What Does Pro-Life Really Mean?
- Janet Thompson Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
- Updated Nov 19, 2024
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, thus allowing the individual states to make their own laws legislating abortion, the spiritual and legal battle to protect the sanctity of life from the moment of conception continues. We hear the negotiating argument of what about six weeks versus fifteen weeks? But how can that even be a question since every person with breath in their lungs today was granted life at conception, including everyone arguing for abortion and against pro-life. We should thank our mothers who chose life for us no matter what the circumstances.
The terms pro-choice versus pro-life are tossed around in the media, courts, and public opinions, but let’s take a closer look at the true pro-life meaning, not just politically, but morally and spiritually.
Beyond the Label: Understanding Pro-Life Values
The opposite of pro-life is not pro-choice; it’s pro-death. That’s what we’re really talking about. Does a mother have the “choice” to kill her unborn child? Most people try to soften this reality, but that’s impossible. If you saw the movie “Unplanned” which chronicles the moral and spiritual awakening of Abby Johnson when she visually watched an abortion at Planned Parenthood, where she was in management, or talked to a nurse or doctor who has left the abortion profession, you’ll see or hear of a baby fighting for its life as the baby is either poisoned, has its neck broken, or is dismembered. The baby feels pain in an abortion and tries to get away from the suction tube, needles, or instruments. It’s heartbreaking.
That’s the harsh reality disguised by a softer sounding word like abortion, pro-choice, or even more deceptive lies, “healthcare” or “reproductive rights.”
If you’re thinking pro-death or pro-murder are too strong of terms, Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines abortion as “the termination of a pregnancy by the death or removal of an embryo or fetus.”
Today’s culture considers abstinence until marriage archaic and laughable and scoffs at anyone who dares to suggest it, or chooses to live by God’s principles. And that brings us to a place where those of us who have lived awhile would never have expected possible in America: infanticide.
No one talks about STDs or unwanted pregnancies from unprotected sex because Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics makes it easy and accessible to simply kill an unwanted baby. When murder becomes considered morally good, we have definitely regressed to barbarism.
Abortion has become the accepted crime of unbridled passion and lust. There’s only one entity that could bring us to this despicable time in history: Satan.
Yet, those who lobby for abortion claim it’s a constitutional liberty or right of personal autonomy. But pro-life advocates point out there is no right to abortion in the Constitution. Instead, it grants the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness to every life, born or unborn, not just the ones someone chooses to let live. The Constitution does not give the right to murder our babies in or out of the womb. They are little people with their own heartbeat, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, brain, organs, toes, arms, legs, and unique fingerprints with sensitivity to pain, and ability to laugh and cry. They deserve a chance at life, as does each of God’s creations. That’s the position of being pro or for allowing a baby to be born and enjoy life.
What Does the Bible Say about Being Pro-Life?
Before ultrasounds and heartbeat monitoring, women bought into the lie that it’s just a blob of cells that can’t feel pain. But now, we can see the baby developing and hearing the heartbeat at six weeks. We know, without a doubt, that life begins at conception. Yet there are still many lobbying for killing that human being, even after it takes its first breath!
The Bible confirms that this is wrong. God creates each of us at conception. He is the Creator and Sustainer of life.
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Gen. 1:27-28 NLT
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Ps. 139:13-14 NLT
Children are God’s gift to his children, not a burden to be discarded.
“You must not murder.” Ex. 20:13 NLT
Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Ps. 127:3 NLT
“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Deut. 30:19-20 NLT
Psalm 22:10-11 (NLT) could be the cry of every baby facing death by abortion.
I was thrust into your arms at my birth. You have been my God from the moment I was born. Do not stay so far from me, for trouble is near, and no one else can help me.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Stevan Ovicigor
Why Christians Should Be Pro-Life
The Devil tries to seduce with deception by calling the baby a “fetus,” which sounds clinical and not like a human being. But mothers don’t say they’re pregnant with a fetus, a brain-dead person, or a blob of cells. Mothers say they’re going to have a baby: a precious, fragile, defenseless human being that, according to some state current laws, she can “choose” to murder or let live.
