GODxABORTION

Written By Laura Rosado

This past May, Florida Access Network’s (FAN) Executive Director Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro (she/they) hopped on an Instagram livestream with Viva Ruiz (she/they) from Thank God for Abortion (TGFA) to discuss the relationship between faith and reproductive justice. I’m Laura, the Development and Communications Associate at FAN. I’m sharing some recaps and reflections on this fruitful convo on a topic that isn’t discussed enough: God x Abortion.

Florida Access Network is a nonprofit organization that builds pathways for abortion access by advocating for reproductive justice, funding abortion care, and providing logistical support to make abortion access a reality. Thank God for Abortion is a small artist-run operation that aims to end abortion stigma, ‘one soul at a time’. 

The TGFA Story: Viva created Thank God for Abortion to destigmatize abortion culturally. While TGFA is open to everybody regardless of religion and denomination, its origins are deeply spiritual and based on divine gratitude for the existence of abortions. It serves multiple functions for Viva and their community, in that it affirms their relationship to God and spirituality while also reclaiming the word God and taking up space in the religious sectors of our society as pro-abortion baddies. They want to disrupt the weaponization of religion as a tool for restricting abortion and assuming what people can and can’t do with their own lives.

The state of abortion in Florida: In this hour-long live about religion and reproductive justice, Stephanie and Viva talked about everything from their personal experiences with abortion to the 6-week ban to how folks can support their local abortion funds. Mainly, they used this discussion as a way to demystify the current state of affairs for abortion in Florida after the recent Supreme Court decision. In a time when Evangelical Christians lobby and legislate against our bodily autonomy and right to privacy, I recognize this necessary conversation as both a reminder and reclamation of our relationship with spirituality as abortion baddies. If we don’t have these convos in the pro-abortion movement, antis will continue to monopolize discourse around faith and abortion, and that’s a world we can’t continue to live in! 

Stephanie gave folks the rundown on what’s actually been going down in Florida: the near-decade of legal battles around abortion initiated by conservative Christians and Evangelicals in Florida and their consequences. Starting with Florida’s decision in April of 2022 to pass the 15-week abortion ban, the implementation of the state's mandatory 24-hour waiting period, and the eventual overturn of Roe v. Wade. After these three developments, we saw the most drastic decline in abortion access in FL that we had seen in years. The era of Florida being an access hub for abortion in the South was over, and we had also become surrounded by anti-abortion legislation in our neighboring states. 

How did we get here?

I did a bit of research on how abortion and Christian issues became inextricably linked in the American political landscape. When Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, white American evangelicals were more concerned with upholding segregation than banning abortion. In more mainstream Christian spaces across the U.S., like Southern Baptist and Unitarian churches, abortion was publicly supported and seen as a nuanced, complicated issue. Once a First Baptist pastor, W.A. Criswell, even stated, “...it has always… seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.”

It won’t surprise you to learn that the white Evangelical shift in focus from segregation to abortion was motivated by… money and electoral politics.  Evangelicals sought to keep their tax-exempt status even while maintaining segregationist policies, eventually landing on abortion following Reagan’s presidential campaign. In the late 70s, he worked to make opposing legal abortion one of his central platform focuses, making anti-abortion policy a non-negotiable in Republican politics. These anti-abortion politics aligned perfectly with the goals and interests of Evangelicals: to maintain tax-exempt status and gain greater political power across the U.S.. Together, electoral candidates and Evengelicals collaborated to bolster campaigns, stigmatize abortion, and counteract the successes of the women’s liberation movement. 

The 6-week ban and its exceptions

So that’s the historical context that has brought us to this moment and Stephanie’s conversation with Viva. After the 15-week ban passed, advocates brought the law to the state Supreme Court based on its unconstitutionality. While that was developing, the state congress passed a 6-week ban clause that would go into effect 30 days after an affirmative Supreme Court decision. If the court upholds the 15-week ban as constitutional, the 6-week ban would take effect one month later. This is exactly what happened on April 1st when the Florida Supreme Court released its decision upholding the 15-week ban, and the 30-day countdown to May 1st and the 6-week ban started. 

“It has been an intentional effort to stigmatize, to destabilize, and to disable the abortion access landscape nationally. With Florida being the only safe harbor for access in Florida, you effectively have eliminated the possibility of people having safe abortions in Florida and the South.” -Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro 

Stephanie also gave an overview of the exceptions that exist under these near-total abortion bans. As it stands right now, the exceptions to the 6-week ban exist for survivors of sexual assault, incest, and human trafficking- but they must be actively cooperating with law enforcement. There are also exceptions for situations where the life of the pregnant person is at risk, in which case they would need the signature of two doctors to be able to access life-saving abortion care. So, while we’re grateful some exceptions to these bans exist, we know that they are not an actual access point to safe and timely abortion care. It’s not safe for folks to be forced to cooperate with law enforcement- and many people rightfully don’t feel safe talking to the police. We recognize this requirement and the legal processes for survivors to come forward as violent systemic measures that further the harm of survivors. 

