On May 15th, I delivered a message entitled, “Abortion Apologetics.” If you have not heard it yet, please listen to it (https://bridgebible.church/sermon/abortion-apologetics/). Abortion is one of the hottest topics in our culture today and will become more so when the Supreme Court delivers its anticipated decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Even without the final decision, pro-abortion people are protesting outside and inside churches, and death threats have been made against Supreme Court Justices. We need to be in much prayer about this and ready to give gracious, reasoned explanations as to why we are Pro-Life.
At the end of the message on May 15th I listed some practical things that Pro-Life people can do to meet the needs of people facing unwanted pregnancies. Below is an article I read this week that covers those things in greater detail. Please read it prayerfully and consider how all of us individually and corporately could truly be Pro-Life. Loving our neighbor is one of the greatest apologetics.
“Six Practical Ways to Be Pro-Life,” by Erica Fitzgerald
The abortion debate has been raging harder than ever in the United States since the Supreme Court’s opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked. Pregnancy resource centers that meet the needs of moms and their babies have been vandalized by abortion advocates in an ironic act of protest, while the pro-abortion crowd repeats their accusation that “pro-life people only care about the unborn—they don’t care about children after they’re born.”
As Christians, we know that’s a false allegation. Our churches are filled with people who care for children both born and unborn, and who embody the truth that life is a gift from God. Here are six ways we can put our pro-life views into action:
- Welcome and celebrate children in your family and church.
Perhaps one of the most basic and important pro-life things we can do is to joyfully embrace the children God gives to our families and churches.
When we were recently expecting our fourth, my friend from church insisted on throwing me a shower, despite my insistence that we didn’t need anything. She contended that all babies should be celebrated—planned ones and surprise ones, first ones and fourth ones—and we were blessed with hundreds of diapers and enough homemade frozen meals to keep me out of the kitchen for weeks after our son was born. We were so thankful, and I decided my friend was right—celebrating every baby testifies of what we believe about the God who knits every child together in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139). Our church has since started the tradition of throwing a diaper, meal, or book shower for every baby being welcomed into our church family, not just first babies.
Celebrating life is a rebellion against a dark culture that chides big families with jokes about birth control and sarcastic questions (“Don’t you know how this happens?”). Even when made in good fun, these comments perpetuate Satan’s lie that children are a burden. As believers, our attitudes and words should reflect the Lord’s mindset: “Behold, children are an inheritance from the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward” (Psalm 127:3).
- Delight in your kids.
If you knew a young woman who was secretly considering abortion, how might her observations of you and your kids influence her decision? Would she get the impression that motherhood is a privilege and a joy, or drudgery? Our interactions with our kids and what we say about them matters. As pro-life Christians, we should be enjoying our children in a way that makes the watching world notice.
Titus 2:4 instructs older women in the church to “urge the younger women to love their . . . children.” In many ways, a mother’s love for her children is intuitive and automatic, yet in our flesh, we do not always exude loving attitudes, words, and actions as we should. It’s not easy being a sinner, raising little sinners whose many needs infringe on our own. But as Abbie Halberstadt repeats in her book M is for Mama: A Rebellion Against Mediocre Motherhood, “Hard is not the same thing as bad.” Even on hard days, let’s exchange our sighs for smiles, give thanks for the children God has given us, and lean into the sanctifying work He’s doing in us through the difficult moments. And let’s exhort the younger moms in our church in their labor of love.
- Help single moms.
Here are a few ideas:
- Love the single moms in your life. Notice them and befriend them and their children. Single moms can feel out of place in a church full of couples and families; do your best to help them know they belong.
- Help the nearest pregnancy resource center by volunteering or donating clothing, diapers, or formula.
- Babysit for a single mom in your church or neighborhood, invite her kids to play in your yard, or drop off a pot of soup or plate of cookies. Anything you can do to lighten her load or help her feel noticed will go a long way.
- Throw a baby shower for a single mom. The women’s Bible study group at my church recently did this for a young mom who came into the pregnancy resource center where one of the group members was volunteering. Another group member with a knack for thrifting and interior design bought quality secondhand baby gear and furnished the new baby’s nursery with funds the group contributed.
- Support adoption and foster care.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). If you aren’t in a position to foster or adopt, you could sign up to provide respite care for foster families, make meals for your friends who are fostering, or purchase items from an online shop like the Goods & Better Store, which raises funds for children in foster care and the families who are caring for them.
- Proclaim forgiveness in Christ.
An estimated one in four women will have an abortion by age 45, and more than half of these identify as Christians, so the chances are high that there are post-abortive women in your life. These women are likely hurting physically, emotionally, and spiritually. When you speak the truth about abortion and the sanctity of life, do so with grace, in the context of the extravagant mercy and forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ. He paid for every sin through his death on the cross, and nothing is beyond his ability to forgive.
- Pray
Pray outside abortion clinics, pray in your car, pray around your kitchen table. Pray that God would shine His truth into the hearts and minds of abortion-minded women, and pray that abortion in our nation would end. Prayer is not a last resort; it is the most effective thing we can do.