The heart of the argument by anti-choice activists has always rested on the potential for life, not life itself. No matter how much anyone might wish it so, the fact remains that until birth (or the current point in gestation where neo-natal technology can sustain life outside the womb) an embryo or fetus relies entirely on its mother to survive, and is therefore not an independent entity.

In recent years, the phrase “culture of life” has been attached to the anti-choice movement – erroneously so. While claiming to embrace life, it has been more concerned with tyrannical control of it. Beyond telling women what to do with their wombs, it has also piped in on the issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide – presumably exorbitant health care costs are not high enough in their eyes, and they feel that it is necessary to force the terminally ill to exist on life-support, regardless of the level of suffering they would endure. Suffering is an important component of determining one’s moral worth in their world, apparently.

So, their culture of life embraces suffering for the sick, and condemning unwanted children to live knowing that they were unwanted. Just about everyone seems to avoid the cruel truth of that concept – the direct result of more unwanted children on the planet is an increase in child abuse. But perhaps the cold realities of forcing women to have children they do not want are finally sinking in with some of the evangelicals out there.

Recently I was pointed in the direction of a Newsweek article about a mega-church pastor, Adam Hamilton, who has admitted in writing that there are times when abortion is necessary. This may seem a very odd thing for a minister to be saying – particularly one from a type of church that has been seen as highly conservative – but about a third of his colleagues apparently have held this opinion for at least the past decade. What has changed is that instead of holding with the radical religious ideology we’ve seen for many years, ministers are starting to state these thoughts publicly.

Hamilton’s written admission is not just in the pages of a magazine, but also in his book, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White. I have not seen this book personally yet, but the title alone is encouraging. I can hope that it is a sign of future change, and hopefully the beginning of the end of the radical religious right trying to evangelize the public through legislatures and courtrooms. For now, it is a conservative hope for more liberalism.