A prominent theologian is defending the idea of aborting babies determined to have deformities while agreeing that abortion is tragic in all cases, especially late-term abortions.
In an episode of his podcast titled “Ask NT Wright Anything” published Sunday, New Testament theologian NT Wright responded to a question asking, “Why should Christians defend life from the moment of conception?” and “Why should Christians oppose abortion and stand up for the protection of unborn life?”
The viewer who submitted the question also brought up “difficult ethical questions, such as what about cases where the pregnancy is a result of rape or cases where a decision has to be made whether the mother or the unborn child should be saved?”
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Wright brought up the personal experience of knowing a woman who was exposed to rubella, also known as the German measles, during her pregnancy. “Exposure to German measles can result in serious deformities in the womb,” he said.
After explaining how the doctor recommended that the woman terminate the pregnancy if there was “a threat of serious deformation” of the unborn baby, Wright suggested that this move was justified: “At the time, it was absolutely clear for the mental health, never mind anything else, of the mother and the potential father as well that this was the way to go.” He acknowledged that the baby, in that case, was ultimately born because “the rubella had actually not done what it sometimes might do.”
Wright credited that experience with making him “very sensitive about the fact that there are many, many cases where it is about the mother’s health versus the health of the child.”
He added, “In cases of rape or in cases of incest, there may be a very, very strong argument for saying this ought never to have happened. And with sorrow, because we do not want to do this in principle, but with sorrow and a bit of shame, the best thing to do is, as soon as possible, to terminate this pregnancy.”
At the same time, Wright described efforts to allow abortion up to the moment of birth as “repulsive” and condemned the idea of sex-selective abortions at the moment of birth as “a criminal act” and “murder.” He summarized his position on abortion by saying, “In principle, this is not something which we should welcome, it is not something which we should collude with,” while stressing that “there may be certain exceptions of which severe deformity might be one, of which certainly incest and rape would be others.”
“In those cases, I would say the sooner the better because, at a certain point, and I am not medically qualified to say at what point I would draw a line, then this is a viable human being that should then be cherished,” he added. Wright admitted that based on his own experience having children, babies in the womb are aware of what’s going on.
“We’re not just talking about some inert lump of matter which we can just get rid of as we please,” he asserted. “I do think that that sense of respect for God’s creation and all its rich variety is the primary starting point” for conversations on abortion, “even if we then have to say with sorrow and a certain sense of this is the least worst option in this situation, that there may be some cases of exceptions.”
Wright condemned the Roman Catholic Church’s firm position against abortion, describing it as “unmarried men from the Catholic hierarchy” telling women who are victims of rape and incest what they “can and can’t do” that is “part of the same system of male bullying, which we have to avoid like the plague.”
At the beginning of his response to the abortion question, Wright suggested that opposition to abortion stems more from an opposition to the sexual revolution and “people having sex with multiple partners whenever they want and not caring” than a desire to protect human life: “Many devout Christians, from then on, just thought ‘abortion, that’s to do with the breakdown of family standards, with the breakdown of traditional Christian values as a whole.’”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
