Kamala Harris is wrong

In last Tuesday’s presidential debate, Kamala Harris said, “One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.”

She’s partly right. We don’t belong to the government as if it owned us and can command our every action. This is deeply ingrained in the American psyche and our representative form of government. But neither do we belong to ourselves—not in the radically individualistic, deterministic way Harris meant it.

From a civics perspective, we belong to the communities we join or are born into. We are members of families, volunteer organizations, and churches. Our memberships require things of us, and we are not free to neglect or defy those obligations without consequence. These community bonds make for rich cultural relationships. They knit us together in ways that enrich us even as we enrich others. All of this is free from government intrusion and control—and rightly so. But the freedoms we cherish in our democratic republic, those enshrined in the Bill of Rights, are rooted in bodily integrity, not autonomy. We are not free to do whatever we want with our bodies. A woman who abuses a child, mutilates her husband, or opens fire in a shopping mall is not free to do so. Every parent lives this out experientially. A young girl who beats up her younger brother doesn’t get off by claiming she “can do what she wants with her body.” If she tries, wise parents will respond with fitting consequences.

Does Vice President Harris really believe the government should have no power to determine what we do with our bodies? Doubtful. Instead, she wants the government to remove all obstacles to a pregnant woman getting an abortion. With slippery words, Harris assures us that we can agree with her and remain faithful to our “deeply held beliefs.” This is where she goes doubly wrong.

What we do with our bodies affects other people. When those effects are harmful, governing authorities rightly intervene for the protection of the innocent. This is why the Declaration of Independence says “Governments are instituted among Men” to secure the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” for all. That’s the most fundamental purpose of the U.S. government—a purpose most urgently needed for the most vulnerable people among us: the unborn.

The declaration’s reference to rights “endowed by their Creator” points back to the creation, when God made “man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). When the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus with a tax question, He drew on this reality, saying, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Coins stamped with Caesar’s image, He said, rightly belonged to Caesar. Likewise, people who are indelibly marked with the image of God belong not to themselves but to God.

The government does not own us. In this Harris is right. But we don’t own ourselves. Christians who believe the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) know that “You are not your own.” We were bought with a price—the very blood of Jesus. We must not do whatever we want but instead glorify God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

We cannot defy the image of God in fellow human beings, even unborn ones, without defying God Himself. He has spoken clearly on this. God forbids murder (Exodus 20:13), commands us to “Rescue those who are being taken away to death” (Proverbs 24:11), and promises that eternal punishment awaits murderers (Revelation 21:8). He will hold every person accountable for how they respond to His Word, or don’t. People of this faith cannot, must not, join in the doublespeak that calls murder “healthcare.”

Harris said her view isn’t inconsistent with deeply held beliefs. Embracing abortion doesn’t mean abandoning the faith, she added. But she’s no theologian. If it’s faith in Christ Jesus, the God-man who shed His blood to ransom sinners, that’s exactly what following her views on abortion would mean—abandoning Him. Paul calls it having “made shipwreck of their faith” (1 Timothy 1:19). These are treacherous waters. We need to be shrewd and wise, thinking deeply about what’s at stake, and not be duped. The culture of death or faithfulness to God, we can’t have both.