Abortion in Dogma

One major controversial issue that was addressed in the movie Dogma (and is a discussion that every one of us has been exposed to at least once in our lives) is that of abortion. Within the film, it was portrayed heavily with a group of individuals (fundamentalist Christians) who heckled outside of the abortion clinic against those who were “godless”, “sinners”, and “baby killers.” The ironic part of the attacks was that most of those people who the movie showed that were pro-choice (or for abortion) were all part of God’s larger plan to save the world. Bethany, the main character, worked at the abortion clinic yet also regularly attended Church and the prophets were also adamantly for a woman having the right to do whatever she wants with her body (though they weren’t religious they were the ones chosen to help save the world by God).
I think the general theme of the movie on abortion was something that I tend to agree with. I think the higher implication of these ironies was not that abortion is good or bad. The intent of the movie in this case was to show the hypocrisy of those fundamentalist Christians who attack abortion (much in the same way of those who attack homosexuality). The Bible teaches that all individuals are sinners, even Christians. However, often people choose certain sins that they deem to be incompatible with Christianity. An avid church-goer is quick to label a homosexual or a person having an abortion as somebody who is “doomed to hell”, yet not willing to say the same thing to a kid who lies to his parents or somebody who uses the Lord’s name in vain (despite the fact that Christian doctrine sees all sins as equal in the eyes of god). Certain Fundamentalist Christians (who sin themselves) can’t comprehend how even according to their own teachings, abortion doesn’t doom a person to hell. Even if it is a sin, somebody perpetrating this sin could still easily be a person of great faith. The movie takes this idea and applies it to a very grand scale. How would fundamentalists feel if the last remaining relative of Jesus Christ worked at an abortion clinic? They deem it impossible that faith and abortion ever go hand in hand (as evidenced by their statements to Bethany outside of the church) yet the movie demonstrates that the two points aren’t opposed.
In my personal opinion, abortion is immoral. I feel that the only objective way of defining life at any given point is to define it at the point of conception. Otherwise, the moral line becomes skewed to a gray (something that I, being a Kantian deontologist in principle, see as inconsistent with what morality actually is). I feel that the argument is made quite simply in the idea that a woman who has a miscarriage will often feel incapably sad as if she has just lost a child. Even a pro-choice woman who loses a “child” in this sense might kill somebody if they tell her that it wasn’t a child yet, that it was just the “potential to become a child.” I don’t see any way that that internal nature of humanity could coexist with fetuses not being children. They don’t make sense together. However, I am not of the sort that believes that an abortion would then doom somebody to hell or make them unwelcome in Church. As I noted earlier in my agreement with the film, all people sin and it’s completely arbitrary to deem some sins above God’s forgiveness yet almost all others not.
A problem associated with this debate is an over-salience within public discourse and the media. So many people have been exposed to this argument since a young age that very few people are willing to listen to both sides (even those that claim to be moderates on the issue are often not). Regardless of the correctness of either side, it becomes a set of talking points in today’s society. Nobody ever thinks with their emotions on the issue and tries to sympathize with those who take the opposite stance. One side truly believes that it is right because of life (something that is a good principle) and the other side truly believes that it is right because of rights (something that is a good principle). People tend to forget that when we see it as just a partisan political issue. Abortion shouldn’t be a political issue within discussion- it’s something that is far above that.