Our Future: Imagining the Pro-Life Movement 100 Years after Roe
“What do you want?” We have a beautiful baby girl who turns a year old this week, and when she cries every once in a while, this is the question I find myself asking. “What do you want? Food, drink, a diaper change, me to hold you, me to put you down. Do you want me to sing to you? Do you want me to stop singing to you?”
“What do you want?” I think that’s a good question for all of us in the pro-life movement. What do you want? For years I think many of us would have said we want Roe overturned. And now it is, but I don’t think we have what we want. The reasons people have abortions are still there. Opportunities to have abortions are still there. Laws protecting and promoting abortions in many places are still there. So, what do we want? And obviously an infinitely more important question is “what does God want?” My hope in the next few minutes is to envision an answer to that question. The topic I’ve been given is our future.
Imagining the pro-life movement a hundred years after Roe. So here we are 50 years after Roe, just months after Roe was overturned. So what does God want? And in alignment with God, what do we want 50 years from now? And how does that affect the way we live and lead and pray and work today? Admittedly, it’s a pretty bold claim to know what God wants.
Until you realize that God has revealed what He wants in His Word. So in the next few minutes, grounded in God’s Word, I want to humbly offer a sixfold vision of what God wants. And what we want in the pro-life movement over the coming 50 years. And flowing from that, six personal practical actions we can and must take today, if this is indeed what we want.
And I should mention two caveats.
- I don’t presume that what I’m about to say is exhaustive. My time is limited and there are certainly many more things that I could include here.
- This whole talk assumes that Jesus will not return over the next 50 years to usher in full and final justice throughout the world.
To be clear I trust we really want that to happen. But just in case, in God’s wisdom and patience, he tarries – Here’s a vision for what God wants and we want:
Number one, we want very clearly for children in the womb to be cherished and protected. We want all people to see all children the way God sees them as knit together, fearfully and wonderfully in his image, in their mother’s womb. Psalm 139. We want all people to see how we all come about through divine supernatural formation of an egg and a sperm that come together to form a person that within two short weeks possesses a beating heart and is circulating its own blood. How within a few more weeks fingers are formed on hands and brain waves are detectable.
How within six and a half weeks, these inward parts are moving, and two weeks later, there are discernible fingerprints, and there’s discernible sexuality, and kidneys are forming and functioning, then a gallbladder, and by the twelfth week, all the organs of a baby’s body are functional and the baby can cry.
All within three months, the first trimester, heart, organs, brain, sexuality, movement, reaction. We want this wonderful work of God in forming and fashioning the life of a child in the womb to be cherished, valued, prized, and protected. Not merely as part of a woman’s body but as a person known, and loved, and formed, and fashioned by God Himself.
Which leads to the second thing we want. We want women who carry children to be treasured and supported. We want childbearing and childrearing to be seen as a blessing in a woman’s life not as a barrier to a woman’s life. Psalm 127, 128. We want mothers who carry children to be highly treasured and holistically supported.
We know that approximately 75% of women seeking abortions are living near or below the poverty line. And in one survey of a thousand women who had abortions, over 75% of them said they would have preferred to parent had their circumstances been different. You listen to interviews all over the news across recent months of women saying, often through tears in light of the Dobbs decision, that they don’t prefer abortion, but they don’t see another way out of their circumstances.
So yes, let’s be thankful for a court ruling. After 50 years, let’s also realize that court ruling doesn’t change those circumstances over the next 50 years. So let’s work all the more to help women and men in poverty. Let’s work for affordable housing and health care and strong education and economic security for all people.
Let’s work to prevent substance and or sexual abuse and let’s come alongside women who, in an overwhelming majority of cases, don’t have someone who is willing to help them parent. If we are not willing to support women who carry children in all the ways they need, then we will show we don’t truly treasure them.
We want mothers who carry children to be treasured and supported. Now, obviously, at this point, just two points in, I’ve said things about which many people in our culture, my country, and many countries might disagree. And this kind of disagreement has been evident over the last 50 years, and I trust will be evident over the coming 50 years, in both public and private discourse.
But that leads to the third thing we want. We want people who disagree with us to be honored and loved. Children in the womb are made by God in His image which is why they are worthy of our honor. Women who carry children are made by God in His image which is why they are worthy of our honor. People who disagree with us are made by God in His image, which is why they are worthy of our honor.
