"Do We Do Abortions?" Vodou's Stance on Roe v. Wade

It is no accident that I waited until the 4th of July to write about this.

On June 24, 2022 the SCOTUS decided that there is no U.S. Constitutional protection for a woman's right to choose to abort a child or not. In Vodou, this is a non issue.

Vodou has always been ostensibly "Pro Life" or more specifically, anti abortion because we know that our ancestors return through our children.

That said, we also believe vehemently that God knew better than to trust men with the power of both life and death so he hid the womb within the woman's body, thereby denying us even the ability to find one that we could use as we saw fit. We men simply lack the wisdom in God's opinion, to responsibly govern the gates of life.

Furthermore, God entrusted these wombs to only woman per womb so she could only reliably comment on the one in her care. The power over whether or not a living soul passes through the gates of life is the sole province of that individual guardian. For any man, woman, or group to attempt to usurp that authority is to blaspheme MAWU SE LISA, calling into question God's Wisdom. The only exception is what is revealed through divination which provides conditions that permit, oblige, & forbid certain births or abortions.

So for the Vodou community, although we do not recommend or support abortions generally, the woman's right to choose one is divine and there is a very real reason we've never lost our covenant with God. We don't try Them.

What is of import to us is what they go after next. The four justices that voted for overturning the 50 year precedent are what is known as an Originalist, that is they ostensibly believe the Constitution should be interpreted as the Framers intended. That's a problem.

The Framers never intended Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness to be applicable to the descendants of Africa & didn't intend for Vodou to be protected under the First Amendment. I can easily see how this is where we go next; miscegenation laws, Dred Scott (invoked by Clarence Thomas in the Roe v Wade redetermination), and most importantly The Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. The City of Hialeah which protects our right to practice ATR's despite some of those practices being offensive to eurocentric and Judeo-Christian sensibilities.