A hundred or so local anti-abortion residents held a protest at ProMedica health system’s Defiance, Ohio facility yesterday. These zygote lovers were protesting Promedica’s decision to enter into a transfer agreement with Toledo’s lone abortion facility — Capital Care. Anti-abortion zealots in the Ohio legislature have passed numerous anti-abortion laws and regulations in recent years. One recent bit of legislative wonder requires abortion clinics to have a transfer agreement with a local hospital. This requirement has put most of Ohio’s abortion clinics out of business, much to the delight of anti-abortion God worshipers.
Ohio is on the cusp of being the first state to totally ban abortion; either by enacting strict, impossible-to-meet regulations or directly assaulting Roe v. Wade with a ban on abortion. This is what happens when Republicans are given super majorities in state legislatures. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion almost forty-five years ago. Yet, here we are, re-litigating an issue decided decades ago. And abortion is not the only right under attack. Republicans control most state legislatures. Believing that Christianity is the one true religion and that the Bible is the moral framework by which all Americans should live, these politicians demand that secular governments bow to God’s theocratic will. Abortion is just one issue, among many. Take any of the church and state issues litigated from the Scope’s Monkey Trial forward. Many of these court cases are being challenged and, in some instances, overturned. Christian zealots will not rest until the Christian flag flies over the White House and every state capitol. They will not rest until the wall of separation between church and state is breached and secularism is banished from the realm. One need only to look to the Middle East and Europe to see what happens when theocrats gain the power of the state; people die and freedoms are lost. The only way to turn back this assault is to elect to office people who value the U.S. Constitution and its secular principles and values.
Signs at the ProMedica protest sported messages such as: Killing babies is not healthcare, Abortion is always the wrong choice, and God is pro-life. Most of the protesters were either Evangelical or Catholic — the two dominant sects in this area. While Catholics, at one time, voted for Democrats and pro-union candidates, recent decades have brought a virulent swing to the right. These days, Catholics are every bit as caustic as Evangelicals, especially on issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and same-sex marriage.
I have no doubt that these protestors sincerely believe that God is pro-life, but such a belief is rooted in fanaticism, and not fact. Anti-abortionists selectively appeal to the Bible as justification for their anti-abortion rhetoric, but a careful reading of the Bible suggests that God is not, in any way, pro-life; and that people who claim God is on their side are ignoring vast amounts of Biblical and historical evidence to the contrary. If anything, God is a blood-thirsty, violent megalomaniac who has caused untold pain, suffering, and death (if he is indeed real, as Christians insist he is).
According to the Bible, the pro-life God of the Bible drowned millions of people in a flood, including children and pregnant women. How can it be said that God is pro-life if he murdered fetuses by drowning them? Down through the pages of the Bible, we find story after story detailing Jehovah’s genocidal rage against anyone and everyone who refused to bow in fealty and worship him. The New Testament is no better. One need only look at the death of Jesus to see the homicidal tendencies of the Christian deity. What kind of father does what God did to his son? Worse yet, this same God created a place called Hell; a place where he tortures all non-Christians for eternity. This God is such a psychopath that he fits the dead with new bodies that will tolerate torture in the fire and brimstone of the Lake of Fire. What a monstrous being!
And then there’s the fact that if God is the giver and taker of life, then he is responsible for the ten to twenty percent of pregnancies that end with spontaneous abortion (miscarriage). If God is pro-life, why then are these pregnancies not carried to term? Surely, God can keep spontaneous abortions from happening. Why does he sit on the sidelines and do nothing? The same argument could be made for children who die due to war, murder, malnutrition, disease, and parental neglect. If God is pro-life, shouldn’t he intervene and save children from death? If God truly cares about the preborn, surely he still cares for them after they are born. Yet, all the evidence points to the fact that God is indifferent to the plight of his created beings. One could even argue that the evidence suggests that the pro-life God is a figment of Christian imaginations.
No, God is not pro-life, and neither are his followers. Most pro-lifers have a schizophrenic approach to life. The very same people protesting at ProMedica can be found defending U.S. militarism, capital punishment, and all sorts of anti-life government policies. At best, most pro-lifers are pro-fetus, hypocrites of the first-degree. Take protesters who released balloons to honor the babies that have been aborted. They showed no regard for what balloon releases do to the environment and wildlife: that released balloons eventually return to the ground, causing wildlife deaths when they are ingested. This fact is a great example of the myopia of anti-abortionists. They are one-issue crusaders who only believe in protesting in support of the pre-born. Once a child is born, all bets are off.
