Pastors see black men cautious about talking about abortion policy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Phoenix pastor the Rev. Warren H. Stewart Sr. has had countless discussions this election season with other black men about the economy, criminal justice, immigration and other issues dominating the political scene of their key swing state of Arizona. But never abortion.

“They’re about justice. They’re about Donald Trump potentially reversing all the gains of the civil rights movement. They’re not about abortion,” Stewart said.

That’s in stark contrast to what was said throughout the campaign, when President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris courted voters who supported abortion rights, while Trump and his surrogates courted voters who opposed abortion.

While black men have traditionally supported Democrats, one dominant narrative is that they will not be enthusiastic about Biden, the party’s presumptive nominee. They make up nearly 7% of the electorate, in line with a Pew Research Center evaluation, and this yr, a number of thousand votes in Arizona, Pennsylvania and other swing states could determine the race.

Democratic U.S. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina stays concerned that Trump’s hypermasculine campaign style is driving black male voters who feel underrepresented in mainstream politics away from the Democratic Party. Clyburn is attempting to counter that trend.

After his dismal debate performance fueled concerns about his age, Biden, 81, has also been attempting to shore up his loyal base, appearing recently on the Mount Airy Church of God in Christ in Philadelphia and elsewhere across the state to dispel lingering questions and rumors.

“I have never been more optimistic about the future of America, quite frankly, if we stick together,” Biden said, addressing the gang in a brief speech that mentioned Harris but didn’t mention abortion rights.

Among black clergy, few are higher placed to evaluate Biden’s character and suitability than Bishop Reginald T. Jackson.

Jackson, 70, the 132nd bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was a key organizer of Biden’s first U.S. Senate campaign in 1972. He first saw the candidate’s shortcomings up close as a student at Delaware State University.

“All this stuttering? It’s nothing new,” Jackson said from his home in Atlanta.

Jackson said Biden’s recent mishaps throughout the debate and subsequent news conferences shouldn’t deter him from boasting about his support for historically black colleges and his administration’s support for minority-owned small businesses.

“It’s almost as if the president’s accomplishments are treated as some kind of state secret,” Jackson said.

When it involves abortion, Jackson believes the federal government shouldn’t interfere in a choice that’s best left to the girl and her doctor, and says he’s pleased with the way in which the Biden campaign is handling the problem.

For the past half-century, abortion has remained a contentious issue in black Protestant churches, fraught with questions of sexuality and gender that their Christian community has historically grappled with.

In interviews, black church leaders have acknowledged that the church has not all the time been adept at talking about human sexuality, a trait they share with their mainline Protestant counterparts. In “Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics,” creator R. Marie Griffith, a professor of humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, argues that caution about discussing sex — and opposing their deeply held views on women’s sexuality specifically — lies at the foundation of lots of essentially the most divisive political issues.

One black pastor, Democratic U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, has been outspoken about his support for abortion access, especially during his 2022 re-election campaign.

But Warren Stewart, who leads First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix, wishes Biden and Harris hadn’t talked a lot about abortion, whilst he dismissed the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe as a “political gift.” He believes abortion must be legal only in cases where the lifetime of the person giving birth is in peril.

Others disagree. Pastor Leslie D. Callahan, the primary woman to pastor a church in Philadelphia historical St. Paul Baptist Church said all men, no matter race, must determine what bodily functions they would really like the federal government to regulate. Black women have highest maternal mortality rate within the USA, in line with 2022 CDC Report.

“If you didn’t have bodily autonomy, what freedom would you have?” she asked.

She stressed that Biden, who supports protecting access to abortion, is just not being called upon to resign from the presidency, only to resign from the campaign.

“If he’s fit to govern, I don’t see why he’s not fit to run,” Callahan said. “If you’re going to examine Biden, examine his presidency and his policies. If you’re going to examine fitness, there has to be a consistent and equal examination of the fitness of his opponent.”

As Trump tries to court black voters, about 7 in 10 black adults still have an overall unfavorable view of him, in line with an AP evaluation of two consecutive polls conducted in June by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. But that number has fallen by 20 percentage points for the reason that start of 2021.

While Trump campaign officials have said black men could also be more receptive to his message, black men and girls feel similarly about him.

Black men’s view of Biden isn’t overwhelmingly positive either. An evaluation of the poll found that about half of black men have a somewhat or very positive view of Biden — in comparison with about 7 in 10 black women — and about 4 in 10 black men view the president negatively.

Pastor Otis Moss Jr., retired pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, certainly one of the biggest and most distinguished black churches in Ohio, is anxious about Trump’s position, saying the previous president is anxious about protecting life before birth but not after.

“The human rights of women, of women, should not be violated by someone else’s political ideology,” Moss said.

Vice President Harris, a member of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, addressed her religious beliefs during her March visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota, the primary by a sitting president or vp.

“You don’t have to abandon your faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government shouldn’t tell women what to do with their bodies,” Harris said.

“She will consult her priest, pastor, rabbi, imam if she wants to. But does the government have the right to tell her what she can and cannot do with her body?”

Featured Stories

Individual pastoral care is more appropriate than government policy to assist women and families make difficult and complex medical decisions, including abortion, Callahan said. Many times, she said, persons are deciding between two difficult alternatives—neither is perfect.

“The last thing that needs to be considered in your decision is whether you can find a doctor who is willing to take any risks to help you achieve physical, mental and emotional health,” she said.

This election season, Planned Parenthood’s advocacy and political organizations are working to interact, educate and mobilize black men, in addition to other demographic groups. Lead organizer Jamesa Bailey, director of black campaigns at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said their internal data suggests that after they learn about the stakes within the presidential election on abortion, they’re 3 times more prone to educate one other voter — and so they usually tend to plan to vote.

Combining the problem of protected and legal access to abortion — African Americans are greater than twice as prone to die during childbirth, and it has been well documented that tests says states with essentially the most restrictive abortion barriers have the best maternal mortality rates for black women — Black America’s Maternal Health Crisis has proven to be “very strong,” Bailey said, adding that could be why she has seen a “significant increase” in support from clergy and faith groups across the country.

By introducing themselves as religious leaders of their communities in nearly two dozen states, she said, they sought to make a daring latest statement as a community through their presence: that their faith in God doesn’t conflict with their belief in a girl’s right to decide on.