Does the pro-life movement help mothers?
One of the biggest myths about abortion today is that the pro-life movement doesn’t help mothers. But I guess that shouldn’t be surprising.
Any culture that believes they’re helping mothers by encouraging them to kill their own children shouldn’t be expected to know what it really means to help mothers.
When people who kill children are considered heroes — of course, people who save children will be considered villains.
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Therefore since the leak that America’s Supreme Court is set to revoke Roe v. Wade, critics of the pro-life movement have become even more devoted to that myth.
The critics say the pro-life movement isn’t “pro-life from womb to tomb” or “holistically pro-life.” They say we’re just “pro-birth and anti-abortion.” They say we don’t care about mothers, we only care about babies; otherwise, we would support socialist healthcare, paid parental leave, “free” child care, and more.
Essentially, they claim the pro-life movement doesn’t help mothers.
As you’ve probably noticed on social media — increasingly, some of these critics are professing pro-life Christians, including organizations like And Campaign and influential evangelicals like Russell Moore.
Earlier this week, Russell Moore said: “If in fact Roe is overturned, those of us who are pro-life must work to convince our neighbors that we can and will love and protect both mothers and children.”
And a few years ago, an ad from The And Campaign shamefully described the pro-life movement as “protecting the unborn baby (but) ignoring the mother.” And worse, they described the pro-abortion movement as “protecting the mother (but) ignoring the unborn baby.”
It’s depressing that many professing Christians are embracing talking points from abortion activists. Some professing Christians really believe the pro-life movement ignores mothers? And they really believe the pro-abortion movement protects mothers?
We should expect these deceptive and deadly words from the devil and his minions, not Christians.
How could anyone — especially professing Christians — suggest people who murder a baby actually care more about the baby’s mother than the people who attempt to save that baby?
How could anyone suggest the pro-abortion movement protect mothers? How could anyone suggest the pro-life movement ignores mothers?
People who murder a mother’s baby are not protecting the mother. And people who protect a mother’s baby are not ignoring the mother.
After all, what is the definition of a mother? A mother is simply a woman with a child, right? Meaning, a mother is defined by her relationship to her child. It’s impossible to relationally separate a mother from her child.
Therefore, if a person harms a baby — they are not helping the mother. If a person kills a baby, they are not protecting the mother.
In the same way, if a person helps a baby — they are not harming the mother. If a person protects a baby, they are not ignoring the mother.
It’s bizarre that this needs to be said: the best thing a person could do for a mother is to save her baby. After all, wouldn’t a good mother sacrifice her own life to save her baby?
If a person kills a baby, they are not merely guilty of killing the baby — they’re also guilty of hurting the mother.
Therefore, to be unmistakably clear: the pro-abortion movement doesn’t “protect the mother but ignore the baby.”
The pro-abortion movement doesn’t protect mothers, and they surely do not ignore babies.
O how I wish they ignored babies! Pre-born babies and their mothers would be better off if the pro-abortion movement ignored them!
If the pro-abortion movement ignored babies, 1 of out 4 women wouldn’t get abortions. If the pro-abortion movement ignored babies, 63 million pre-born babies wouldn’t have been murdered in America since Roe v. Wade in 1973.
The pro-abortion movement doesn’t ignore babies: they murder them.
The pro-life movement, however, protects babies and their mothers.
As for the ridiculous claim that the pro-life movement needs to embrace essentially leftist or socialist causes in order to prove we’re authentically pro-life: no.
We’re anti-abortion because we’re anti-murder, we’re not ashamed of that. Besides, leftist and socialist history is tied to murder and death. Leftism and socialism are not pro-life. They promise life, but they deliver death.
Most people who suggest pro-life people need to embrace leftist policies to prove we’re genuinely pro-life are insincere abortion activists. However, some critics of the pro-life movement sincerely believe pro-life people should embrace leftists policies because they think leftist policies decrease abortion.
But that is also a myth. In America, the states with the highest abortion rates are actually Democrat-controlled states with the most leftist and expansive social welfare programs in the country. And that’s consistent with international data: the top 14 nations with the highest abortion rates in the world are either current or former socialist nations.
Nevertheless, anyone who claims the pro-life movement isn’t really pro-life because we do not support leftist or socialist causes is just as ridiculous as a person who claims the abolitionist movement wasn’t really abolitionists because they didn’t support leftist or socialist causes.
Just as it’s okay for the abolitionist movement be strictly anti-slavery, it’s okay for the pro-life movement to be strictly anti-abortion.
And yet, the pro-life movement is much more than an anti-abortion movement. Unlike the pro-abortion movement, it’s a pro-mothers movement too.
I’ve talked to thousands of people in churches, conferences, schools, and streets about abortion. And like every pro-life advocate, there isn’t a single time when I didn’t talk about how important it is for the pro-life movement to continue to help mothers.
That’s deeply important to me. I was raised by a single mother in Ghana after my father abandoned our family when he learned my mother was pregnant with me. Many mothers, like my mom, are abandoned by their husbands or boyfriends when they get pregnant — the pro-life movement shouldn’t abandon them either.
And by the Grace of God, I can say that we do not abandon them. There are over 600 Planned Parenthood locations committed to killing babies and hurting mothers in America. However, there are at least 2546 crisis pregnancy centers across the country.
Meaning, for every Planned Parenthood location — there are at least 4 crisis pregnancy centres. These centers are led and funded by Catholics and evangelicals, and they protect pregnant women suffering from domestic violence, abandonment, drug addiction, financial hardship and more. They offer women free pregnancy tests, counseling, baby and maternity clothes, adoption information, parenting recourses, financial assistance, housing, and more.
Like every good social movement, of course the pro-life movement could be better than what it is today. Just as we could do more to protect babies, we could do more to protect mothers too.
However, considering the number of crisis pregnancies centers pregnancies in America, especially compared to Planned Parenthood locations — and considering the increasingly strong pro-life bills across America, including the news that the Supreme Court is apparently set to revoke Roe v. Wade: the pro-life movement is doing extraordinarily well, despite overwhelming opposition.
The pro-life movement protects mothers and babies from people who want to strip them from the wonderful bond between a mother and her child — so yes, the pro-life movement helps mothers.
Originally published at Slow to Write.
Samuel Sey is a Ghanaian-Canadian who lives in Brampton, a city just outside of Toronto. He is committed to addressing racial, cultural, and political issues with biblical theology, and always attempts to be quick to listen and slow to speak.