In 1 Peter 2:17 God clearly commands us, honor everyone. And just in case we think there might be exceptions to first century Christians experiencing persecution at the hands of their government, God says, honor, even the emperor, honor, even politicians and or presidents and or people with whom you disagree.
Don’t cancel them. Love them as yourself (Matthew 22:39). Do people who disagree with us see that we honor and love them? We need to ask this question because God has given us these commands. Now and 50 years from now may it not be said of us that we wielded God’s Word like it was a weapon in a culture war.
May it be said of us that we shared God’s Word like it was water in a desert; with kindness, compassion, friendship, hospitality, humility, honor, and love for all people. Especially people who disagree with us. If we only show kindness, friendship, hospitality, humility, honor, and love toward people who agree with us, then what does that say about us? Isn’t that basically just love for ourselves disguised as love for others? We want people who disagree with us to be honored and loved by us.
Fourth, back to that which leads to disagreement, but critical to cherishing and protecting children in the womb and treasuring and supporting women who carry them…. We want, biblical marriage to be exhibited and esteemed, according to God’s Word from Genesis 2:24 to Ephesians 5:22-33. So in the United States, approximately 85% of women seeking abortions are unmarried. A reality which makes clear that efforts to prevent abortions must be coupled with efforts to promote marriage.
We know that research shows the person who has the largest impact on a woman’s decision to have or not have an abortion is the father of the child. Meanwhile, most conversations about abortion focus almost exclusively on a baby and a mom, often ignoring the dad in the process. This must not be so – we need to come alongside and care for women and men. Specifically to show the beauty of biblical marriage between a woman and a man to show how God’s design for marriage is best for children and women and men. Working to end abortion politically, materially or otherwise, while ignoring God’s word on marriage and singleness and sexuality biblically is like working to end cancer while ignoring smoking and excessive sun exposure and the need for healthy eating and exercise. We may be laser focused on finding a cure, but we’ll be ignoring critical issues that cause abortion in the first place. We want biblical marriage to be exhibited and esteemed.
[Fifth], we want biblical justice to roll down for those in need.
This is language straight from God in Amos chapter 5: “Take away from me the noise of your songs, to the melody of your harps. I will not listen, but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” God wants justice to roll down for people in need. Which is why God calls his people to do exactly that.
Micah chapter 6. “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with me. This is what I require of you.” We don’t want to do biblical justice here or there, on this issue or that issue. We want biblical justice to overflow from our lives, and our families, and our churches, and our institutions, like a pitcher under an ever-flowing faucet.
We want justice flowing for the orphan and the widow. We want justice flowing for the poor and the oppressed. We want justice flowing for the stranger and the imprisoned. We want justice flowing for the sick and those with special needs. We want to do that which is right for all people as exemplified in God’s character and expressed in God’s word. We want biblical justice to roll down for those in need in every way they need it.
And then finally, 50 years from now, we want the biblical gospel to go deep among all the nations. From John 3:16 to Matthew 28, our desire is not just for babies to live on earth. If that’s our desire, then we’ve missed the ultimate heart of Jesus.
Our desire is not just for babies or their moms or their dads to live on earth. Yes that, but our desire is for all people to thrive. Babies, moms, dads on this earth and for all of eternity. And that’s only possible by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The biblical gospel. And I use that language intentionally.
I have a book coming out entitled, Don’t Hold Back, Leaving Behind the American Gospel to Follow Jesus Fully. And I wrote this book after recent years of pastoring a church in Metro Washington, D.C. and I’m convinced we’ve gotten really good at following a really bad gospel. A gospel that instead of exalting Jesus above everything in this world is prostituting Jesus for the sake of comfort, and power, and politics, and prosperity in our country.
And I believe it’s time for discouraged, and disillusioned, and damaged, and divided Christians, and the next generation to follow Jesus into a different future. One where the biblical gospel penetrates deeply into the fabric of our lives in such a way that we share and spread that gospel in a world that desperately needs what only Jesus can give. What only Jesus can bring about.
And just to make sure that gospel is clear, it’s the good news that we’ve all been created by God in His image for relationship with Him, but we’ve all sinned against God in a way that separated us from God and if we die in this state of separation from God, we will spend eternity separated from him in judgment due our sin.
