Pro-Life Is Not Enough

I’ve never accepted abortion. Even when God seemed nothing more than imagination, babies being ripped from wombs made me sick. Atheism didn’t blind me from that, at least.

But Christ made me see that my revulsion at doctors hacking babies to pieces isn’t enough. Even voting “my values” doesn’t go far enough. That’s because being pro-life (or anti-abortion, if you prefer) doesn’t stop with saving children from death. There’s much more.

There’s the root.

Women and men make the choice to rid themselves of pregnancies because they lack vision—vision of a world with them as parents. They see stalled careers; they see dead-end relationships; they see poverty. But they don’t see the lifetime commitment it takes to raise a child.

Passing laws, posting pictures of aborted babies, pushing ultrasounds—all of those have power, but none of them suck the fear out of the unknown. None of those give prospective parents a vision of a successful life for themselves or their child. They may see what’s inside, but they don’t see a way forward.

If we call ourselves pro-life, we have to go all in. We have to lay out a vision for single mothers that doesn’t involve poverty, drugs, and abusive boyfriends. We have to provide a road forward that doesn’t seem bereft of help. If we save a child from abortion, we’ve done well. But if we leave a mom without any support, if we’ve left her to fend on her own, we’ve shown her neighbors that abortion may be the better choice.

If we call ourselves pro-life, we have to take up with the young men of our nation. We have to provide them with examples of what it means to take care of others. We have to show them that love comes down to serving, show them a vision of responsible fatherhood. Otherwise, many of them are stuck fatherless and broken, which only empowers abortion providers.

If we call ourselves pro-life, we must adopt young parents as our own children—even if they aren’t married. Many of them have only TV shows and movies for instructions on raising kids, since their real parents weren’t around. They lack faith in lasting relationships; they have no idea that marriage can reveal Christ’s love for us. They need you. They need Him.

If we call ourselves pro-life, we can’t stop at the picket line. We have to take Christ to the core of the problem. We have to give vision and hope to those who see none beyond the abortion clinic.