I have been the senior minister at St Barnabas Broadway, in Sydney's inner city, for six years. Before that I was on staff for another eight.

In all that time, not one unmarried woman has shared with me that she has fallen pregnant, or sought an abortion.

This terrifies me.

I think — I fear — this means that there is something in our church culture that promotes, and actually increases, the number of women seeking abortions.

What I think is happening is that young couples are having sex out of marriage, young women are falling pregnant, and abortions are being procured.

There is an established Christian tradition of viewing the pregnancy, from point of fertilisation, as a vulnerable, emerging human being.

The purpose of this article isn't to argue this claim, or the case against abortion.

However, it is important to understand that many Christians believe that, except in the case of danger to the mother, or in some outlying cases of confirmed foetal non-viability, abortion is both harmful to the mother and unjustly ends an emerging human life.

Anecdotally at least (we've never taken a survey), this is the view of most of members of my church.

You might think, then, that St Barnabas is a rare case of religious non-hypocrisy. Here is a church whose members do not believe in abortion, and who do not seek abortions when they fall unexpectedly pregnant.

I could even believe it, except that the statistics are a little too clean.

Doing the maths on abortion

The most recent available data suggest there are about 80,000 abortions performed each year in Australia. The precise statistics are unknown, since most states don't collect the data systematically.

More than that: despite a recent push for abortion law reform in New South Wales and Queensland, we don't even have consistent legislation across the country. No wonder the numbers are blurry.

Many young women don't realise abortion is still in the criminal code in Queensland and New South Wales. ( Supplied: Susan Kotzur-Yang )

But it isn't primarily teens who are having abortions. In fact, women aged 20-29 are the most likely to present for an abortion, with South Australian data suggesting a quarter of all abortions are procured by women aged 20-24.

This is precisely the demographic of my church. Most people, if they ever think about Anglicans at all, imagine a charming but dwindling gathering of retirees drinking tea.

At St Barnabas, however, we have a community of over 1,000, and the average member is in their mid-20s, and getting younger.

Now, many cultures, religious or otherwise, place a high moral value on abstinence before marriage. The church is one of them.

Despite this, lots of young people in those cultures and in churches will still end up having sex.

It isn't that they do not believe in the classical Christian view that sex is for marriage. Rather that, just like in the rest of life, many Christians simply fail to live up to their own principles.

I don't believe this is a problem with our sexual ethic itself. As the American theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas has said, "No ethic, not even the most conservative, should be judged by its ability to influence the behaviour of teenagers in the back seat of a car."

And sooner or later, among 1,000 young adults, some of whom have not quite managed to wait until marriage, someone is going to fall pregnant.

But in 14 years, I have not met even one. Which brings us back to our church culture.

How the church shames women into silence

As was recently reported by a Queensland parliamentary committee following an inquiry into abortion laws in the state, the decision to terminate a pregnancy is not taken lightly.

In one Australian study, 25 per cent of women who presented at a clinic for an abortion stated that it was 'against their beliefs' to do so. Why, then, choose to have an abortion?

In 14 years, not one woman has shared with me that she has sought an abortion, says Michael Paget. ( Flickr: Esparta Palma )

Pregnancy carries with it enormous burdens, and raising a child is hard. In a survey of 2,249 women who had an abortion in New South Wales, 60 per cent cited financial concerns — being unable to "afford a baby right now" — as the reason.

Other research shows women may also have an abortion because they believe having a baby will jeopardise their career, study or future plans, a real issue amongst university students studying far from home.

But, most of all, I think that many women — and their young partners —fear the shame of unexpected pregnancy.

What could be more Christian than, having unexpectedly fallen pregnant, a woman (and her partner) turns to God and finds forgiveness, and turns to her church and encounters love, inclusion and support?

However, this is not the way many women experience the church.

As one young female leader in my church said:

"I'm not saying it is a good thing, but if I had fallen pregnant [out of marriage], I cannot imagine telling my pastors."

And so, fearful of condemnation and rejection, and facing practical difficulties, a woman, often pressured by her boyfriend and sometimes by relatives, has an abortion.

The very sexual ethic that is meant to promote joyful obedience to God has become an instrument of shame by which bad choices are multiplied.

Effectively, we have weaponised our doctrine, and the collateral damage is lonely, ashamed young women, feeling as though they have nowhere to turn.

So what should we do?

There seem to be two main answers among Christians.

On the Left, there is often silence. In order to form collaborations with other organisations — especially secular or progressive groups — on other genuinely important issues like climate change and domestic violence, Christians on the Left tiptoe around abortion.

As a result, their policy platforms sometimes appear indistinguishable to those of non-Christian groups, and are welcomed in the inner city with very little of the outrage that Jesus seemed to cause.

President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order barring US-funded groups from discussing abortion. ( AP: Evan Vucci )

On the Right, there is a rush to legislate and make abortion illegal.

In the US, many conservative Christians cannot stand Donald Trump. Nonetheless, they were urged to vote for him in the election so that conservative judges might be appointed to the Supreme Court and abortion re-criminalised.

The problem is that these laws target women and don't make provision for support for single mothers, extended paid maternity leave or other initiatives that might make parenting possible. They aren't pro-life. They are just pro-birth.

Re-criminalising abortion will only return us to the days of the backyard abortion, and courts refusing to pass judgment on doctors out of concern for the safety of women.

Instead, we need to ask, what can we do to ensure women who unexpectedly fall pregnant feel they are able to have a baby?

And this means dealing with our culture of shame and hidden sin. It means creating possibility and choice where there appeared to be none before.

The church is a forgiven community

Our secular society may not have the resources on its own to create options. It lacks the imagination to conceive of solutions beyond the usual scarcity-driven economics.

The church, however, draws upon the imagination and provision of God.

I hope the church will celebrate the courage of every pregnant woman, married or unmarried, says Michael Paget. ( Pexels: jeshoots.com )

The church is called to embody a different set of possibilities: older families taking responsibility for financial provision for young unwed mothers, while they train for a trade or complete university; young men taking responsibility for the outcomes of their sexuality and finding fulfilment in parenthood rather than international travel and conspicuous consumption; a recapturing of the central Christian doctrine of adoption.

Above all, the church is called to embody grace. We are not primarily a moral community; we are a forgiven community, and we are called to create spaces where forgiveness of the repentant is assured.

My hope is that the church will embody a new story to unexpectedly pregnant women, and to their partners and families.

I hope the church will celebrate the courage of every pregnant woman, married or unmarried, and that the church will sacrificially make possible the birth of every child.

Because I believe this is who the church is called to be.

Michael Paget is the senior minister at St Barnabas Broadway in Sydney.