Chapter 5: Ultra-Sacrificial Motherhood and the ‘Harms’ of Abortion

As we will show in this chapter, the claims about abortion as harmful rest on religiously-informed understandings of motherhood as natural for women. Pregnancy is believed to be a divine gift and the rejection of this is why abortion is deemed so harmful. Importantly though, as we will show, in much of the public messaging about abortion, the faith-based beliefs about abortion are minimised or absent; instead, the focus is often on descriptions of abortion causing physical and mental harm which increasingly utilise scientific discourse to make the claims. For example, ideas that abortion is inevitably the cause of mental health problems through the ongoing impact of abortion regret. This chapter will argue that although the non-moral narratives may seem be a strategic necessity when trying to be persuasive within secular public spaces, the underlying religious context is clear. Finally, and linking with the religious grounding of their campaign, the chapter will outline the framing of abortion as causing spiritual harm, a risk that can spread from women seeking abortion to abortion clinics and beyond. We argue that this arises from, and underpins, their understanding of abortion as profaning.