The pro-choice (pro-abortion) side has fought for the rights of women to terminate unwanted pregnancies, assigning a certain nobility to their cause arguing that they are "all about saving women's lives" (from "back alley" abortions). While the pro-life side has waged a valiant war, they have unwittingly created an atmosphere in our country that has pitted the woman against the very child she's carrying, playing most effectively into the pro-abortionists' plans. While the life of the unborn child is well worth fighting for, pro-lifers have overlooked the factors that cause a woman to consider having an abortion. In fact, they have overlooked the woman completely. Further, in the fight for the baby, they have alienated the woman for whom it is too late, the woman who has already chosen abortion. This has been a crucial error for within the ranks of the post-abortive lies the key to turning the tide of abortion in our country. I believe the experience these women (and men) have had is already having a detrimental affect on the pervasiveness of abortion here in the U.S., simply by virtue of those people impacting the lives closest to them. How much more, however, could the impact be felt if these other victims of abortion, many of whom are Christians, were walked through the healing process to the point that they could then speak out more freely on the issue, bringing to light the side of the experience that has been hidden away in the deepest recesses of their hearts? Very simply, as the hurting are healed, they are empowered and impassioned to take their message of pain and healing to the world around them, perpetuating the truth of the harmfulness of abortion and the incomparable healing found in and through Jesus Christ.
In all this warring however, the church has been almost completely silent on the matter (with the exception of a relatively few congregations that have encouraged their members to support the pro-life philosophy), and bizarrely so, I might add. It's a silence that can be almost deafening at times. Our country has come to an almost civil war type of division on this issue, but where is the voice of the church? What are we doing about it? To coin a familiar euphemism, what would Jesus do?
Beyond the issue of abortion itself are all the issues that eclipse the "need" or pave the way for abortion on demand. Issues such as the widespread acceptance of "casual sex" among our young people; the public schools' attempts to educate our youth on "safe sex" while simultaneously undermining the key element of abstinence and sexual purity; the perpetuation of situational ethics; the prevalence and social acceptance of premarital and extramarital sex; the meteoric rise in the number of sexual abuse victims (both male and female); the pervasiveness of pornography; single parent issues; rise in incidents of date rape; and the list goes on ad infinitum. How is the church addressing these factors that often lead to abortion? Where is her voice? How is she contributing to the solutions to these issues?
Having participated in the decision-making process with a close friend many years ago, I experienced firsthand the thought processes a woman goes through when faced with an unexpected, unwanted, or ill-timed pregnancy. Because my friend decided to abort her child, and because of the influential role I played in that process, I likewise bear the burden of responsibility for the loss of that innocent baby. His blood is on my hands. Likewise, I bear the responsibility for the consequences that decision has visited upon my friend's life. Though I have been completely forgiven by God because of the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I will always live with the knowledge that one life was lost and another devastated because I didn't have the courage to take a stand with her. I didn't know much about abortion back then, but I knew it ended the life of an unborn child. That knowledge should have been enough for me to influence her to keep her baby. Regrettably that was not the case.
As a result of being involved in her abortion however, I have had the privilege of working with many pre- and post-abortive women over the years, many of whom were Christians at the time of their abortion. One of the myths about abortion, particularly among Christians, is that the women who choose them do so out of selfishness and arrogance, proudly stomping into the local abortion clinic demanding their legal right to terminate their pregnancy. The truth more often than not is to the contrary. As Frederica Mathewes-Green so eloquently put it, "No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice-cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off its own leg." It's a brutal yet fitting description for an excruciating event in the lives of these women.
Another myth is that only pro-abortion women have abortions. The sad truth is that many pro-life Christian women have abortions. In fact, recent statistics have reported that one in four women has at least one abortion by the age of 45. That refers to both Christian and non-Christian women across the board. It's easy to stand on one's principles when one is not faced with the life-altering consequences of pregnancy. It's easy to say, "I would never have an abortion," - until faced with a pregnancy that for all intents and purposes creates a crisis situation in one's life. However for these women especially, the trauma of abortion is immediate and overwhelming, causing a level of grief, guilt and regret that surpasses that of just about any other act known to mankind. What's more, many of them believe that because they knew it was wrong and did it anyway, it is a sin too big for God to forgive. Even if they can be convinced that it is not beyond God's ability to forgive, they are more often than not unable to forgive themselves or others involved in the decision to abort. The result is a large number of Christians crippled by intense guilt, shame and unforgiveness. Who is walking through the healing process with them? Who is offering them the compassion and kindness of Christ without condemnation, without judging them? Who is there that they can trust with such a heavy burden? Who is willing to bear that burden with them? The answer to all these questions should be their brothers and sisters in Christ.
The statistics grow even more grim as the other victims of abortion are revealed. For every "potential" mother there is a potential father, many of whom have coerced or forced her to abort. There are the potential grandparents who likewise participate many times in the decision-making process. Other times, the father and grandparents have no say in the decision, and are left with the pain and grief of knowing what might have been and that they were powerless to stop it. The unborn child's siblings also often suffer in a variety of ways. The friends of the mother, as I was, often carry the pain of that abortion as well. In the final analysis when the statistics are tabulated it would seem that nearly every person in our country has been touched in some way by the devastatingly painful word abortion - many of whom are unaware of the source of that pain.
And those pro-abortion people who fight so passionately for the rights of women to abort? They are often post-abortive themselves. Carol Everett, a one-time abortion clinic owner once said that for every abortion she sold it validated her own abortion. By fighting this fight these women find validation for their decision. Validation that there is nothing wrong with what they've done. Validation that enables them to continue to deny the overwhelming pain that would no doubt consume them were abortion to ever be made illegal or socially unacceptable again.
Who is reaching out to those people? Are they not similar in many ways to the woman Jesus counseled at the well in the Book of John chapter four? Did He meet her with placards (such as those depicting the results of abortion upon a fetus) and picket signs, labeling her sin and shouting offers of prayer for her soul? No, He met her where she was as she was with sincere love, acceptance, hope, and yes, the truth.
Shouldn't we in the church be reaching out to the pro-choice population - the abortion clinic staff, the Planned Parenthood volunteers - in like manner? Loving them where they are, accepting them as they are, allowing them to see the love and hope and healing power of Jesus Christ that we ourselves have found? Who better to reach out to them than those of us who have likewise been hurt by abortion and subsequently healed by Christ? Are we even committed to praying for them?
Yet, we are not even reaching in to those in our midst who have been so deeply wounded by this horrible thing called abortion. Neither are we working diligently toward disabling the power of those situations that lead to such a decision. And that is where we must begin. That, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is what this ministry is all about.