I would encourage everyone to read Professor Stanley Hauerwas' take on the abortion issue and debate. I thought I had already heard all the arguments on both sides but Hauerwas' analysis from a strictly theological point of view goes a lot deeper and constantly challenges our usual categories and even the language in the debate.
A few highlights:
Putting responsibility solely on expectant mothers is wrong
Christians do not believe that we have inalienable rights
Christians don't decide when life has begun but hope that it has
We don't believe in sacredness of life but in life as the gift of a gracious God
The issue of abortion must not be isolated from the issue of sexual ethics
To be a wanted child may be as great a burden (or greater) than to be an unwanted child
The real question is what kind of people we need to be to be capable of welcoming children into this world.
