The impending Supreme Court decision on “the heartbeat” laws will potentially reignite a lot of conversation with people over the issues of Pro-Life and Pro-Choice. It’s important for those that support Pro-Life to know that a victory at the supreme court level is only the beginning of a lot of hard work.
A potential overturning of Roe v. Wade is a not the end of abortion or the abortion industry. It would only push the power to decide back down to the people on a state level. So we could potentially have some states, such as New York state, still continuing their policies of abortion up until late in the pregnancy. Conversely you could have Mississippi’s laws restricting abortion after a heartbeat is detected around five weeks. A reversal of Roe v. Wade gives the people of each state more power to decide for themselves what their laws should be. That makes a state like Pennsylvania an interesting battleground where the organization, prayer, and efforts of people on a county by county level would play a role in our state’s leniency or restrictiveness on abortion laws.
An overturning will give new opportunities for churches and communities to be actively engaged in new ways around this issue. Here’s a roadmap I hope we could follow:
1. Support Life
Human life begins at conception. The words we use are important to help people think clearly about this issue. It’s not just a fetus or a blob of tissue. It’s a child. It’s a developing person within the womb. That has always been the Pro-Life commitment. Four-dimensional imaging and recent scientific research have helped persuade a greater population of people on the personhood of babies in the womb.
Any time the attempt to define life is detached from conception the line proves arbitrary and the definition proves problematic. If we define life by brain activity, heartbeat, or viability these definitions run into disastrous consequences when applying them to end of life scenarios, or quality of medical care scenarios. Conception is still the clear starting point when human life and personhood are established. It should always be our medical community’s target to aim on the side of caution and to protect “human life” as exceptional and sacred, rather than impose our will or choice upon the sacredness of another life.
2. Support Women
When I listen to women’s advocacy groups and the Pro-Choice considerations I hear a concern for women’s health and well-being. Indeed, the 1973 decision by the Supreme Court couched the issue as a women’s reproductive health and rights issue. It effectively says that the decision over a woman’s body should not be left to the politicians; her choices are between her and her health care provider. The Pro-Life counterargument would say a woman’s freedom of choice ends with the second human life she just created. But that retort does not mean we can’t be both Pro-women’s health and baby’s health. Both can be prioritized. With the resources available to us, terminating a child’s life does not have to be the go-to option for helping working Mom’s or women who have an unwanted pregnancy. Pregnancy resources, adoptive and foster care options, supportive church communities, and financial sponsorships should all be mobilized to help women who are unable to effectively care for their child. There are wonderful organizations we can partner locally with, such as Align Life Ministries https://alignlifeministries.org/ who do an excellent job at this.
Additionally, because of this issue’s polarity, and the social shame attached to it, we don’t often hear about the harmful effects of abortions on the women involved. There are very real and enduring psychological and physical damages that occur during abortions. We can help prevent women from these unnecessary traumas by offering them a third way, being Pro-Life and Pro-Women’s advocacy. We can also help them to heal from the harmful affects of abortions through ministries like Deeper Still https://www.godeeperstill.org. Check out Deeper Still’s presentation at Petra Church here.
3. Create Solutions, Not Shame
It’s easy to get passionate about this issue because of the ideas in conflict. Literally, our American Declaration of Independence states “life and liberty” as two sacred cornerstones to what it means to be human. Those two ideas are seemingly pitted against one another in this one Pro-Life verses Pro-Choice issue.
Yet, underneath all of the legal and political and social tensions there are real women, and real families, and real babies, and real situations. And each of them are personal and unique. And each of them needs an advocate and a helper to step into their world and provide wisdom, clarity, resources, and compassionate support. In the process of standing for life, let’s also continue to create local solutions for the real people that we work next to in our office and in our neighborhoods and in our schools.
4. Human life is exceptional
Our church believes that human life carries the sacred signature of divine origin; every human life is inspired, created, blessed and endowed by a Creator. Every human life is worth protecting, nurturing, honoring, preserving, and caring for as long as they exists on this earth. Every life is a gift that radiates with the very image of God himself.
Even for non-believers our hope is that they can embrace policies that endorse human exceptionalism, even if they don’t embrace divine design. Human life is exceptional and distinct from any other plant or animal. The very idea of human life must be protected, nurtured, preserved, honored and cared for. Honoring that is what makes us humane. When we begin making decisions that denigrate human life, or blur the edges of care, or elevate one human life as more important than another, or terminate life prematurely, then we cross thresholds that empower us to act in ways that aren't always as protectors and servants. Being Pro-Life is a lifestyle that requires sacrifice every single day. We express it in the ways we respect even the people we don’t like, the ways we care for our elderly neighbors, and the ways we provide for our families.
I wanted to end with these enduring and powerful words written 2,500 years ago by King David in the 139th Psalm.
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb…
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
