The opportunity missed by religions

Everything surrounding the Supreme Court's vote on allowing abortions of anencephalic fetuses may have been a great opportunity for religions in general to exercise one of their main roles: to console and sympathize with those who suffer.

They had it, and they lost it.

I don't recall seeing any of them, at any point during the Supreme Court battle – or even on any other occasion – show concern for the emotional state of a woman who goes to court to request an abortion for a child who, according to medicine, will not survive the first hour after birth.

I have always observed the same absence of Christian piety in relation to the woman who is raped, who disowns the child resulting from this abominable act, the greatest of cowardices.

Only those who have experienced the magical moment of discovering a pregnancy (even if they are men) can imagine the icy blade that pierces a woman's (and a man's) chest when the doctor, often with inconceivable coldness, says that that dream will not survive. Remember that ribbon you were planning to make? The crib that matches the walls? And the first clothes you already bought? Well, forget it, because your baby's head is an empty box where death awaits the moment to embrace that tiny, developing body.

The main concern, as has always been the case throughout the history of religions, is to preach morality without taking care to shield it from any hint of condemnation. Intentionally or not, the woman carrying an anencephalic fetus, or even a child conceived through violence that outrages human dignity, is subtly portrayed as a criminal in the preaching of "the right to life." Religions haven't even considered a certain cruelty in the slogan – in the case of anencephaly. How can one speak of a "right to life" to a pregnant woman who will not be a mother for even an hour?

I must say that I am against abortion, even in the two cases discussed here. My religion, Spiritism, condemns the act, not the person, but even the entities that represent the doctrine in Brazil did not bother to address the most important aspect: the inner drama of the woman who chooses to terminate a pregnancy with no chance of survival. What prevailed was the need to propagate points of view.

In cases of anencephaly and rape, abortion is a personal decision that doesn't require preaching. If a woman seeks religious guidance, she should first be received with compassion and mercy, and only then with the explanations specific to her beliefs. She should never be condemned, because no priest, pastor, or president of a spiritual center will fully grasp the pain of a woman for whom motherhood has torn a wound in her soul.

André Giusti is a writer and journalist.