Theology Outside the Clinic

Abstract

Theology Outside the Clinic Autumn Reinhardt‐Simpson Introduction The majority of a woman's life will be spent worried about either getting pregnant or not getting pregnant. For those that choose motherhood, even more time is spent worrying about poverty, health care, education, racism, and a whole host of other concerns related to her reproductive and family life in some way. Reproduction and family care is the primary focus of a woman's life for the simple reason that she exists in a world that is not framed to understand her biological, emotional, and social realities. Where society and religious institutions have not stepped up to include her experience as a primary focus of concern, she must instead focus her own energy on framing her life around those biological and social realities. Since the beginning of time, women have had every other reality of their lives made subject to her biology. For instance, a woman's career trajectory must take into account the possibility that she may become pregnant and decide to have children. Apart from the time she must be off to recover, the reality of our capitalist work structure and gendered parenting expectations practically insist that she will need additional time off to care for sick family or to stay at home for a period while her children are young. Women are, in fact, expected to take on the “second shift” as a matter of accepted fact. The power women's biology has to either liberate her or to circumscribe her life can mean the difference between being a full participant in her own life and becoming a footnote in the lives of others. Along with the work world, society, and other areas, theology has often failed to take into account the varied lives of women. While the twentieth century saw an explosion in feminist theology and biblical interpretation, theology often still failed to address the single, overriding concern of every single woman who is physically capable of becoming pregnant—the power of reproduction to shape her life in a way that is different from men. There is an incredible amount of work now being done to rectify the situation, but we still see many more theological defenses of women's subjection to biology than we do liberating theologies of reproductive justice. Those theological defenses of women's reproductive rights that do exist tend to focus on statistics, abstractions, and apology, as though women should be allowed to guide their reproductive lives simply because it is expedient for everyone else. Theologically, women's experiences have been written about as a subset to the “normal” and “standard” spiritual life, which is to say, that of men. Feminist theology is seen as a kind of theology, not as theology itself. Any theology that sees, either implicitly or explicitly, the experience of men as the default, is a theology that cannot speak to all of humanity. It's my hope that this short paper, with its focus on women's lived experiences and not on simple academic abstractions, will go some small way to beginning the work of a woman‐centered theology of reproductive rights/justice. I have structured this essay in sections dealing with theologically based concepts I have witnessed outside the clinic as I escorted patients past protesters. These include the theologies at work in protesters and clinic workers. I have provided what I believe are sound theological arguments that speak to the urgency of recognizing reproductive justice and especially non‐coercion in childbearing as a theological concern for women and the health of the entire church of which they are a vital part. Reproductive justice is an incredibly large topic that encompasses a wide variety of issues and concerns connected to women's ability to procreate. Because the subject is such a large one, I focus mostly in this paper on the right of women to control their fertility through abortion. I frame my arguments through the lens of my experience working with women at an abortion clinic in Richmond, Virginia from 2010 to 2015. However, it is important that readers understand the totality of reproductive justice so that we can set the arguments within their proper framework...