I know many who wrote those things come from cultural backgrounds I am not a part of. Some of them also come from my own white, upper/middle class Judeo-Christian origin background. Regardless, if this message enters into the eyes and ears of American people whose right to abortion now looks like it's very much going to be up to state's decision, I want to say that this post is about you, and I want to say that I will take a stand in this.
How did Buddhists get to this place? I honestly don't know. I blame much of what is about to happen to abortion rights on white, Evangelical, conservative Christians, but I am not about to stop (what I believe is), isolated incidences of Buddhist writers attacking abortions and bringing the Dharma's name into this!
I get it: one of the Buddhist precepts is Do Not Destroy Life, but seriously! Number one, he Buddha never said, as far as I am aware, that a fetus is life. Many, in fact most, Buddhists still eat meat (including myself). Why can't these teachers attack that like they have made statements on abortion rights. Second, presuming abortion is taking a life (which is, in my mind, just aa distraction from the real issue regarding abortion rights), the Buddha did say that killing could be justified. Are you all about to take a time machine, go to Tibet, and tell all the Tibetan people, monks included, who took up arms that they can't use weapons against genocidal Maoists?! Many of these soldiers are just following orders (not that that is an acceptable excuse after all), and honestly, Lord Buddha never made much statements on what killing (presuming abortion is that) is acceptable and what is not. And really, if you're a Buddhist and you're drinking alcohol, a lot of Buddhists would say you should just shut up
A lot of American Buddhists I have found, are quite liberal people. We believe in the right to marry, we don't support putting people in jail for smoking marijuana, the thought of a woman president really doesn't bother us. But when I look at (really just a few writers, but still) any Buddhist that has maligned abortion (and the overwhelmingly poor, disabled people and people with serious medical conditions, and those who can't have a child because they will die if they do who have them), I am reminded of one thing: the problems of American Buddhism is rooted in the problems of America. I am not pointing fingers at American Buddhists in particular. Tibetan, Thai, Chinese, French, and every other cultural form of Buddhism have problems rooted in the country they are practiced in. But American Buddhists need to reckon with how the flaws of American society and culture have seeped into our communities and ourselves. Our sanghas our often very racially segregated. Buddhists of Asian descent are just casually erased by Prius-driving, Upper Middle Way Buddhists. Poor people are driven away because they can't afford the costs of meditation retreats or Dharma talks. As an autistic, I have often felt very uncomfortable in largely neurotypical Buddhist groups and many NT Buddhists as well. But why am I saying this? Because when Buddhists, and Americans of all faiths, from hegemonic backgrounds don't see such people, they do not see people who are affected most by the attacks on abortion taking place across the country.
Unlike the movement for Blacks Americans' rights, indigenous peoples' movements, feminism, and the disability rights movement, the Pro-Life (generous name, but ok) movement is not about standing up to the powerful. Rather, it has been about attacking vulnerable and threatened people whose vulnerability and threats are the whole reason they have abortions in the first place!
My religion that I have practiced seventeen years asks me that I do whatever I can to help people, to bring comfort to those who are without it, to give those shedding tears as much reason to smile and rejoice from emotions as strong as their pain. I write this post to show that I am not going to stand against the attacks against abortion from Buddhists in comfortable positions. I do this to bring attention to what has been done in my community and the hypocrisy behind it that runs through the very core of the Pro-Forced birth movement. I might stir things up in the Buddhist world, but when you're cooking something, stirring things up is the only way anything gets done.