But God loves us and has not left us alone in this state. God has come to us in the person of Jesus. He lived a life none of us could live. A life of no sin and then, even though he had no sin for which to die, he chose to die on a cross to pay the price for our sins. Then the good news keeps getting better because he didn’t stay dead for long.
Three days later he rose from the grave, conquering sin and death, so that anyone who turns from their sin and themselves and trusts in Jesus as Savior and Lord of their lives will be forgiven of all their sin and restored to relationship with God for eternal life. This is the Gospel, and this means that to stand for life, now and forever, is to believe in Jesus, and to give your life proclaiming the love of Jesus in this world.
Which then leads to the practical takeaways for us now. If this is what we want, and as I mentioned, I know it’s not exhaustive, but if we want at least these six things, then how should we live, and lead, and pray, and work today?
Six exhortations for us flowing directly from this sixfold vision of what we want.
One, let’s pray and work for the protection of the unborn. If we want children in the womb to be cherished and protected, then we will work for that now. We will work for just laws and leaders and policies and practices that demonstrate the value of children in the womb.
We will work toward that end and we will pray toward that end. Do not underestimate for a second the role of prayer before God and the purposes of God. God has ordained our prayers to be a means by which His purposes are accomplished in the world. So let’s pray for God to do what only God can do.
Let’s make sure our time spent on our knees is commensurate with our time spent in all kinds of other dialogues and all kinds of other discussions and all kinds of other work that we are doing. Let’s pray and work for the protection of the unborn.
Second, let’s come alongside and care for pregnant women. If we want women who carry children to be treasured and supported, then let’s do that now. Let’s specifically be involved in the lives of women who are pregnant and especially if that pregnancy is unwanted. If we’re not alongside them, how can we care for them? Let’s build this into the fabric of our everyday lives.
And let’s go out of our way to look for opportunities to serve in this way. At pregnancy care centers, for example. Let’s do whatever we can to help women care for their children as we care for them. And in circumstances where it’s not possible for them to bring a child into their home, let’s offer our homes for their children as we continue to care for that mom and that dad.
Let’s be known for radical generosity, hospitality, and sacrificial care for pregnant women who we’re committed to treasuring and supporting in every way possible. And let’s be known for these same qualities among people who disagree with us.
Third exhortation. Let’s listen to, learn from, lament with, and love people who disagree with us.
I want to be clear, I’m not advocating in any way for loosening conviction on things about which God’s Word is crystal clear. For the next 50 years, we need to hold fast to what God says about children, and women, and men, and marriage, and sexuality, and abortion in His Word. At the same time, we can do so with a good measure of something that’s fallen out of favor in American society: humility.
It’s loving toward others, to humbly listen to them, to truly understand their position before we might criticize it. To honestly and humbly look for ways we can learn from others, even those with whom we disagree. None of us knows and understands everything. All of us have blind spots, so let’s consider all we can learn from others through the lens of God’s Word.
Let’s ask genuine questions. Let’s avoid unhelpful assumptions. Let’s lament honestly over sin or error in us, in others, and the world around us, knowing that people’s thoughts and desires and experiences are often the overflow of difficulties and problems and pain and hurt in the world. That’s certainly true in our lives, and it’s also true in others’ lives.
And in all of this, let’s love well, which will often mean offering a different perspective in love. And it will also mean lovingly accepting that disagreements remain. But we must always look for opportunities to humbly love our neighbors by laying down our lives for their good. Let’s listen to, learn from, lament with, and love well people who disagree with us.
Fourth, lets nourish biblical marriage in our lives and nurture biblical marriage in others’ lives. Let’s start by loving our spouse as well. If we’re married, husbands in a way that reflects Jesus’ sacrificial love for the church, wives in a way that reflects the church’s love for Jesus, all according to Ephesians 5.
For those who are single, let’s not act like we’re married, going outside of God’s good design for our sexuality. Let’s nourish biblical marriage in our lives and nurture biblical marriage in others’ lives. And when biblical marriage is not possible in a particular situation, let’s fill in the gaps as best as we can in a fallen world, including loving and supporting and serving single parents like they’re part of our own families.
Fifth, let’s do justice for orphans, widows, the poor, the oppressed, the abused, the enslaved, the imprisoned, the refugee, the sick, and those with special needs. And I could obviously keep going with many other examples. But the point is, pro-life means pro-life in every way. So let’s do justice for the unborn, and for women, and for men, in a world full of injustice.
