A well-reasoned study of Christians and abortion

Evangelicals and Abortion: Historical, Theological, Practical Perspectives

J. Cameron Fraser
Wipf & Stock, 2024.

Evangelicals and Abortion (E&A) is the most recent book by Rev. J. Cameron Fraser, a retired Christian Reformed pastor from Lethbridge, Alberta. An articulate conservative thinker, he has published several books and articles in The Banner, Christian Courier and in various Reformed and Presbyterian journals and periodicals. Fraser is an able, widely and deeply read pastor with an academic style occasionally reflected in this short book. It is very tightly written, but a readable and informative history of the Pro-Life movement in North America – born out of his long personal involvement with Right to Life movements in the U.S. and Canada.

Fraser’s well-reasoned tone is rarely seen in writing on abortion. His ‘on-one-hand-this’ but ‘on-the-other-hand-that’ provides a book-long conversation that is winsomely dialectical and honest. While taking a clear stand against unlegislated abortion – no law regulates abortion in Canada – Fraser writes with deep empathy for women considering abortion, is never mean-spirited, and always keeps the fetuses’ lives in focus. Plainly devoted to pro-life principles, Fraser is fittingly wary of extremism in thought and action that has sadly diminished Right to Life’s public credibility and integrity. He opposes violence against abortionists and abortion clinics and strongly criticizes those resorting to such extremes.

Evangelicals and Abortion is a product of exhaustive background research that limns pro-life’s history and wider society’s responses to the movement’s activities. It surveys abortion legislation up to U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs vs. Jackson decision. Fraser’s research is assiduously documented with dozens of footnotes, an index and a bibliography.

Fraser added an appendix with a Christianity Today article about Norma McCorvey. She was the woman behind the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that opened virtually unrestricted abortion. Ms. McCorvey (a.k.a. “Jane Roe”) led a sad life, supporting anti-abortion movement in her later years, but confessing on her deathbed that she was well-paid for that activity, though not really committed to it.

Already in the Introduction, Fraser subtly foreshadows his eventual conclusion. There he sketches the beginnings of Crisis Pregnancy Centres (CPCs), highlighting the establishment of Vancouver’s CPC. He finally notes “there are now more CPCs in the USA than there are abortion clinics.” On the last page, Fraser effectively bookends that introduction of CPCs with this brief, irenic advocacy: “It is not insignificant that the Christian Action Council with its legislative focus found it more effective to transform itself into Care Net with emphasis on pregnancy care centers and related ministries.”

With discussion questions after each chapter, E&A offers a stimulating read for book clubs or church small group discussions. This book is by far the best writing I’ve read on abortion and I highly recommend it.