that often; Christian bands aren't that well-known. There's a big lack of cohesion.
Political action like the March for Life gives us a desperately needed sense of cohesion.
We don't want that drowned out, yet again. I want pagans to help us in the fight for fetal equality. But does that mean we'll have to stop praying at the March for Life? Does that mean we'll have to stop speaking our minds? Are we going to be re-marginalized yet again by the culture? We want to hold on tight to what we have.
If there are a substantial number of "alternative" pro-lifers in Canada, maybe it's time to have a joint rally. It could be a secular thing, or a religiously toned- down thing. I'm not keen on people praying to pagan gods. But something has to be done to advance fetal rights, and we have to work together to advance the agenda.
