Religion in the Abortion Discourse in Singapore: A Case Study of the Relevance of Religious Arguments in Law-Making in Multi-Religious Democracies

Abstract

Singapore has one of the world’s most liberal abortion laws. This article examines the parliamentary debates leading to the legalization of abortion in Singapore in light of John Rawls’s test of public reason. It argues that the ground rules for discourse and the justification for law-making in a multi-religious democracy must accommodate religious arguments beyond those that pass the Rawlsian test of public reason. Intractable differences on moral (often religious) questions, as seen in Singapore’s abortion debate, showcase the inadequacy of Rawls’s attempt to delineate the public or the political. Although Rawls purported to leave metaphysical or religious questions unsettled by delineating a sphere of the political, he in fact resolved them whilst sidelining metaphysical (often religious) arguments.

Keywords: abortion, Rawls, Finnis, democracy, religion