A scientific discovery is now confirming what Christians have always known that life begins at conception when sperm fertilizes an egg, and at that moment, God determines the baby’s sex. A video reveals what appears to be a fluorescent display of fireworks taking place at the moment of conception. The ‘flash of light’ is created when zinc is released and binds to tiny molecules that “emit a fluorescence,” only viewable by microscopes. This discovery is nothing short of a breathtaking display of our Creator’s hand at work in creating each of us.
Science and technology now confirm that by six weeks, a child has a beating heart, a developing brain, and a spinal cord. At ten weeks, the child has arms, legs, fingers, and toes and can kick. By fifteen weeks, the baby has a nose, lips, eyebrows, and eyelids and can feel pain, yawn, and suck a thumb.
When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, he told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35 NLT) She was going to become pregnant with the Savior of the world as a young teenager and a virgin betrothed to marry Joseph. Talk about bad timing! Inconvenient! Embarrassing! Disrupting her marriage plans.
Today’s pro-choice advocates would argue that Mary had every justification for either saying no I won’t do this for you Lord, or if she conceived anyway, call the local abortionist and murder God’s Son, the future Savior of the world.
There would be no Christmas. No fulfillment of prophecy. No Cross. No opportunity for repentance and forgiveness of our sins. No eternal life! God’s plans for future generations thwarted!
Praise God, instead, “Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” (Luke 1:38 NLT)
How many of God’s children who He knit together in their mother’s womb who He had great plans for them to rescue our world in the areas of medicine, health, science, teachers, preachers, fathers, and mothers of future generations have been slaughtered before they could take their first breath or horrifically some even murdered after birth? How many?
Over 63 million babies have been killed since Roe v Wade legalized unlimited abortions in 1973! Even after abortion is now determined in the states, approximately 2,548 children every day are lost to abortion. Now it’s up to us in each of our states to preserve life. Christians need to be a voice and a vote for saving these future babies. We need to vote for pro-choice legislatures from the White House to the local government.
As a church body and individual Christians, when we know someone is thinking about terminating their pregnancy, we need to boldly and lovingly share the Scriptures that support giving that child a chance at life. Pray with and for the mother and help her find alternatives to aborting her child. In Mentoring for All Seasons, I discuss how to scripturally mentor a woman who is considering abortion and also women who have already had abortions.
We can also help pregnant women locate pregnancy care centers that are free and offer help during pregnancy and after the baby is born. I have a precious adopted grandson because a nurse told his 15-year-old birthmother about a Christian adoption agency. We must be willing to step out of our comfort zone and reach out with understanding, love, and tangible help.
We should use every opportunity to celebrate life, especially if you have a platform. Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker went with his teammates to the White House to be honored for their Super Bowl LVII victory. Butker wore a tie with "Vulnerari Praesidio" in cursive writing repeated the length of the tie, which is a Latin term that translates to "Protect the most vulnerable," and the press noticed it!
He also wore on his lapel a gold pin of baby’s feet, representing the size of a 10-week-old aborted baby. "I want to give the most vulnerable, the unborn, a voice at a place where every effort has been made to allow and normalize the tragic termination of their lives," Butker said in a statement. "As a father who has experienced three miscarriages, my wife and I understand the hardships that come with losing a child. Every life is precious and should be valued whether outside or inside the womb."
Butker’s tie was designed by Live Action, a pro-life Christian organization that we can support. Abby Johnson, who I mentioned earlier, has become a pro-life activist with a foundation, And Then There Were None, ministering to men and women leaving the abortion industry.
God created and has a plan for every child conceived. That’s not just a “religious belief,” but a reality.
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jer. 29:11 NLT
There’s No Right Way to Do the Wrong Thing
There’s no justification for having sex and killing a baby because the sex was convenient, but the baby is inconvenient. Our culture today is playing God by choosing who can live and who should die. That’s not going to end well.
This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus. Rev. 14:12
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Luke 17:28-30
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Ildar Abulkhanov
