Why Anti-Abortion Laws = Christian Nationalist Extremism

Yes, Christian Nationalists are cruel. But ALL attempts to control bodily autonomy are religious extremism. (Scroll to the end to listen)

Last week, I wrote about Christian Nationalist Republicans’ assault on female personhood. In today’s newsletter, I tie their Old Testament religious fanaticism to bodily autonomy.

²² And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

²³ And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Genesis 2:22-23 KJV

As I have written throughout my time on Substack, Christian Nationalists interpret these verses literally. No more than 10,000 years ago, they believe God created Adam and put him to sleep in the Garden of Eden. They believe he took one of Adam’s ribs. And they believe he made Eve from that rib.

Meaning God ordained women to be of (and property of) men.

People on the left repeatedly rail against the notion that men can control women’s bodies. But Christian Nationalists believe Genesis 2:22-23 gives men proprietary control over female bodies and lives. They don’t care how that notion offends people; it is what their One True God ordained. If that makes women chattel, that’s what their Old Testament One True God intended.

Calling this “cruelty” and “misogyny” is accurate, but those terms miss a more fundamental truth: It is the product of religious extremism and the religious zealots who promulgate this worldview to promote white Christian Nationalist male power.

Every American who isn’t a Christian Nationalist should be standing up right now and calling the forced birth movement what it is: A bunch of religious fanatics who are determined to force everyone to live by their faith, whether we want to or not. Because they don’t merely believe they can control women’s bodies; they believe they can control EVERY BODY.

In my newsletter Sex and the Christian Nationalist, I explained their extreme views about sex.

Christian Nationalists believe Old Testament God orders them to police sexual immorality and fornication in the United States.

They cannot accept legal rulings like Obergefell, which sanctions same-sex marriage, because they believe such decisions violate the commandments of their Old Testament God. Nor can they ignore other activities their God deems “sexual crimes”: Two teenagers making out; an unmarried couple having sex; a man masturbating to porn in his own bedroom; and similar.

Sex and the Christian Nationalist

The next day, I wrote Christian Nationalism: Where Sex Never Deserves Privacy to expand upon this theme.

Christian Nationalism: Where Sex Never Deserves Privacy

These two newsletters are critical reading for anyone who doubts Christian Nationalist Republican plans to control American bodies.

When you talk with people in the coming days, ask them what bodily freedom they most value. Is it the right to choose to be a mother? Is it the right to live in the body that matches their gender identity? Or to simply have sex when one feels like it with whoever is available?

What about men’s bodies? Do Christian Nationalist men think they can control what other men do with their bodies?

Men, what if the government said you couldn’t get a vasectomy? Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash

Take vasectomies. Would it be okay for men to get a vasectomy as part of bodily autonomy?

Because the Catholic Church (the primary driver of anti-sex, forced-birth Christian Nationalist extremism) teaches vasectomies are morally unacceptable.

While there are a multitude of reasons that lead men to seek out vasectomies, “direct sterilization” is deemed “morally unacceptable” in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC, 2399).

“To get clear on why sterilization is wrong, we need to be clear on why contraception is wrong,” moral theologian E. Christian Brugger told CNA. “Contraception is wrongful, as St. Paul VI taught, because it intentionally separates the unitive meaning of the conjugal act from its procreative meaning. Since marital intercourse is by definition unitive and procreative, a contraceptive act is, morally speaking, nonmarital.”

Source: Catholic News Agency Can I Get a Vasectomy? Here’s What the Catholic Church Teaches by Kate Quiñones (not linking to them)

Bodily autonomy is about our right to terminate or prevent a pregnancy. No faith document, especially one a person doesn’t believe or follow, should dictate our right to bodily autonomy. Religious extremists seek to control bodies. Yes, they are cruel BECAUSE THEY ARE RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS. Call them what they are.

Here are more newsletters on Christian Nationalist extremism surrounding sex and bodily autonomy:

What Is Separation of Church and State?

Project 2025: Where Christian Nationalists Decide When You Die

Project 2025: Where the Only Sex Education Is Abstinence

Project 2025: Where the Only Genders Are Male and Female

This Oklahoma Bill Follows Project 2025's Roadmap to Ban Porn Nationwide

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