America seems divided on the issue of abortion. But how much of this is a reflection of deep political discord, and how much the result of sometimes surprising theological reversals that have been taking place in its Churches?

In 1977, the late African American civil rights activist (and Baptist minister) Jesse Jackson published an article in the National Right to Life News with the headline “How We Respect Life Is Overriding Moral Issue”. From the moment of conception, he said, human life was a “gift from God” that no ­person had the right to “take away”. “What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the ­aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience?” Jackson asked. “What kind of a person, and what kind of a society will we have 20 years hence, if life can be taken so casually?”

Six years later, as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Jackson said abortion should be legal and publicly funded through Medicaid. “I’m for freedom of choice,” he said. “Even theologically God gives us choice. We must live with the consequences of that choice, whether to go to Heaven or hell, but at least we are not robots; we’re people that have choice within the law.”

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