We see that the systemic barriers and requirements for accessing an abortion for survivors of sexual violence require a perfect victim. Implicit in these legal requirements is the moral posturing of a patriarchal system that continues to expect women, queer, and trans folks to contort themselves to fit into the archetype of someone for whom the system can empathize. The realities of sexual violence, of cooperating with the carceral state, of choosing whether or not to get an abortion, are flattened and disregarded by the leaders who push forth these policies.

The foundations of the moral, pathologizing, and self-righteous language used by antis comes from an evangelical conservative movement that sought to consolidate power for white, Christian Americans. When we remember the true history and origins of abortion politics in the U.S., we recognize the necessity to heal the cultural and spiritual wounds caused by these oppressive systems. 

Abortion Utopia

In response to this overview of abortion in Florida, Viva reflected: “There’s no abortion utopia, but we’re creating it together in this awful moment. I want to say to people that we can create those utopias we’re talking about. We can create a little utopia in our community and our friend circles. We can create reproductive justice in our spaces so people know they can come to us if they’re ever in a challenging situation, get support with no judgment, and that they will be loved after.” 

And I think in this reflection on abortion utopia, Viva is highlighting the strength, hope, and possibilities that spirituality can offer in the fight for reproductive justice. Faith in a higher power, in something bigger and wiser than ourselves, can support in harnessing and channeling hope. As abolitionist organizer Mariame Kaba  says, ‘Hope is a discipline’. For many abortion seekers and supporters, faith is one of the strongest pillars supporting them through the difficult conditions under these bans.

In the rise of fascist conservatives, the almost mundane nature of being constantly attacked and oppressed wears down both our will and imagination for a liberated future. If we don’t create our own relationships to spirituality- God, the Creator, the universe, however you want to orient towards a greater power- it will be co-opted and characterized by the Christian Right and American evangelicalism. Even if you don’t have a personal relationship to religion or spiritualism, it’s important to commune and collaborate with spiritual folks who are values-aligned with you. If the reproductive justice movement is siloed between secular and religious, there will always be a gap that the Christian Right can exploit.  

And ultimately, why should fascist conservatives be the only ones who are able to find comfort and ownership in God? If you feel called to fostering your relationship with a spiritual power, know that it’s not at odds with your political beliefs and values. Because if we know one thing about God, it’s that God would be on the side of liberation. 


Resources and Florida Funds

The conversation was a valuable mix of spiritual discussion about the relationship between faith and abortion with practical information and resources! During the live, they highlighted independent clinics- the largest abortion providers in the country- and the Abortion Care Network, the only national membership organization for independent abortion clinics that supports their sustainability and ability to provide dignified abortion care. It’s independent abortion providers that are offering necessary, on-the-ground support and care for abortion seekers daily. If there’s an abortion clinic in your local area, you can go to them for other services to support them and keep their doors open as long as possible. Shout out to the clinics, clinic workers, and medical providers who focus on providing care and creating safe spaces from antis. Faith can extend beyond the spiritual realm, and we have faith in and pride for the people on the frontlines ensuring abortion access every day. 

And, of course, Viva and Stephanie offered some resources for folks wanting to learn about or access abortion care. And we shouted out our fellow Florida abortion funds! For them, part of God’s work is making sure folks know the support and community that’s available to them. We’ve got them listed for you here:

What actions can you take to support abortion access?:  

  1. You can donate to Florida Access Network or your local abortion fund to keep abortion access a reality across the country. FAN and all abortion funds and practical support organizations are doing everything possible to make the most of their budgets and support as many people accessing care as possible. Individual and monthly donations are the bread and butter of abortion funds and one of the most tangible and impactful ways to show your support and solidarity with reproductive justice. Your donation will pay the staffers who provide emotional, financial, and logistical help and pay appointment funding, like booking travel and lodging, covering food and gas costs, or coordinating rideshares. 

  2. You can challenge abortion stigma! Now that you know the history of how abortion became one of the defining moral issues of our era by evangelicals and Republicans, you can support us in shifting our cultural perception of bodily autonomy in all forms. Connect with your family, friends, and communities as an unapologetic abortion baddie. Abortion stigma can’t be the wheel, the driving force, of how people make decisions or how public policy is established. And ultimately, we will protect our rights to bodily autonomy at any cost necessary. This goes beyond abortion care and extends into other issues like gender-affirming care or medical racism. When we think of these issues as connected, we learn that we belong together in the fight for liberation. 

Stephanie and Viva closed out with final reminders for abortion baddies across the country and internationally: 

  1. Donate to your local abortion fund

  2. Challenge abortion stigma

  3. Vote for abortion access if you’re able

  4. Normalize abortion. 

  5. Glorify abortion.

  6. Empower abortion havers.

 And always remember, in the words of the icon Renee Bracey Sherman: Everyone Loves Someone Who’s Had Abortions.

Laura Rosado
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