An anti-abortionist who lives near me told the Defiance Crescent-News, “They [ProMedica] became complicit in murder when they signed that transfer agreement.” As long as Christian zealots continue to believe that life begins at conception, and any and all forms of abortion are murder, there’s no possible way to work with them to reduce the need for abortion. Instead, people such as myself are forced to fight their irrational, anti-woman assault on women. Believing that God is on their side and the Bible is God’s inspired, infallible word, Evangelicals and conservative Catholics cannot and will not compromise. Trying to reach such people is a waste of time. All any of us can do is strip them of the power of the state. This is accomplished through electing politicians who believe it’s important to protect a woman’s right to choose; who believe that women have a Constitutional right to control their own bodies. At this juncture in American history, this means running Republicans out of office. Remember, if we don’t realize the importance of the hour, we are going to wake up one day and find ourselves living in what Evangelicals have long desired — a Christian nation. Come that day, abortion rights will be the least of our problems.
Previous Articles About Abortion
Abortion Facts, Lies, and Contradictions
25 Questions for Those who say Abortion is Murder
Why it is Impossible to Talk to Pro-Life Zealots About Abortion
Preaching the Anti-Abortion Gospel
What Anti-Abortion Zealots Really Want
Is Abortion Murder? (A Rationalist’s Take)
Reducing the Number of Abortions
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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My father in law is vehemently anti- abortion, calling it murder. I told him if he truly brlieves that, he damn well be donting ALL his spare time and money toward caring for single mothers and children (for 18 years no less) to take care of them. And he better damn well be doing everythi g he can to promote sex education in schools and making sure women get affordable access to birth control and medical care. Crickets….he is a Trump supporter. All he cares about is forced birth, limiting immigration, and one world government conspiracy theories.
‘God’ is the biggest aborter of all. 75% of all implanted, fertilised eggs naturally abort (see .
My daughter, who dearly would have loved the baby she was carrying, spontaneously aborted at three months (thankfully she has since had a baby from a subsequent pregnancy.) I found out yesterday that a friend’s daughter had had a miscarriage after 2 months.
So, is God pro-life? Overlooking the fact he doesn’t exist, of course not.
Ohio makes me puke my breakfast. They hate women with their Christian ‘love’. History will never be forget their murder of students involved in Vietnam protests and they continue to act like deranged reptiles with regard to women. I’s so sick of haters who call themselves obedient to God as the perfect excuse to hate and harm. They are full of delusional thinking and snort Bible verses to stay above it all. Isn’t it convenient to find a God who allows you to sustain the hatreds of time, passed from father to son, from mother to daughter. The Ol’ Time Religion was a tragic failure then and remains an ugly blot today.
How Pope GrrrINsir manages to endure such a swamp of ignorance baffles me. I say gather your loved ones and head for the hills!
ObstacleChick, I am pleased to know that you are in your father-in-law’s face about his reptile brain. We who were trained up in Christianity know how vile these people can be and what a sick little smile they paste over their hatreds even as they express them.
you are right. we need to get off our asses and vote. it is to my great shame that I too was taken in by the repubs during my so called Christian days. if I can make this right through voting then I must try. we will truly be living a nightmare if a religion takes over our govt. just look at countries where the catholic church and islam rule.
We’ve had it pretty easy in the U.S., at least in recent decades. We pretty much enjoy our autonomy and freedom. It’s hard for people to imagine that being taken away from them. By the time they realize the threat of fundamentalism is real, it may be too late.
As for voting in politicians who will do the right thing, unfortunately in some areas of our country, they either can’t win the election or they get voted right out. As Bruce has described numerous times, a politician basically has to be a flag-waving right-wing xtian to even have a chance at being elected. This is a scary situation. That being said, I think it is very important for all citizens to vote. Otherwise you are letting a vocal and sometimes radical minority make all the decisions, including those that affect you.
Curious why you included Europe in this statement. Is there a specific example you are thinking of?
“One need only to look to the Middle East and Europe to see what happens when theocrats gain the power of the state; people die and freedoms are lost”
I have Poland specifically in mind, with their turn towards right-wing politics and religion. We see similar aggravations in other countries. The same could be said of Russia with the resurgence of the Orthodox church. Scores of new churches are being built and the church has regained its seat at the political table. Much like Trump, Putin claims to be a Christian.
Kentucky is every bit as bad as Ohio. Our current governor is an evangelical nutter who is trying to shut down our women’s clinics, has declared it the-year-of-the-bible, and attacked public school teachers for trying to get the pensions to which they have a contract, just to name a few of his bad acts. But even when we had a democrat as governor, before the current guy, he made the deal to get Ham’s ark park going. It feels like there is no way to overcome the tide of ignorance. Living in the U.S. these days makes me wish that I had been aborted.
Mention Bitter Water to a Forced Birther and their eyes glaze over. Mention the crime of fathers getting their daughters pregnant and there is silence.
Overturning Roe vs Wade won’t eliminate abortion but it will drive it underground. And yes, those who’ve followed the progression of Forced Birthers are horrified to realize women who experience a miscarriage will be prosecuted for murder. It’s already happening. Pro tip – don’t Google the subject before bed. I did and couldn’t sleep for a week I was so angry.
We. Need. To. Vote. The. Bums. Out. Of. Office. No Exceptions.