Abortion is a very personal issue for me. If it were not for the providence of God, who gave me parents that believe in the sanctity of all life, including the unborn, I might not be here writing this article. I’m a quintuplet, and it’s a scary situation when you think about it, my mom being pregnant with five babies at once. There was no guarantee that my mom would make it or that any of us would be born healthy or alive at all. Doctors recommended that my mom have a selective abortion. That’s where a doctor aborts two or more of the babies in the womb. That makes the abortion discussion hit close to home. Two of my siblings could have not been here. I might not have been here. Many people believe a woman has the right to abort her baby as late as the third trimester. Hilary Clinton told The View that she agreed with Roe v. Wade and with the law that does not give the unborn constitutional rights, even hours before delivery. That is scary to me because I was born at 28 weeks. Where would I be if my mom had decided abortion was the way to go?
Being Pro-life doesn’t make a person anti-woman. It means that we think of not only the mother, but also of the child in the womb. Doesn’t that baby deserve a choice too? There is more than one life involved here. Are we really willing to say that one life is better than another? Mother Teresa called abortion the destroyer of peace when she spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast during the Clinton administration. Her speech is powerful. This tiny, frail old woman who speaks with broken English, boldly and confidently tells American leaders that to deny an unborn child is to deny Jesus. She speaks up on behalf of the family, and what stuck with me is what she said about love. She said, “How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, her free time, to respect the life of her child.”
That is a hard word for us. It is easy to put ourselves first. One of the biggest arguments for choice is what if the life of the mother is in danger? We don’t like to tell someone to put their life in danger for their baby. Yet, where is our love? These babies’ lives are dependent on their mothers, but their lives matter. My mother put her life on the line to give birth to me and my siblings. Ever since, she has truly lived out giving until it hurts her plans and free time. It’s such an example to me because that’s what motherhood is. It’s one of the privileges and joys of being a woman. We get the wonderful honor of bringing a life into the world and nurturing and influencing the next generation. Yes it is painful, inconvenient, and hard, but it is beautiful.
I love too, how Mother Teresa does not call for people to judge mothers who consider abortion, but to show them love. These women do not feel that they have any other option, that they’re stuck. It’s important to realize that being pro-life means being a support system for those mothers and loving them until it hurts us. After all, can we call ourselves pro-life if all we do is talk about it? Being pro-life means being pro-people. We must support adoption and foster care, and we must show up for mothers and fathers who see no way out but through abortion.
As a Christian, I believe that all people are created in the image of God and that we are all precious and loved by Him. He loved us so much that He gave His own Son to die for us! Isn’t that amazing?! If Jesus freely gave Himself up for us, we should be willing to give of ourselves for others. That is what ultimately makes me pro-life. The child is precious to Jesus. He said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for such belongs to the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14) In the Psalms it says, “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation” (Psalms 68:5). And James writes “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). God cares about those who are the most vulnerable. He does not despise or reject the weak. How can I ignore what God says? We quote Psalm 139 all the time because it sums everything up so well: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:13-14). Let’s love until it hurts and pray that God’s heart for people, born and unborn, would be our own.
