Rev. Owens, who is pro-choice, gives his views about abortion:
“There is a spiritual force within a woman when she’s pregnant and people of great spiritual sensitivity have to deal with the reality of that potential life, and a lot of people don’t think there is this kind of subtlety, and when they do, I’m very supportive of them.
Yes, there’s a spiritual issue involved. I take the idea of ending the life of the fetus very, very gravely.
I’m troubled by that, but this doesn’t in any way diminish my conviction that a woman has the right to do that, but I become distressed when people regard pregnancy lightly and ignore the spiritual significance of a pregnancy…
I remember giving a talk, that I thought that one of my roles was to be an advocate for the fetus, and for the fetus’s right not to be born…
In this sense, that I think if I had my druthers I would probably pursue a course which would, as I do advocate verbally, the need for licensing pregnancies, which seems to contradict what I’ve just said, but I don’t think it really does.”
Kristin Luker “Abortion and the Meaning of Life” in Sidney Callahan and Daniel Callahan, eds. Abortion: Understanding Differences (London: Plenum Press, 1984) 41, 43
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