Saving the Inner Lost
The symbolism underlying religious preoccupation with abortion
The “pro-life” crowd can be a confusing bunch. Like many others, I have questions.
If “pro-life” folks don’t want abortions, why do they ignore the data that show that better access to healthcare, free birth control, and comprehensive sex ed all reduce unwanted pregnancies?
Why do they advocate for abortion bans when bans do nothing to reduce abortion rates and do everything to risk women’s lives and increase the possibility that they will be raped?
Why do they ignore how common miscarriage is and how uterus owners need a D&C, which is a type of abortion, to remove the tissue?
Why don’t “pro-lifers” ever mention that white evangelicals only started caring about abortion bans in 1980 when it became apparent that doing so would help the Religious Right maintain racial segregation in evangelical institutions? Do they not know that even evangelical GIANTS like James Dobson, Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, and the Southern Baptist Convention were not anti-abortion prior to this time?
Why do they ignore the heartbreaking dilemmas people find themselves in?
Why do they accuse women who abort of playing God, when they themselves do the very same thing and “play God” by regulating doctors against saving a pregnant person’s life? Every decision anyone makes is a way of playing God. Why is their God so controlling of other women rather than of their own damn selves?
Why don’t “pro-life” folks tend to consider human life outside of the womb as worthy of protecting and defending?
Why don’t they hold men responsible for unwanted pregnancies when penis owners could prevent every unwanted pregnancy but choose not to? Unwanted pregnancies literally exist because of their inconsiderate ejaculations.
Why do “pro-lifers” shame women’s sexuality so profoundly?
Yes, sure, the answer to these questions relates to people’s control issues, politically and otherwise. It relates to profound misogyny and fear of women’s inherent power. These are folks who’ve been mad for thousands of years that people with uteruses are most similar to the divine creator Imago Dei, having the power to create, bear, and sustain life. These people’s womb envy fuels their lust for power over women. The act of bearing life isn’t so powerful when someone else tells you when, where, and whether you’re going to do it, so instead of just accepting this biological difference, cultures overcompensate for it by conferring power to men. And have done so for generations. And yes, women are some of the loudest about rejecting their own power. The answer to the above questions relates to people’s difficulties with complexity and with women’s agency. It lies in the fact that a patriarchal culture coddles men’s entitlement to pleasure, control, violence, and irresponsibility.
But I think the “pro-life” cries originate from a much deeper well. I think the root cause is psychological. It’s symbolic, buried deep within the inner workings of people’s unconscious.
I speculate that Christians and Catholics are obsessed with “protecting” the “unborn” despite all evidence that they’re doing the contrary because the unborn symbolizes inner truth, something their belief system steals from them. They want to save the fetus because they unconsciously want to save the lost parts of themselves.
It’s projection. And in projection’s true form, people aren’t aware of what they’re doing when they do it.
What does a fetus symbolize? The inner world, that which is hidden, emotions, an enclosure, security, restriction, dependency, deference, and gestation. All things related to the ways religion deprives people of their wholeness.
And what does the pregnant person symbolize? A Creator God who determines their eternal fate. Life or death. Heaven or hell.
So let’s look at each of these fetal symbols.
Internal world
The fetus represents the internal. Religion deprives people of their internal life. One typically has to go to the margins to find Christians and Catholics who practice a contemplative, mystical, psychic, intuitive, deeply spiritual life. An inner life is as unique and symbolic and mysterious as the dream. When analyzing ones dreams or inner life, no one tells you what it means. You determine meaning. An inner life is a life that cannot be controlled. It does not conform to the group, which is precisely why religion precludes it. It centers experience and thus defies compliance. Religion promotes attention on everything external, not internal. Religion wants your deference to external authority, like pastors, dogmas, creeds, rules, leaders, the text, and of course an external God. When people cry for the fetus, they cry for their own inner worlds that could never be born.
