A soul-searching question we are often asked is, “Why should men be involved in the pro-life movement?” 

This comes in contrast to the common idea that men believe pregnancy is a woman’s thing. We don’t know what it’s like to be pregnant. Men typically respond by saying, “Don’t get me involved in the pro-life conversation, because that’s a woman’s issue. I don’t want to get embarrassed by something I’m totally clueless about.” 

PREGNANCY – WHY MEN JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND  

To prove our innocence, let’s first talk about men’s ignorance of pregnancy – things that women experience, and men never will: 

• Morning sickness. 

• A growing belly (but not always – men can do this too, just not as fast). 

• Weird food cravings. 

• Getting kicked from the inside – morning, noon, and night! 

• Can’t see her shoes, AND did someone say she has to tie them? 

• Wanting to sleep straight through the first trimester – that’s why Saturdays are for napping… ALL DAY LONG! 

• Not being able to breathe in that last trimester because the baby is taking up all her lung capacity. 

• When giving birth – hours on end, excruciating pain – men try to empathize, but have no idea. 

For men, pregnancy can be very confusing. There are physical changes, lifestyle changes, appetite changes, emotional changes, sleep pattern changes, hormonal changes, doctors’ appointments. AND, on top of all that, women have started talking about their pregnancy in weeks instead of months. It’s very confusing. 

ABORTION IS A NOT JUST A WOMAN’S ISSUE 

Here are some of the reasons we often believe abortion is not our issue: 

• We don’t have the right to talk about abortion because … hey, we’re men. 

• We don’t have the right to dictate to women what they should do with their body.  
  Your body, your choice! 

• If I don’t get to choose, then I won’t get involved. 

• A fetus is not a person until it is born, so it doesn’t matter. 

• It’s not a good time in our lives to have a baby. 

• At this time, we wouldn’t be good parents to a baby. 

• We want to focus on the children we already have.  

• It costs too much to have a baby – we can’t afford it. 

• We didn’t plan to have a baby, so abortion is like a reset button to solve our “problem.” 

All these reasons and more have been cited, but if the child in the womb is human, they fall flat. If the baby is uniquely crafted by God and bears the image of God that we are compelled to defend, we should not be silent. 

When it comes to abortion, let’s remember, there are two distinct humans in every pregnancy – the mother and the child. Each bears their own DNA, fingerprints, eye and hair color, blood type, digestive system, brain, heart, and of course five senses. Yes, it’s the mother’s body, but two human beings – two souls – sharing the same body for about 40 weeks. Once conceived, the preborn baby must be valued and protected just as much as the mother. And do you know what that makes you? A father. 

There is one other aspect of abortion that hasn’t been mentioned: The shame, regret, and pain of ending a human life. This deeply changes both the mother and the father, and never goes away. 

Millions of moms and dads around the country have endured the heartache and regret of abortion. They wonder: Who would my child be today? What would he or she look like? What would he or she be doing now?   

WOMEN WANT TO HAVE THEIR BABIES 

Among the thousands of abortion-seeking women who have come to Human Coalition, 76 percent say they would prefer to parent their child rather than have an abortion if their circumstances were different. 

Guys, women want to have their children! They don’t want to abort their baby! But they do, often because men are not speaking against abortion and standing up for their partners and their babies. 

Men, it is absolutely crucial that we – all of us – get involved in the pro-life movement. Our voice, our actions, our commitment are of utmost importance to transforming our culture and making abortion unthinkable and unnecessary. 

MEN HAVE A HUGE INFLUENCE  

The truth is, men make babies too. It’s impossible to procreate without both a male and female. From the beginning, we see that it is God’s design for a family (Gen 1:27) to include both the mother and father (Gen 1:28).  

These shocking statistics on the impact of absent fathers in America show the importance of God’s design for both a mother and father to be present in a child’s life. 

• 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (U.S. Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5 times the average. 

• Fatherless families are 4x more likely to live in poverty than that for married-couple families. 

• 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions come from single-parent homes. 

• When children have an actively involved father, they are 33% less likely to drop out of school and 43% more likely to get A’s. 

Men: We aren’t just needed after a baby is born. We are needed as a partner and a father from the beginning of our child’s life in the womb. Since abortion was legalized nationally in 1973, more than  64 million sons and daughters have been lost. For every one of those children, there is a mother, a father, a community, and a whole family tree impacted by the loss of that child. And men, we could have had a huge impact on rescuing those precious lives. 

In surveys of women who had an abortion and men whose partner had an abortion, men proved to be the greatest single influence in the decision, even though almost one-third of men said nothing. Yes, our silence speaks volumes to a woman who fears she may have to parent alone. 

Imagine the anxiety and loneliness when facing an unexpected pregnancy as a woman. And when asked if your partner supports you, she repeats him as saying, “Well, it’s your body, so it’s your choice, right?” 

Women who face an unexpected pregnancy turn to the father of the baby more than anyone else.  

A quote often attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer says “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” 

MEN HAVE A COMMANDING VOICE ON THE ABORTION ISSUE 

Men, what are you publicly saying about abortion — or are you silent? How are you acting against abortion? Are you fighting to rescue women and their preborn babies, or showing apathy toward life? 

We have a voice and it’s important that we stand up – not only for preborn babies, but for mothers who are making these decisions.  

Men, we have a significant voice in the abortion conversation – in our churches, communities, states, and our nation. In truth, our voice has the power of life and death. 

One of my favorite movies is Schindler’s List. We are very much in the same position as Oskar Schindler – to save innocent lives. I loved what his character proclaimed: 

“Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don’t.”  

Sadly, our culture believes it has every justification to abort innocent preborn babies. That influence, through the pro-abortion industry like Planned Parenthood and others, is very powerful. So, we must stand against it all the more and proclaim life!  

So, yes, abortion is a men’s issue, and our voice is a commanding voice – significant in rescuing innocent babies in their mother’s wombs. 

MOST WOMEN SEEK ABORTION DUE TO DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES 

If we as Christians truly do believe that our lives, the lives of children, and the lives of their mothers are a gift from God, then few things could be as valuable as working to “Rescue those being led away to death, holding back those staggering to the slaughter,” as it says in Proverbs 24:11.  

As we’ve seen, most women find themselves seeking an abortion because of difficult life circumstances. Organizations like Human Coalition have a front-row seat to the issues that drive women and families to feel terrified in the face of an unexpected pregnancy.  

We know that most abortions are sought in the face of extremely solvable problems.  

Did you know that only a tiny percentage of abortions are procured because a woman was raped, because her life is in danger, or because her child is experiencing a lethal defect?  

Yet, Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry have told pregnant women for years that those horrible experiences are the majority, and that abortion is their only option. This has created a cultural myth that abortion is necessary in their lives.  

MEN MUST BE FULLY INVOLVED 

We must serve and care for abortion-seeking women, so they see what you and I already know: Abortion is completely preventable in their lives. We must be proactive in meeting the tangible and emotional needs that are prompting anxious women to get an abortion in the first place. A real man supports his partner and helps her see that abortion is truly unthinkable and unnecessary! 

Our culture shouts that abortion is entirely a woman’s issue. That is an outright lie and promotes more abortions. When we leave men out of the equation, we take away the greatest support women need to choose life. We leave her abandoned, frightened, and believing aborting the baby in her womb is her only option. 

Men, the pro-life movement is not confined to either gender. We play a vital role in shaping a culture that values and protects the sanctity of all human lives – in or out of the womb. 

There is no denying it, men must be involved in the pro-life movement – globally and personally. Our input and support could be the difference between life and death. Choose life – always!