Quaker Queries
Rachel MacNair
by Rachel MacNair
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) is a pacifist denomination which nevertheless has a large numbers of members who support abortion availability. One of their large organizations called for nationwide discernment, whereby the Meetings and Churches would have their own local sessions in which members threshed out their understandings with the use of questions. These questions are called “Queries,” and they’re a common practice in Quaker circles.
Unfortunately, the queries that the national group sent were one-sided, and such is the bubble they live in that I’m not even sure they understood how one-sided they were. So I’ve done up another set, which I’m sending out to all known Quaker Meetings and Churches in the United States, in hopes that they might find them useful.
I sent them to the Consistent Life Network board for feedback, and the feedback I got was that this should be shared with the wider consistent-life community as well. Feel free to use them in any place where increased thoughtfulness is desired.
Reproductive Care: Alternative Queries
- Do we have the capability to explain the perspectives of abortion opponents in such a way that they can agree that we gave a fair rendition of their views? Are we familiar enough with pro-life feminism or the consistent life ethic to be able to explain them in a way that their proponents would regard as accurate? Is the ability to explain differing perspectives on this – along with on war, nuclear weapons, etc. – valuable as a spiritual practice? As a peacemaking practice?
- How comfortable are we when abortion is chosen because the fetus is female when it wouldn’t have been chosen if the fetus were male? Are we sensitive to how common this is in other parts of the world? What does this practice do to the status of women in general, and to the mindset of the pregnant woman? What does the fact that the biological gender can be known say about the humanity of the fetus?
- Have we considered that a side-effect of ready abortion availability is that impregnating men may feel they have no responsibility for children they fathered? That they consider it her choice to give birth, and not theirs, and therefore, they are justified in avoiding attention to the child or child-support payments? Does this lack of support help account for the increased feminization of poverty since abortion legalization in the U.S.? How does ready abortion availability impact men who feel entitled to sex?
- How would we deal with encountering a person who understands abortion to be the killing of a baby, but thinks this is acceptable as a problem-solver? How well could we talk such a person out of the idea that violence isn’t a problem-solver in other contexts? How do we answer people who understand abortion as the killing of a baby and are therefore puzzled as to how people could account themselves pacificists if they favor its availability?
- When the fetus having a disability is offered as a reason for aborting the fetus, what impact does this have on people living with disabilities? Can we expect such people to resent this as a form of bigotry against them? What does it do towards public attitudes about those living with disabilities?
- Does requiring children to be wanted before they can be born impact parental attitudes in a negative way? Does the ready availability of abortion help remove a taboo against hurting children in the minds of some parents?
- If you were aware that a group of women were filing a lawsuit because they took a drug regimen that left them with cramps and bleeding for several days, which they had not anticipated, would you be sympathetic with their claims? Would you become more sympathetic if emergency room visits were part of the problem? Would your sympathy change if you found the drug regimen in question was intended to induce abortion?
- A common technique in trying to get people to oppose war or nuclear weapons is to show the reality of what it does to victims. These pictures of war victims and hibakusha are hard to look at. Is showing such pictures an effective or morally necessary method? When abortion opponents show pictures of fetuses who have been torn apart, is this the same or different?
- How do we feel about organizations formed by former abortion doctors, nurses, and other staff who now oppose abortion based on their own experiences? When combat veterans form peace groups in opposition to war, is this similar? If we discount the groups of former abortion workers, does that give us insight into how others discount the combat veteran peace groups?
- How much is our understanding on abortion due to the merits of the issue, and how much is it due to our normal position on the leftwing/rightwing divide? How much does our position contribute to such a divide?
Coming Up with More
Reading these inspired others to draft something similar on more topics —
Tom Taylor:
How do we think about abortion in relation to questions of environmental destruction and protection of nature, climate, land, water, wildlife, and habitat? Is the fetal development process different from the development process of other aspects of nature? How is the development process of food crops and plants underground before emerging above ground different from the human development process in utero? Does humanity have a reciprocal relationship with and responsibility for good stewardship of the entire living, natural world? Are preborn, developing lives part of the natural world and of this reciprocal relationship, and also deserving of good stewardship? Do we, the currently living who experience the joys and challenges of life and enjoy nature’s benefits, have the right to deny this opportunity to new, still-developing lives? Should a commitment to nonviolence encompass the entire natural, living world in all stages of development, including preborn lives?
John Whitehead:
How would you react if a woman had a miscarriage or had a baby with severe health problems because she was exposed to industrial pollution, toxic waste, nuclear fallout, or other hazards? How would you react if she had a miscarriage or a baby with health problems because she received inadequate healthcare or nutrition during pregnancy? What might this tell us about our attitudes to pregnancy and fetal development?
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See the website of our member group, Friends Witness for a Pro-life Peace Testimony.
These questions are wonderful! Has there been any response from the Meetings and Churches? Would a follow up phone call help, to see if they received it and what they think? Can our CLN members/readers, especially those who are Friends, participate in following up?