So You Think You Are Pro-Life?

I've written before how being pro-life involves more than simply having a personal conviction that abortion is wrong. Don't get me wrong - that personal conviction is a great start and we definitely want more people to share that conviction. But - we also need to be willing to live out that belief.

Raquel Rose Kato was a young woman who found herself facing an unplanned pregnancy and who now works in a crisis pregnancy center. In her article So You Think You Are Pro-Life? she writes:

Protecting and defending life is an all-encompassing call. It is not just about the babies, it is about their mothers, their fathers, and their families. Yes, people need to speak for the unborn when they don’t have a voice, but if that is the primary focus, we are completely missing the mark.

The mother is the one who ultimately decides the fate of her child, so if we aren’t pursuing the healing, and genuine interest of her life, then we are utterly failing.

In fact, if I’m completely honest, when I was in the midst of my unplanned pregnancy, the slogans out there like “abortion kills a child” or graphic pictures of aborted babies made me resent the pro-life movement.  I understand their motives to spread awareness of the realities of abortion, but for the woman in the crisis (the very women that are considering abortion, the women we need to reach the most) this is a huge, huge turn off.

Why might you ask?

Well, it is simple.

When you only focus on saving the life of the baby, you fail to acknowledge something very important, and that is that the mother’s life needs to be saved too. Did we already forget that the very women who find themselves in unplanned pregnancies and who are considering abortion are very broken, afraid, and alone? They need some serious, genuine love and healing. But, quite frankly, when there is all this hollering for the babies, the woman in the crisis thinks she is forgotten. She thinks everyone just cares about the baby, no one cares about her.

She is desperately crying out, ”No one cares about how traumatically my life has changed, no one cares about my future, no one cares about my dreams, no one cares about helping me!”

We cannot forget about the mothers, fathers, and families of the unborn. They matter too. They are the ones making decisions, and we need to support them.

So how exactly can you be genuinely pro-life? I will speak on behalf of the mother specifically here, and I made a list of simple suggestions/ideas from the girl “who has been there”, and as someone who works with these girls every day as an adviser at a Pregnancy Resource Center:

Please read her suggestions at: So You Think You Are Pro-Life?