After the Democratic Party announced that they “will not withhold financial support for candidates who oppose abortion rights” yesterday, today is a great day to cheer for Dr. Willie Parker! Dr. Parker brings kindness, compassion, empathy, expertise and years of experience to the morally difficult and emotionally charged subject of abortion.
- As a black man, he calls hogwash on the argument that abortion is equivalent to black genocide.
- As a righteous man — and I do not mean self-righteous, I mean righteous — good, virtuous, upstanding, decent — he is claiming or reclaiming the moral high ground that a woman — a fully formed, autonomous life — has a body that is all her own. A woman is not merely a host body whose independence is tossed aside if she happens to be pregnant.
- And of most significance is that Dr. Parker is an evangelical Christian with an interpretation and a conclusion on abortion rooted in the very same Bible as other “Bible-believing Christians”. His Bible requires him to treat his patients with a Christlike compassion and empathy. He has struggled with what it means to deny women abortions and he has reached the conclusion, from the story of the Good Samaritan no less, that as a Christian he is required to help his patients.
And so today, I cheer this good man who presents an educated, moral, complete, and kind argument in contrast to, and in answer to the hyperbole and misdirection employed by those who would deny a woman the right to her own body.
For more information, I’ve included a link to an interview with Dr. Parker and a link to purchase his book Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice:
Interview: Dr. Willie Parker on Why Abortion Rights Are a Moral Imperative, Especially for Christians (Hat Tip: Jezebel)
Web-site: Dr. Willie Parker
