Hello, Roland Warren here.
Welcome to part two of our Pro-Life Mythbusters
series.
Today I'm gonna tackle just one myth, but
it's a big one!
It's one of the most common criticisms the
pro-life movement hears and it's one of the
most common negative comments that we hear
on our Facebook page.
It's the myth that pro-life people only care
about babies when they're in the womb, but
we don't care about them when they're born.
Some of our critics put it this way.
Pro-lifer's are just pro-fetus.
They don't even care about children at all.
We are just obsessed with fetuses.
There are several things that make this myth
stand out as the king of all myths about the
pro-life movement.
For starters, I found this criticism as a
thinly veiled way of saying that if pro-life
people really care about babies, they would
be in favor of all government programs that
are designed to support mothers, fathers,
and their children.
However, these critics are confusing caring
about babies with support of federal government
programs as the best, optimal, most efficient,
and most compassionate way to care for those
in need.
This is an unfortunate mindset that has infiltrated
our culture.
We no longer have faith in the power of communities
to care for those less fortunate and those
in need through forces like private charities
and churches.
Instead, we have become dependent on federal
government programs to deal with community
issues.
Furthermore, since we are all subject to the
same tax laws, regardless of our stance on
abortion, or our faith in what the taxes fund,
all people, pro-life and pro-choice support
such programs to the same degree.
So unless the pro-choice people are sending
extra checks to the IRS, they are doing nothing
more to support these programs than anyone
else.
Moreover, study after study confirms that
church going people donate significantly more
of their time and money to private charities
than anyone else in the country.
For example, a 2013 study by an non-profit
group called Connected to Give found that
about seventy-five percent of people who frequently
attended religious services gave to their
house of worship and sixty-percent gave to
religious charities or non-religious ones.
By comparison, fewer than half of people who
said they didn't attend religious services
regularly supported any charity, even a secular
one.
So, a core pro-life demographic, those attending
religious services, is not only paying their
taxes like everyone else, they are giving
more to charities than anyone else.
Another problem with this myth is that it
lets pro-choice people off the hook when it
comes to their responsibility to babies when
the woman is at-risk or faces obstacles and
she chooses to bring a child into the world.
Let me explain.
One of the ways this myth manifests itself
is when pro-choice people say to pro-life
people, since you're pro-life, you have a
special responsibility to care for unwanted
babies and children.
But there's another problem.
If someone is truly pro-choice, that means
that they support two choices: abortion and
birth.
They don't care which one the woman chooses,
as long as she has the right to choose.
So this means that if a woman chooses to keep
her baby, even if they don't agree with their
choice, they have to support her choice, even
if that means caring for babies that a woman
wants to give birth to, but not raise.
Therefore, they would have just as much responsibility
for her baby as pro-life people do.
Which of course includes adopting unwanted
babies.
But wait, there's more!
You see, pro-choice folks work tirelessly
to remove any and all obstacles to give a
woman access to abortion.
But if they're pro-choice, rather than pro-abortion,
they should also use their political, financial,
and social power to remove any and all obstacles
from a woman who wants to have a baby, but
is facing challenging circumstance.
Heck, Planned Parenthood should have at least
one pregnancy center for every abortion clinic,
but they don't.
Indeed, supporting these women is the unique
work of pregnancy centers, isn't it?
You see, we are living out our pro-Life, that
is, pro abundant life worldview, while they
are not living out their pro-choice worldview.
Because they really only support women in
one choice: Access to abortion.
So the next time a pro-choice person asks
you how many children you have adopted, you
should ask them how many children they have
adopted too and explain to them that their
pro-choice conviction makes them equally responsible
for every life that comes into the world,
even if it's unplanned.
And once again, when you look at the data,
it's practicing Christians who are most likely
to adopt children and take children into their
homes through foster care.
For example, a Barna Group survey from 2013
concluded that practicing Christians are more
than twice as likely to adopt than the general
population.
And, practicing Christians are fifty-percent
more likely to be foster parents.
Again, a core pro-life demographic is doing
exactly what the pro-choice people say they
should be doing.
While those same pro-choice people aren't
actually doing it nearly as much.
The final point I will make about the myth
that pro-life people don't care about babies
after they're born, is that pro-life organizations
such as pregnancy centers provide an enormous
amount of support to babies.
As the stats and studies indicated in my last
Life Chat, pregnancy centers provide services
for poor, minority, and at-risk babies before
and after their birth.
Care Net's network of affiliated pregnancy
centers, which accounts for about half of
the twenty-five hundred centers nation-wide
provided fifty-six million dollars in free
services in 2014 alone.
If these pro-life centers only care about
babies in the womb, why would they provide
marriage and relationship support, parenting
classes, diapers, financial assistance, and
other aid to children and their parents?
So as you can see, there're several reasons
that this myth must be busted.
In fact, the very reason pro-life people are
pro-life people is because of our deep conviction
that every human life begins at conception
and is worth of protection.
And we are consistent in this belief.
We believe it is true for adults, it is true
for children, it is true for the disabled
and the poor, it is true for babies, and it
is true for the unborn children in their mother's
womb.
Amen?
Until next time, may God bless you daily as
you serve Him faithfully.
