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4 Ways to Practically Live Out Your Pro-Life Worldview
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- Updated Jun 24, 2022
Life is a gift. The Bible teaches that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) and that God’s eyes even knew our unformed bodies in the womb (Psalm 139:16). God loves us from the very start. He has a plan for every life that he crafts from our very mysterious beginnings in the womb.
A Biblical view of life values it from the time it is discovered, the time that tiny heart starts beating, and strives to protect it until God ordains that its existence here on earth has come to an end. This biblical value for life has become a political issue that causes great divides in our community. Understandably, many care deeply about this issue but we need to express political passion with the utmost respect and care.
Compassion for those who see this issue differently than ourselves is important. Empathy for those who have walked through the loss of a pregnancy to abortion is essential. We can care for life at every stage and recognize the complexities around the political pro-life movement. Walking out our value for life can be more than a political chant from believers but a practical movement of radical love for those in tough situations in our community.
Here are some practical ways to live out your pro-life worldview:
1. Attend a Foster Parent Training in Your Area
I first want to address the very wrong idea that restricting abortion would lead to an increase in children in foster care. This makes the assumption that families that end up entangled in the system did not want their children or worse that these children do not deserve the right to live. These children are loved and worthy of a chance to live out their stories.
The existence of trauma in our world is not a reason to promote abortion. Statistically, this more at-risk population is less likely to utilize birth control methods, so these families are not the primary users of abortion. Less abortion means there would be more children in our world, period.
Nonetheless, showing your willingness to ease the suffering and support the most at-risk children and families in your community is a beautiful way to live out your radical pro-life stance. These children and families deserve communities that are willing to walk alongside them to help them find healing, freedom, and peace. Sadly, there are babies and children that do need forever families to step in when profoundly difficult circumstances make it impossible for a birth family to parent their child.
Foster care training gives you a firsthand look at the process, needs, and ways that you can support these broken situations. To make a difference you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to be present and willing to get in the trenches with those experiencing loss. Being trained opens the door for you to be ready to meet a need if it is presented to you.
2. Rally Around Birth Families
Pro-life means you are pro-family and that means you have to be willing to rally around birth moms in your community. Abortion becomes a "right" choice for moms when they feel that it is a better option than bringing this child into the world. This could be a mother whose plate is so full she can’t imagine another child in the mix. This could be a young Mom, who feels parenting would be too daunting. This could be a birth mom that is entangled in drugs, prostitution, or other difficult circumstances that would make parenting difficult. It can even be in cases of infidelity, where the idea of sharing the news of an unplanned pregnancy would have a terrible ripple effect.
Every Mom’s story is different. We have to make space for these women to feel comfortable telling their stories and remove the stigma that can come alongside carrying an unwanted pregnancy. These moms need to know that they are loved, supported, and that bringing a child into this world is a worthwhile sacrifice.
The reality is carrying a child in your body for 10 months when you may not be able to do the work of parenting them is an immeasurably huge sacrifice. Life is worth giving ourselves for, but we can’t be so black and white on this issue that we don’t recognize the selflessness a mother has to have in order to carry life into this world. We need to see that unwanted pregnancies are tremendously hard to embrace. We need to cheer on these moms, offer them options, support them, and encourage them in their journeys wherever they lead.
3. Support Life at All Stages and Ages
Being pro-life means more than just being against abortion. We have to be against gun violence, poverty, racism, war, support addicts, we have to support refugees, find ways to create equity in our communities, and more. Pro-life from womb to tomb means we care about it all. Taking a holistic view of how we walk out our pro-life stance can grow empathy in us for those who maybe care very deeply about issues that affect our world profoundly beyond the abortion conversation. Being pro-life should create a lot of common ground between you and those who hold different political worldviews.
4. Get Involved with Pro-Life Organizations in Your Community
Become the frontline workers for this issue in your community. Link up with pregnancy resource centers, homes that support teen/young moms, support local foster parents/group homes for teens, and more. Invest in being the safe space for moms in your community.
There are some national organizations you can invest in that address this issue as well. Project Rachel offers support for mothers who have made the decision to have an abortion. They try to walk alongside these women to help ease the suffering that comes with this loss in their lives. Heartbeat International this organization offers pregnancy support to expectant moms, helping them to have all the facts before making a decision about whether or not to abort. United for Life is an advocacy group that works to promote laws that protect life at every age and stage. These are just a few of the many worthy organizations that are seeking to make a difference on this issue. Seek out more information on what exists around you and find ways to support this meaningful work.
Our impact is so much greater when we move past heated political debates or controversial social media posts and begin to do the practical work of being the hands and feet of Jesus in our community. When God gets a hold of lives, then the value of his creation becomes self-evident to his followers. Love those who are in a place of turmoil over what the future may hold for them and begin to see God change their heart for his good.
Pray for those that may be wondering if they have the strength to give of themselves for the sake of another life. May they hear God’s call toward a sacrificial love in those difficult moments. Speak life to birth moms, adoptive moms, adoptees, expecting moms, young moms, foster parents, and moms who have suffered the loss of their child. We build a pro-life community when we build a pro-family, pro-mother society.
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