In the battle between church and state, Friday's Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and abolishing a 50-year precedent for abortion rights is seen as a major victory for the church. But not every church sees it as a victory.
There is a wide array of Christian denominations in Tulsa and they are far from forming a united front.
“It is a really, really rough, rough day here in Tulsa today," said Reverend Barbara Prose, the executive minister of All Souls Unitarian Church. Prose was a midwife before joining the clergy; she feels a special connection to reproductive rights issues.
“I’m very, very, very sad today. Because of how much I love women and families and the process – the whole mysterious, spirit-infused, God-filled process of pregnancy, childbirth, and raising a family.”
"As a pastor of a congregation with lots of people and lots of different perspectives, I try to be sensitive to all those perspectives," explained Reverend David Wiggs, the senior pastor of Boston Avenue United Methodist Church. "The trouble with the decision that the Court handed down today is that is chooses, I believe, a very limited section of the populace and enshrines one perspective.”
Each minister has their own reason to disagree with the Court's decision. Prose is afraid of women being seriously harmed in a potentially failed pursuit of reproductive healthcare. Wiggs believes the equation of fetuses to people creates a false equivalency. To him, if a fetus is protected on the grounds that it could be a human life, other bodily functions with the potential to create life would have to be regulated as well.
“It would be alright with us for them to hold that approach personally," Wiggs continued. "The problem comes when they try to legislate that and put that into law which denies other people their own freedom of religion, their own freedom of expression, and their own choices around medical care.”
“People have a right to practice their own religion," Prose said, "and to make their own decisions in their own personal life based on those beliefs. But this is a religiously pluralistic country, and it’s only a very small minority of people who believe that abortion should be illegal.”
Both ministers believe the portrayal of pro-life beliefs as "compassionate" is hypocritical. Wiggs quoted scripture about Jesus's treatment of orphans. Prose went one step further.
"If Jesus was alive today, I believe he would help a woman get an abortion," she asserted.
Not every church in town is so sure.
The Diocese of Tulsa released a statement Friday afternoon, saying it was "a momentous day" and calling abortion "an intrinsic evil."