When TIME Magazine bemoans the loss of pro-abortion momentum in America, you know things are looking up for unborn babies and families across America.
Our Facebook community was kind enough to weigh in on the January 14, 2013, TIME Magazine cover article, “What Choice?” by Kate Pickert, and the feedback was terrific. If you haven’t read the article yet, you can read a synopsis of it here.
And now I’d like to add my own comments to the community’s.
We must always proceed with caution when we try to determine what constitutes “success” as we seek to end abortion in America. While public opinion polls indicate that America is turning the corner and becoming more life-affirming, we also should consider that the national abortion rate has remained relatively stagnant in the last 10 years.
And while the closing of abortion clinics is good for women, men, families, and communities, we must also take care to realize that sometimes one clinic closes while another one opens.
Public opinion polls are important, but they don’t rescue babies from abortion. The number of abortion clinics and providers is a key statistic, but the number of actual abortions is far more important.
The life-affirming American community gets frustrated with mainstream media, and understandably so. The media rarely, if ever, shares the truth about abortion—it is the willful taking of an innocent, unborn life.
In the TIME article, Pickert complains about the loss of women’s reproductive rights at the hands of state governments who are making it harder to obtain abortions. Yet she doesn’t mention the loss of the right to live for millions of female human beings who were aborted by their parents.
Pickert also calls abortion a women’s issue when, in reality, it is a parental issue and has as much to do with the man as it does the woman. The man, after all, impregnates the woman and, in a large majority of cases, is the key influence (positive or negative) in the decision to abort. The child gets half of his or her genetic code from the male, yet an American man today has virtually no responsibility over his own flesh and blood in the womb.
Yet what seemingly escapes the author’s attention is the undeniable power of showing grace, love, and compassion toward families who are hurting and looking for answers.
While our culture celebrates women’s so-called “choice” in the abortion debate, a choice to abort often leads to grief, depression, anxiety, misery, and pain. And it’s not just the woman who may experience these feelings after an abortion, but also the unborn child’s father, as well as the couple’s family and friends who know about the abortion. What is the cure for these sad symptoms?
The cure is to gracefully meet hurting families at their point of need before they abort their child.
Always keep this in mind: the abortion-minded community and the pro-abortion community are not the same group of people. While life-affirming people get frustrated by the rhetoric in the press, the true need lies with the scared single mom who doesn’t know how she can afford another child.
A deeply held conviction about abortion is hard to change. But helping a scared mom is pretty easy.
Babies and families are not rescued from abortion through opinion polls, media commentary, or the closing of a few abortion clinics. They are saved through the willingness of a life-affirming community to speak with them, love them, tangibly help them, and share truth with them.
Here at Human Coalition, we are continually struck by how many abortions happen out of sheer ignorance. A family doesn’t realize there are financial resources available to help them if they have another child. A single mom doesn’t know she can still get her GED and have a baby. A scared teenager doesn’t believe that her parents won’t disown her if she carries her child to term.
The decision to abort is most often made out of panic, ignorance, and a tremendous sense of insecurity. If fear is cast away, education is lovingly given, and stability restored, then the unborn baby is almost always saved, and the family is spared the pain of abortion.
Human Coalition remains committed to casting out fear, providing truth in love, and connecting abortion-minded parents with people who can gracefully, tangibly help them find stability.
You have my word on this: regardless of opinion polls, the number of abortion clinics, politics, or rhetoric, Human Coalition will keep on working cooperatively with life-affirming groups nationwide to save unborn babies. The only statistic that matters to us is the drastic reduction (and eventual elimination) of abortions in America. And that will only happen when we collectively help hurting people where they live. That is our call, our passion, and our commitment.
I hope it is yours as well.