The Rev. Warren H. Stewart Sr. of Phoenix has had countless discussions this election season with fellow Black men on the economy, criminal justice, immigration and other issues dominating the political landscape in their battleground state of Arizona.

But never abortion.

“They’re about justice. They’re about Donald Trump potentially reversing all of the gains achieved by the Civil Rights Movement. They are not about abortion,” Stewart said.

It’s in stark contrast to what’s being said on the campaign trail, where President Biden and Vice President Harris are wooing voters who support abortion rights, while Trump and his surrogates pursue anti-abortion voters.

One Black male pastor in particular, Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, has been outspoken about his support for abortion access, especially during his 2022 re-election campaign.

But Rev. Stewart, who leads First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix, wishes Biden and Harris weren’t talking about abortion so much, even as he acknowledged the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe as a “political gift.” He believes abortion should be legal only in cases where the life of the individual giving birth is in danger.

Others disagree. The Rev. Leslie D. Callahan, the first woman to pastor Philadelphia’s historic St. Paul’s Baptist Church, said all men regardless of race need to decide what functions of their bodies they’d like controlled by the federal government.

Black women have the highest maternal mortality rate in the US, according to the CDC’s 2022 report.

“Without bodily autonomy, what freedom do you really have?” she said.

She pointed out that Biden, who supports protecting access to abortion, isn’t being called to resign from the presidency – just the campaign.

“If he’s fit to govern, I don’t quite understand why he’s not fit to run,” Callahan said. “If you’re going to scrutinize Biden, let’s scrutinize his presidency and his policies. If you’re going to scrutinize fitness, then there needs to be consistent and equal scrutiny around the fitness of his opponent.”

Vice President Harris, a member of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, addressed religious beliefs during her March visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota – the first-ever tour by a sitting president or vice president.

“One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling women what to do with their body,” Harris said. “If she chooses, she will consult with her priest, her pastor, rabbi, her imam. But is that for the government to tell her what she can and cannot do with her own body?”

Individualized pastoral care is better suited than blanket government policies for helping women and families work through hard and nuanced medical choices, including abortion, Callahan said.

Many times, she said, people are deciding between two difficult alternatives — neither of which are optimal.

“The last thing that needs to be involved in that choice is some question about whether you’re going to be able to find a doctor who’ll be willing to risk whatever that risk is in order to help you get to physical, mental, and emotional health,” she said.