RELIGION: Rev. Dr. Rebecca Todd Peters “I can also attest that I felt God’s presence with me as I made the decision to end two pregnancies and I felt no guilt, no shame, no sin”

(2-16-26) Rev. Dr. Rebecca Todd Peters, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a professor of religious studies at Elon University, made these statements during a recent sermon at The Community Church of Chapel Hill.

During the sermon, Peters shared her personal experience of having two abortions, stating:

“I can also attest that I felt God’s presence with me as I made the decision to end two pregnancies and I felt no guilt, no shame, no sin”.

She delivered the message while wearing a pink stole emblazoned with the Planned Parenthood logo.

Peters is known for arguing that abortion can, in some circumstances, be understood as a moral good within a Christian ethical framework. In her public talks and writings, she has described abortion as potentially:

“an act of love” “an act of grace” “a blessing”

“Most white Christians are good people who don’t understand themselves to be prejudiced. That’s one of the insidious things about prejudice — it is invisible to those who hold it.”

— Rev. Rebecca Todd Peters

In her most recent book, Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice (Beacon, 2018, distributed by Penguin/Random House), Peters outlines how the justification framework shaping current American discussion of abortion is fatally flawed and argues that the framework of Reproductive Justice offers a more ethically robust opportunity for public dialogue.

Trust Women received the 2018 Indies Silver Award for Women’s Studies and the 2018 Nautilus Silver Award for Religion/Spirituality of Western Thought.

She is currently working on the Abortion & Religion project with colleagues Zahra Ayubi, Monique Moultrie, and Michal Raucher. Together the team is interviewing religiously identified women who are having abortions about their abortion experiences.

This film is being shown at The Community Church of Chapel Hill

—“Preconceived” is a riveting documentary about the crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) pervading America. Many of these centers are a part of a movement striving to make abortion unthinkable and illegal. The film explores the complex role of deception, finances, faith, and privacy. It follows the stories of two women, whose searches to terminate their unplanned pregnancies misled them to anti-abortion centers.