From KUT News:
Leading up to Election Day, public radio stations across the state are exploring how Texans’ religious beliefs affect the way they’re thinking about voting in November and the greater role of government in general. Want to share a story? Send us a voice memo.
In the first presidential election since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion has emerged as a leading issue on many voters’ minds as they head to the polls.
A majority of Americans support abortion rights, according to data from the Pew Research Center and others. But opinions can also be strongly correlated to voters’ religious views.
In a conservative state like Texas, voters of faith are often thought of as a predictable voting bloc when it comes to abortion. However, in-depth conversations with two Christians in the Austin area show that it’s not black-and-white.
Jamie Shepard: A choice between a woman, her doctor and her pastor
Jamie Shepard describes herself as a “lapsed Catholic.” Back when she was a kid, she went to Sunday school and received her first communion. But then, one Christmas, a new priest delivered a sermon.
“All of the children were lined up in all of our little, beautiful Christmas outfits sitting on the edge of the chancel,” she recalled. “The priest chose to speak about abortion, and aren’t we all so blessed and grateful that Elizabeth convinced Mary not to abort baby Jesus in a time when that was scary and she was unwed.”
That seemed to bother Shepard’s mom. After that, her family took a step back from church and wasn’t as involved.
When Shepard moved to Austin as an adult, she found herself craving the community that church once provided her. And after some online research, she joined a progressive Presbyterian church, First Presbyterian Church of Austin, which has the slogan, “Free to Wonder.”
Shepard said that ethos has given her permission to ask questions and explore different interpretations of the Bible — and it has increased her faith. She’s even an elder at the church now.
“It’s really fascinating and has made me feel more engaged in church than I have really ever felt,” she said.
This faith approach informs how she views abortion. In contrast to the black-and-white message she heard from the pulpit as a kid, Shepard now thinks about the unique and difficult circumstances many women may be in when they’re contemplating an abortion.
“Abortion is important as a choice that a woman makes with her doctor and with her pastor, if she’s a faithful person,” she said.
Shepard is among the roughly 64% of white, nonevangelical Protestants who think all or most abortions should be legal, according to Pew. Black Protestants have similar views.
But that trend flips when looking at Catholics and white, evangelical Protestants.
Brandon Frye: ‘God knew us in the womb’
Nearly three quarters of white evangelicals say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.
That’s what Brandon Frye, a middle-aged business owner in Pflugerville, believes. He grew up around churches, but didn’t begin taking his faith seriously until he became an adult.
“I went to a couple of church ski trips, but in my view, I never really accepted Jesus as my Savior, which is a part of how I would explain my faith,” Frye said.
That changed in his twenties. At a business leadership conference, a friend asked him to go to a Sunday service. The message he heard resonated with him, and he began exploring his faith in earnest.
As a solutions-minded entrepreneur who has always been interested in science, Frye says Christianity provided him with answers he’d long been searching for.
Brandon Frye attends a Baptist church in Austin.
Olivia Aldridge / KUT News
“I’ve always been interested in space and planets and solar systems, and I really grappled with, ‘How did all this come about?’”
Today, Frye and his wife and daughters attend Austin Baptist Church, and he said he takes a scripture-first approach to faith and life.
That’s part of why he’s against abortion: “In the Bible, it says God knew us in the womb,” he said. “So that’s pretty clear to me, in my opinion.”
Frye believes life begins at conception, but he’s also still a guy who likes space metaphors.
“I think if we were looking for life on Mars and found a blade of grass, we’d probably say, ‘Oh, I have found life,’” he said. “So, you know, once the sperm and the egg are fertilized, to me, that’s when life begins.”
What’s actually on the ballot this year
Abortion is on the ballot in some form in 10 states during this election. In Florida, for instance, voters will decide whether or not to adopt an amendment to the state constitution to protect abortion until around 24 weeks, when a fetus is viable. Florida currently bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
Texas has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans, and voters won’t be voting on abortion directly this year. (Amendments to the Texas constitution can only appear on the ballot if they’ve been approved by two-thirds of both houses of the state Legislature. Texas’ Republican-controlled Legislature has not been in favor of that.)
But Texans are voting for the lawmakers who make these decisions — and in races that could affect federal abortion rights down the line.
Brandon Frye said that’s a big motivating factor for him as a voter: He donates to pro-life causes and votes for candidates with a strong anti-abortion stance. Last week, he cast his ballot for former President Donald Trump, though he said Trump isn’t his ideal candidate.
As for Jamie Shepard, she’s voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I’m hoping we re-establish the federal right to have an abortion — a legal abortion,” she said.
Shepard also said she’s not a single-issue voter, even if abortion is one of the top issues for her in this election. Brandon Frye feels the same — in fact, he said it’s a running joke with his family and friends how often he brings up the national debt. (“Winter is coming, and it’s the national debt,” he told KUT during an interview.)
Finding common ground on abortion
Between these two different Christians who cast different votes, can there be any common ground on abortion?
Both Shepard and Frye said yes, adding they’d be open to sitting down with someone who doesn’t fully agree with them on the issue.
Shepard said she knows that many Christians who oppose abortion are motivated by the idea that all lives are sacred. She said she agrees with that starting premise.
“God has made every individual in God’s own image, and so therefore every life is sacred. I do believe that, but I can’t say that the life of a mother is less important than the life of her child,” she said.
For Shepard, it’s also personal. She’s in her early thirties, and she and her husband want to have kids. She said she’s worried about her options should a medical emergency happen during pregnancy.
This is an area where Shepard and Frye’s views have some overlap. While he approves of Texas’ near-total abortion ban, he favors limited exceptions.
“I think for the health of the mother is a pretty straightforward one that I definitely agree with,” he said. “There’s others that I don’t know if I’m equipped, informed or willing to say I should even have a say in it.”
Frye also said he thinks people who describe themselves as “pro-life” should provide support to pregnant women in addition to trying to prevent abortion.
“The government and the church community and [pro-life] people can do a lot more to support unplanned pregnancies,” he said.
This view has some commonality with Shepard’s feelings about giving consideration and support to women who are making tough decisions. But in her view, that also involves the right to abortion.
“When a child or a baby grows up and becomes a woman and now is facing issues, do we stop affording that same level of protection?” she said.
