Pastor Our faith does not 'force pregnancy

and birth onto a 10-year-old little girl'

Gini Lohmann-Bauman

Mon, September 12, 2022 

Gini Lohmann-Bauman is a transformational leader, prophetic preacher, social justice witness, and Christian minister to those on the margins of society as the senior pastor of St. John’s United Church in Christ in Columbus. She lives in Westerville with her husband Gery and their daughter Katie.

As a person of faith, I know my beliefs are not in conflict with facts.

After reading “I'll take my beliefs over your 'facts' and scientific surveys, studies,” a letter to the editor by Diana Lewis, I feel compelled to explicitly state how much my faith not only aligns with facts, but also leads me to be in support of people’s right to access abortion care.

Lewis argues most Catholics, and many other people of faith, are opposed to abortion because of the Fifth Commandment. While she is certainly welcome to her opinion, it does not trump the truth. And the truth is having faith does not automatically mean opposing abortion and other forms of reproductive freedom.

More:Letters: I'll take my beliefs over your 'facts' and scientific surveys, studies

People of faith never have been, and never will be, a monolith.

Erasing the faith of millions of people simply to push a political narrative not only distorts the truth, it is morally wrong. In fact, several faiths adamantly support women having the freedom to choose or not choose pregnancy for themselves.

A May 2022 Pew survey notes 88 percent of Catholics, 87% of Black Protestants and 77% of white Evangelicals support some form of abortion access. These numbers tell a story that we do not hear often: People of faith across the board support people’s right to bodily autonomy. Supporting people having self-determination is not in contradiction to my faith.

I was taught to lead with compassion and to champion people’s right to dignity, agency, autonomy, love and self-determination. Assuming people who seek abortions are irresponsible or reckless is totally void of compassion and care. The Bible is very clear when it comes to being judgmental and it’s unreasonable to assume we are in a position to determine if a person should be able to control their bodies based on how we feel about how they got pregnant.

More:Ohio clergy: 'Trigger ban' an 'overreach by religious zealots' that would take us backward

As people of faith it is our calling to protect other’s innate dignity, to respect their moral agency and to be co-creators with God ensuring that everyone has safe, healthy and sustainable communities where they can thrive and parent if they decide to do so.

Our calling is not to force pregnancy and birth onto a 10-year-old little girl who experienced a sexual assault that already left her traumatized. Considering all she experienced, it’s unconscionable to require her to travel from Ohio to Indiana just to seek medical care. Where is the love and compassion in that?

Our faith mandates that we fight to protect basic human rights like bodily autonomy, housing, healthcare and the ability to parent or not parent how we see fit. We are not charged with expanding or even supporting barriers that further prevent us from living with the dignity that God desires.

The right to have a child, the right to not have a child and the right to parent a child or children in safe, sustainable and healthy environments should be basic human rights.

More:Rabbis: Abortion 'not only allowed but necessary' under our religious law.

We cannot allow the continuous exploitation of faith to be weaponized to create stigma around reproductive health care.

We have to counter cultural narratives that associate faith solely with opposition to abortion access and reproductive justice, we have to tell our truth about how our faith plays a role in us supporting access to abortion care.

Gini Lohmann-Bauman is a transformational leader, prophetic preacher, social justice witness, and Christian minister to those on the margins of society as the senior pastor of St. John’s United Church in Christ in Columbus. She lives in Westerville with her husband Gery and their daughter Katie.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: Having faith does not automatically mean opposing abortion

Guest opinion: Unintended consequences and myths about abortions


Dr. Allen Malnak
Tue, September 13, 2022

United States Supreme Court exterior

Let me make it clear. I’d like to see the abortion number as close to zero as possible while allowing safe abortions whenever a woman feels she requires that procedure.

On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court determined that abortion is not a constitutional right, effectively reversing Roe v. Wade.

Do you think there’s a girl or woman anywhere who awakens in the morning thinking, “Oh great. I can’t wait to get pregnant, so I can have an abortion”? Not likely.

Keep in mind, much evidence exists indicating restricting abortion doesn’t put an end to it. In fact, sometimes, the opposite is true.


Reproductive freedom implies that “every person can make the best decision for themselves and their family about whether and when to have a child without undue political interference.” RF should indicate freedom from both forced sterilization and compulsory motherhood.

I remember the pre-Roe vs Wade times clearly since I was involved in medicine for some twenty-three years prior to that ruling. While I never performed an abortion, as an intern at an enormous charity hospital and later as medical director of Chicago’s Mount Sinai Hospital emergency department, I witnessed close-up the disastrous results of criminal abortions. Naturally, these mostly affected the poor and minority women. Wealthier women always have and always will continue to find physicians who, for significant amounts of cash, will perform an abortion. When properly done by an experienced physician under sterile conditions, abortions are one of the safest operations with few complications. Not so when self-induced or done by “back-alley” operators.

Dr. Allen Malnak

Abortion remains a controversial and divisive issue. There are many myths and misconceptions. There are valid reasons for opposition without resorting to scare tactics using outdated or disproved medical evidence. Such is the case with the claim abortions cause breast cancer. The earlier limited studies purporting such a relationship were found to be flawed. For example, "recall bias" compromised some results. Later, more carefully performed research indicated no relationship exists.

The American Medical Association called the Dobbs decision “an attack on best medical practices and acknowledges it as a violation of human rights when the government impedes access to abortion.”

Complex medications like methotrexate can be banned because they can result in an abortion. But these meds are necessary to treat other non-related serious diseases.

Some of the problems the Supreme Court has caused include: Longer distances to travel, increased waiting for the procedure, increased financial burden, and unsafe abortions.

Here are some unintended consequences of banning abortions: harm to women’s health, including death and possible banning of in vitro fertilization.

There are too many abortion myths to discuss. They include: Abortion is high risk. Actually, it’s among the safest operations if done by a skilled operator. Most are performed in a clinic. With the use of prescription meds, many abortions are now medically induced. Abortions cause infertility. They almost never do. Abortions negatively affect mental health of the patient. If it does, it’s a rare occurrence. Most who seek an abortion are childless. In truth, about 60% have children. Most just don’t want to have children. There are many, many reasons. That is only one of them. Are abortions common in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy? Most occur during the first trimester, i.e., first 12 weeks after conception. Are most women who have abortions teens? No, only 9%.

The last myth I will discuss is that irresponsible behavior results in unplanned pregnancies. But in fact, “more than half of abortion patients used some form of contraception prior to getting pregnant.”

Dr. Allen Malnak, M.D., is a resident of Bonita Springs. Following his internship and residency, Dr. Malnak served as chief of internal medicine at U.S. Army Hospital, Fort Sill, OK, and then was a clinical investigator in liver disease at Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago. He was a board-certified internist in the Chicago area for more than 35 years. He was a clinical instructor at Chicago Medical School for eight years and an assistant clinical professor at the Stritch School of Medicine of Loyola University for 25 years. Dr. Malnak was medical director of a number of medical organizations, including the emergency department of Mount Sinai Hospital and Principle Health Care of Illinois.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Unintended consequences and myths about abortions