SALON

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013 10:52 PM UTC

Talking about abortion in the religious South

First: You don't avoid religion, you embrace it head on. Oh, and you don't say the word "abortion"

By

Topics: Abortion, Roe v. Wade, Women's Rights, Planned Parenthood, ,

Talking about abortion in the religious South (Credit: AP/Rogelio V. Solis)

Mississippi is the nation’s most religious state. And Jackson is a quintessentially Baptist town. So how do you talk about abortion in a place where faith runs deep, touching nearly all aspects of city life?

You don’t avoid religion, you embrace it head on.

Oh, and you don’t say the word “abortion.”

Or so says James Bowley, Ph.D., a professor of religious studies at Millsaps College in Jackson, and a strong advocate for women’s reproductive rights.

“Change the language,” Bowley told Robin Marty of RH Reality Check. “Talk about it as women’s reproductive rights. Don’t talk about it as abortion rights. It is a much larger picture than that. This is about women — who owns their bodies, who gets to decide these things for them. The terminology matters a great deal in framing the debate and winning the debate. Positive demonstrations like this where people aren’t yelling and screaming. Where people are being civil and engaging each other in civil ways. That can be appreciated in society.”

The shift toward a more holistic approach to women’s reproductive rights is a sentiment echoed by many, including Planned Parenthood.

Bowley believes that traditional, top-down religious leadership is on the decline, creating an opportunity for people of faith to discuss — and challenge — ideas that were previously handed down as absolutes. “In the last 20 years we have seen in all segments of society people being willing to go against their religious leaders. As that trend continues then religion will be less powerful, but in the United States and particularly in the South, religion continues to be a powerful force,” he said.

Marty goes on to explain:

Bowley believes that what appears to be a growing hostility among some religious leaders toward both abortion and birth control hasn’t been growing at all, but is the result of a previously unengaged Evangelical movement that was called into politics and policy by influential leaders of the Religious Right, first in the 80s as part of the Moral Majority, then later in the 90′s as religious conservative movement rose into power. “Before that, Evangelicals and fundamentalists more or less eschewed participation in politics, and instead were content to be spiritual in their churches and spread the gospel rather than work in politics. I don’t think there has been a major shift in people’s positions from liberal to less liberal when it comes to protecting women’s reproductive rights. The people who were against women’s reproductive rights and reproductive health were always there. They just weren’t active before.”

Active, indeed. Lawmakers and antiabortion groups in the state have succeeded in cutting off virtually all access to comprehensive reproductive care, and there is only one abortion provider left in all of Mississippi.

Still, Bowley says, it is the dogma of the religious leadership shaping the legislation, not the “people in the pew.”

He points to the growing acceptance of gay marriage as a sign of a new wave of Evangelicals who may break from the rigid beliefs of their church hierarchy. “That shift didn’t happen because religious leaders changed their minds. Instead, people started thinking about it differently,” Bowley said. “They have neighbors who are gay or lesbian and think, ‘You know, they are not that bad.’ I think something like that could happen here [with abortion] as well.”

Katie McDonough is an assistant editor for Salon, focusing on lifestyle. Follow her on Twitter @kmcdonovgh or email her at kmcdonough@salon.com. More Katie Mcdonough.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 23 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
381 points382 points | 387 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills -- radical cuts destroy economies and lives, and the honest numbers and economics keep proving it
160 points161 points | 25 comments
vote
Austerity Kills: Brian McArdle, a 57-year-old man who had had two strokes and could barely walk, was found "fit for work" by a government subcontractor, and had his benefits stopped. He died the next day.
117 points118 points | 16 comments
vote
Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain wants to send women to jail who don't report their miscarriages to the police
43 points44 points | 10 comments
vote
Corporate greed is poisoning America — literally
34 points35 points | 9 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations