My earliest memories of the abortion discussion go back to high school speech class, over 25 years ago. We had to do a presentation arguing for a topic we felt strongly about. I remember sitting in my classroom, my heart beating out of my chest due to my uncontrollable nerves; I hated speaking in public and it was almost my turn! I could hardly focus on the presentation ahead of me. Then, something caught my eye. I don’t remember if it was a word in the presentation or the visual aide, but all of a sudden the speaker had my full attention. Was he really talking about killing the unborn? He used words like fetus to describe the life that was in the mother’s belly. My first reaction was, how does he know anything about this topic if he will never get pregnant and feel that life living within him? Then, I realized that this wasn’t just his belief, but an actual belief people held. If a pregnancy, a life, a baby, is unwanted, it is socially acceptable to end it. This was the moment that it became very clear to me that there are two very distinct sides to this debate. 

As I grew up and really took on my own relationship with God, I began to understand that for me it was never about sides, debates, or even political affiliation. It was about what I understood to be true. Not MY truth, but THE biblical truth that is the foundation of my faith. So please understand when I tell you that everything I believe is based on my faith, and even more, it is based on the living, active Word of God: the Bible itself. Every person’s beliefs and values are rooted in their foundation. That foundation could be based on family beliefs, what they have read, political affiliation, or even news and social media. Since I am a Christian, my beliefs about life are based on the Bible and my relationship with Jesus Christ. Once we truly understand a person’s foundations, maybe we can begin to understand each other (we don’t have to agree, but there can be peace when we understand one another).

So why am I “pro-life”? I believe it is not ours to choose. Whether a life is the result of the love we possess with another or a result and consequence of sin, it is still that: a life. A living being created and celebrated by God for a purpose. 

1. God created and designed human life. 

Psalm 139: 13-16 (NLT): “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

    as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born.

    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

    before a single day had passed.”

If God designed life, that means life belongs to him. He is the giver and taker of life. He decides when life begins and when it ends. I love how it says that he knit us together in our mother’s womb. The mother’s womb is the house for that life. This is a part of nature. While the baby is in his/her mother’s womb, God is intricately puting that child together, or knitting his creation as this scripture says. The heart begins to beat in the early weeks of pregnancy. Life has begun. We are his workmanship and his work is marvelous. 

2. God has a purpose for every life. 

Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV): “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.

    Before you were born I set you apart

    and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”

God chose Jeremiah before he was born to be a leader and a prophet among the people. They had turned away from the Lord and needed reminders of who he was and what he had done. He used Jeremiah, his prophet to do just that. God set you apart before you were born for great things. Jeremiah 29:11 says that he has plans for each of us. He has a purpose for the tiny baby in the mother’s womb and the mother herself. 

3. God values life.

Genesis 9:6 (NLT): “If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.” 

We were made in the image of God. When he creates life in the womb, he creates it in His image. We are the only creatures to be made in his image. We are valued among all other life. Life is to be revered and celebrated. 

However, I am not just someone who believes all of this without acting on it. I am not just pro-life. 

I am pro- putting words into actions instead of just saying I’m pro-something.

I am pro- walking alongside and doing life with those who need the love of God. 

I am pro- going before the throne of God on behalf of the mother who has been told her baby will be born with problems. 

I am pro- comforting the woman who experienced a horrendous crime against her and must decide how to go on.

I am pro- helping a woman make plans to save her baby when the world has told her to destroy the unwanted life.

I am pro- grieving with the woman whose life is no longer beating within her.

I am pro- ministering to the woman who feels as though her life has ended with the new life growing inside of her.

I am pro- helping the young mom who has been deserted by her family.

I am pro- loving the woman who believed the lies the world told her about how to handle her “unwanted pregnancy.”

I am pro- loving on the children whose parents did not want them.

I am pro- celebrating the mother and the life growing within her no matter what her situation.

I am pro- meeting as a church to love on the ones the world has turned their backs on.

I am pro- trusting that God has a plan and a purpose for life. 

I am pro- loving every single God-given life. I am pro- seeking out God’s purpose for my life and the lives of those I love. 

Most of all, I am pro- praising life and the God who created it.