Let’s stop spending so much time debating justice and let’s start doing it. Let’s remember that doing biblical justice goes beyond posting on social media or making an argument in the political arena or even voting in a political election. Yes, those things and so much more. So let’s engage in holistic Biblical Jesus exalting justice.
Let’s bring orphans into our homes, help widows in our communities, provide for the poor in our cities, serve refugees in our country, host immigrants at our tables, rescue slaves from traffickers, visit people in prison, care for victims of abuse, serve individuals and families with special needs, minister to the sick and dying and work for unborn children and their moms and their dads. And let’s do it all in the name of Jesus, which leads to the final exhortation.
Number six, let’s make disciples right where we live and wherever God leads in the world. Doing justice absolutely means working for just laws and leaders and policies and practices and systems and structures on behalf of the unborn and women and men.
At the same time, our main aim as the church is not ultimately new laws, as good as they may be, our main aim is new hearts. And ultimately, only Jesus can change people’s hearts. Indeed, we praise and thank God for work. Over almost 50 years to bring about a new Supreme Court ruling in our country. At the same time, we realize human hearts are still the same.
And as we’ve already seen, many states will continue abortions. Many legislators will continue to push abortion. Abortion pills becoming all the more easy and accessible to get in all kinds of ways. And sinful hearts will continually invent new ways to do evil. So what are we supposed to do over the next 50 years?
The same thing we should have primarily been doing over the last 50 years. Making disciples of Jesus. Leading people to life in Jesus. And then helping one another live according to His Word. And I use the word primarily there very intentionally. We need to ask ourselves, are we giving the same level of energy to the Great Commission that we are giving to political efforts or arguments?
Do we feel the same levels of emotion when it comes to leading people to Jesus that we have when it comes to supporting a political position or posting our opinions on social media. So many have done so much in the social and political realm, which again is good. But the question we all need to ask is – who have we led to Jesus in such a way that they’re now leading others to Jesus.
This is the commission Jesus has given us. If we really want abortion to not only be illegal in government, but to be unthinkable in people’s hearts and minds. Then we must realize that only God, by the power of the gospel, can bring that about. So we must make disciples of Jesus wherever we live and wherever God leads us in the world.
I want to close with the story of how this beautiful baby girl who I mentioned at the beginning came into our home. So to make a long story short, about a year and a half ago, God placed it on our hearts to adopt a sixth child into our family and almost exactly a year ago, we received word about a birth mom who was set to deliver in late January.
And she desired a home for her baby girl. And then that notice we received; we heard that this birth mom already had a name picked out for this baby girl. And when my wife, Heather, and I saw that, we thought, it’s a bummer because many years ago, we had said that if God ever gave us another girl, we would love to name her Mercy.
It’s obviously not the most common name, but Heather and I looked at each other and said, of course that’s not a deal breaker. So we read about this birth mom and who she is, her desires for her child. When we got to the end of the profile, she said, I already have a name picked out for my daughter. I want her name to be Mercy.
So a month later, Mercy was born and we met with this beautiful, brave birth mom. And we brought mercy into our family in a way that clearly only God could have orchestrated. In a way that can only be attributed to his glory as the God who made Mercy in his image. And the reason I share this story is because in the end, isn’t this what we need?
We need mercy, from God, for unborn children, for their moms and dads, for all of us. We need God’s mercy. We need God’s help if we want to experience and see what God wants. So I want to close by leading us to pray for God’s mercy over the next 50 years of the pro-life movement, knowing that His mercy is our only hope.
So will you bow your heads with me? God, we cry out for your mercy now and over the coming years. We cry out for your mercy on behalf of children in the womb. Lord, have mercy. We cry out for your mercy on behalf of women who carry them, and men who, in your design, are responsible for them. God, have mercy.
God, we cry out for your mercy on all of us, as people formed and fashioned by you in your image. God, have mercy on us. You are our only hope, O God. And we plead, God, we plead for your mercy in a world that desperately needs you over and above all. Lord Jesus, we want you to return. We want your justice and righteousness to reign over all the earth.
So until you come, we cry out for your mercy, and we pray for your help to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with you all day. To your glory in Jesus’ name. Amen.