Abortion has long been a controversial issue in the US especially among Christians. Religious leaders have most often been seen protesting at abortion clinics. However recently, several religious figures gathered to bless a clinic in Maryland. They wanted to show that religion could be a source of support for abortion rights through a ritual blessing.
Rev. Katey Zeh, an ordained Baptist minister, told the staff members gathered in the clinic’s colorful waiting room, “You all are blessings to those who come to you for care during some of their most vulnerable and sometimes painful moments.” Zeh operates a Religious Community for Reproductive Choice. This is a multifaith organization that seeks to end the religious stigma around abortion. It accomplishes this goal by training religious leaders who want to counsel people through reproductive decisions.
Some of the workers at the clinic drove more than three hours to the ceremony. Workers from one clinic in West Virginia had performed since 1976 but were forced to stop after 2022 when Roe v. Wade was struck down. The clinic stayed open but was only able to provide reproductive services and hormone therapy. Many providers moved across the border into Maryland where they could continue their gruesome trade.
Anti-Abortion advocates have led protests and prayer events outside the clinic. The dormant Chapter of Right to Life was restarted. A local Facebook page that organizes local pro-life events has over 860 members. One of the most active is Karen Majors, 65. Over 30 years ago she had an abortion but became a born-again Christian shortly afterwards.
For a long time, she avoided the term “pro-life,” because she remembered the words from the protesters outside the clinic that had treated her. However, a few years ago she saw a movie about a former abortion clinic director who became an anti-abortion activist. The film featured a baby in pain. The movie changed her mind and she asked God to forgive her for killing her child.
Now Majors tops by the Cumberland clinic to sit outside and pray that the patients will change their minds. She rejects the idea that abortion can be a blessing. God loves and forgives women who get abortions, Ms. Majors said. However, some of the butchers at the clinic feel differently. Ramsie Monk, broke into tears when she learned about the end of legal abortion in West Virginia.
When Ms. Monk, who is a development director at the clinic, first heard about the proposal for a religious ceremony blessing the abortion clinic, she thought it was a joke. She said, “Being in abortion care, you have a target on your back for so many reasons.” However, there has long been a link between churches and abortion in West Virginia.
Rev. Jim Lewis opened the first office of the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia inside an Episcopal church in Charleston, shortly after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973. He believes his faith requires him to work with “people who are outcasts.” He thinks this means women who are shamed for seeking abortions. He said “We had a serious repression of the real gospel message that looks after people who are being beaten up.”