The hidden
The fetus represents that which is hidden. Religion neglects the truth that exists within our unconscious selves. Religion tells people that our intentions and motivations can be from either love for God or sin. People learn to see themselves as big fat sinners, while neglecting their true motivations for their behaviors, which is often just an unmet need. With all of religion’s dogmas and dictates, people end up repressing every reality that isn’t supposed to be there. People learn to stuff truths of themselves in the darkness, out of sight and out of mind. Religion doesn’t like people who dissent or question, so people learn to keep their doubts and imagination in the dark. Religion says who is good and who is bad, so people learn to keep the truth of themselves in the closet. People learn to lie to themselves. Their capacity to destroy only grows because it lives outside of their awareness. When people cry for the fetus, they cry for the hidden realities of themselves, never having the chance to be born.
Emotions
The fetus represents unexpressed emotions. Religion tells people to not be sad or anxious, to be strong and trust in God. It teaches you to bite your tongue and hold in your tears. It tells you that anger is dangerous. And when anger is dangerous, people learn to pretend it’s not there. And what helps people pretend anger isn’t there? A warped perception of reality. You tell yourself everything is fine, they didn’t mean to, or you can forgive 7 times 77 times. Religion teaches people to bypass their emotions. teaches people to lie to themselves. It teaches people to self-delude so they don’t have to feel discomfort. It teaches people to stuff down their pain, creating disease and debilitating conditions in the body. When people cry for the fetus, they cry for the loss of their own tears that just needed to be born.
Enclosure
The fetus represents a sense of being enclosed. Religion is really great at creating boxes. People love to gatekeep and guard the boundaries. Who’s in? Who’s out? There’s a desire to determine who is a true Christian or Catholic, so people can develop a sense of us and them, good guys and bad guys. So people can feel safe. Of course people seek safety and want to be “in.” Religion wants you “in” too! Making order out of chaos helps people feel better. Christians and Catholics are enclosed in a box, just life the fetus. When people cry for the fetus, they cry for the part of themselves that is trapped and kept from being born.
Dependency
The fetus represents ultimate dependency. Religion teaches people to be completely dependent on something outside of themselves. That dependence on the external, whether external rules or an external God, gives people a sense of security, just like the walls of the womb provide a fetus with a safe haven. But unhealthy dependence renders people stuck in a dysfunctional codependent status. It creates people whose reliance on the other creates a warped sense of their own locus of control or self-determination. When people cry for the fetus, they cry for the part of themselves that is stuck in a state of dependence on an external authority and who need to grow into an independent, individuated being who has been born.
Deference
The fetus represents deference to the other. When deferring to the external rules and to an external God, people never develop a real sense of agency. Sure, they’re told that they can choose to sin, but they’re also told that the external God always has the final say of what he will do as a result of their “choice.” That’s not agency. That’s manipulation. “Look what you made me do” is abuser language. It’s misplaced responsibility. “God’s will over mine” teaches people to repress their true intentions and needs. They deflect responsibility and evade any actual ethical deliberation by saying, “God’s ways are higher than our ways.” When people cry for the fetus, they cry for the part of themselves that wants true agency and responsibility, the part that wants to be born.
Gestation
The fetus represents development, the not yet formed. Despite all the talk of “come as you are” and “God’s not finished with me yet,” religion values perfection and the appearance of maturity. It loves religious celebrities who are confident and complete in their understanding of God. It puts people who have reached the height of theological learning in front of others. Religion rewards the appearance of having answers. It loves when people are past the unknowing, learning phase and into the telling, apologetics phase. When people cry for the fetus, they cry for the part of themselves that is ever expanding, questioning, developing, maturing, and in formation, the part that has not arrived and never will, the part not yet ready to be born.
Let’s help each other birth
So yes, the “pro-life” movement is rooted in contempt for women’s agency and fear of our power. But it’s also a cry for lost truth. It’s a cry from a group of people who were taught to self-delude and reject their own inner realities, realities symbolized by the fetus.
Maybe if we teach people to express, or birth, the truth of themselves, we wouldn’t see people so desperate to control women’s births. Every human body bears the power to birth truth from their integrated wholeness. That sacred, divine power is not exclusive to the body with a uterus. Everyone can learn to trust the truth within them, can learn to honor, validate, and process whatever emotion or bodily sensation they experience because there is wisdom in the body. Everyone can learn to become aware of their inner, unconscious, hidden, shadow selves. They can lovingly integrate it all into their wholeness. Everyone can become self-determined, individuated, and agentic. Everyone can learn how to take responsibility for themselves.
Maybe if we help each other birth, we can save the lost.