September 11, 2020 08:32 AM UTC

Talibangelical Rages As Faith Community Rejects Abortion Ban

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Colorado Times Recorder’s Madeleine Schmidt reports:

A multi-denominational coalition of faith leaders in Colorado is taking a stand against Proposition 115, a ballot measure that would ban later abortion care in Colorado.

Spearheaded by the faith-based advocacy organization the Interfaith Alliance, over 130 faith leaders penned an opposition letter this week calling the measure a “one-size-fits-all mandate” that “does not account for the medical advice of doctors nor for the autonomy of the woman to make a deeply personal decision regarding her body and her health.”

…The group also acknowledged that religious leaders have been some of the most vocal supporters of anti-abortion laws in the United States, and criticized their use of religion to take away the rights of others.

“The religious right does not have a monopoly on religious views on this issue,” [Rabbi Joseph] Black said. [Pols emphasis]

That a large coalition of religious leaders and organizations has come out in opposition to Proposition 115, a measure to ban abortions later in pregnancy in Colorado, has thoroughly hacked off Jeff Hunt, director of Colorado Christian University’s political arm the Centennial Institute and one of the state’s leading religious right figures. And you wouldn’t like Jeff Hunt when he’s angry:

These are the same people who come down and testify that God created abortion.

Evil. https://t.co/a9oifAOklK

— Jeff Hunt (@jeffhunt) September 10, 2020

Mostly because he calls you nasty names like “evil” if you disagree with him on a policy issue. With respect to Proposition 115, which abortion opponents like Hunt readily acknowledge is meant only to be a stepping stone toward the goal of a total ban on abortion, there’s no middle ground for guys like Hunt. And like any hard-line extremist, anything less than total compliance with Hunt’s moral agenda means you are in the service of, well, evil.

Proposition 115 supporters like to say that even abortion proponents should be “okay” with limiting the procedure at some arbitrary but late-sounding point in pregnancy. But the reality is that abortions later in pregnancy are almost always the result of serious medical complications, not some flippant choice. These are in fact some of the most agonizing medical choices anyone might be forced to make, and the only person qualified to be part of that decision other than the patient is their doctor.

If you believe that abortion is “evil” no matter what, like Jeff Hunt, and believe further that your view on the issue should be imposed on every woman in Colorado, then Hunt’s vitriol against fellow people of faith over Proposition 115 makes some sense. But we don’t think a majority of Colorado voters will agree either that these people are “evil,” or that Jeff Hunt speaks for a majority of faith-based voters.